By Mary Claire Kendall
Seventy-five years ago this Memorial Day—May 29, 1942—the classic thrice-Oscar-winning film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) premiered in New York City to great fanfare.
And, what
a different time it was.
Or maybe
not so different.
Like
today, America was at war against a totalitarian menace, the brutal dictator
Adolph Hitler. Now it is Islamic terrorists, like cancer cells throughout the
world, bent on world domination, as exemplified by the ruthless attack a week
ago today against young innocents in Manchester, England, killing 22, and the
horrific attack, at week’s end, on Christian Coptic pilgrims in Egypt, killing
29, whom
Pope Francis called “martyrs.” “A piecemeal World War III,” said
the Pope in 2014 of these ongoing assaults.
When
Yankee Doodle Dandy was released, America’s sons and daughters were in harm’s
way, prompting James Cagney, the film’s star, to lead the cast in
frequent prayer
on the set. Just like prayers are said on some Hollywood sets in
response to today’s peril. Many of Cagney’s fellow stars, like James Stewart,
were playing real-life roles in defeating Hitler and fellow fascists. Stewart,
commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Air Force in ‘42, would
fly twenty treacherous combat missions over Germany, eleven as squadron
commander, rising to colonel by war’s end, while losing some of his men and
suffering consequent hidden wounds. He “prayed a lot,” too, he told Johnny
Carson over 40 years later. That’s about all he would say about his
war experience.
Cagney
and company were, of course, also singing America’s praises in the star-spangled
film directed by German émigré Michael Curtiz about the life of
renowned showman George M. Cohan (1878-1942). Cohan graced America with his
musical compositions, plays, acting, dancing and singing about all things great
and American in a Broadway stage career that spanned some four decades starting
in 1901, after hoofing it in his family’s vaudeville show. His entertainment
career was capped by a big comeback on June 29, 1936, when President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt presented him with a Congressional Gold Medal for his
contributions during World War I in building morale, especially through “You’re
a Grand Old Flag” (1906) and “Over
There”(1917). Cohan was inspired to write the latter song just as
America was entering “the war to end all wars” that erupted 100 years ago last
month, the PBS retrospective of which painted quite a different picture.
Besides
these two classic songs, the film featured “The Yankee Doodle Boy” and “Give My
Regards to Broadway,” both from the play “Little Johnny Jones” (1904), among
other tributes to the American spirit. Cohan died on November 5, 1942, after
the film had rocketed to success. It was an idea, based on “Little Johnny
Jones,” he pitched to Samuel Goldwyn, with Fred Astaire playing the lead. While
Astaire demurred, it wasn’t long before Jack Warner, deeply affected by the war
in Europe and looking for patriotic fare, approached Cohan. The rest, as they
say, is history.
Yet, the
film itself might have been history, but for Cohan’s wife Agnes. George M. had
demanded non-negotiable final approval on the final film. But he deferred the
decision to his wife, who, after watching it, reportedly turned to her husband
and said, “Oh, you were so good, Georgie.”
Cagney’s
prayers, both for film’s success and that of America in her campaign to defeat
totalitarianism, were answered more than he could have hoped!
So, too,
on this Memorial Day as we honor our fallen heroes, we pray for our
nation—that, inside Hollywood and out, we might rise to the challenge these
perilous times pose.
And, then
some.
Mary
Claire Kendall is author of Oasis:
Conversion Stories of Hollywood Legends, recently published in Madrid under
the title También
Dios pasa por Hollywood.
NOTE:
This piece was published on FoxNews Opinion on May 29, 2017 under the title “A Memorial Day Anniversary for ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy.’”
