Yankee Doodle Dandy Cagney, James performer Boyle, Johnny performer Foy, Eddie, Jr. performer Film 1943-01-02 Warner Brothers Based on the story of George M. Cohan and starring James Cagney. Dance numbers staged and directed by LeRoy Prinz and Seymour Felix; James Cagney's dance routines choreographed by John "Johnny" Boyle. The choreography in the dances was supposedly made by tap dance master, Jimmy Monahan, who is credited with teaching Cagney (an Irish-American) the tap dances for his role in the film about the life of Irishman George M. Cohan, whose family act Cohan Mirth Makers became the highest paid variety act of its size in vaudeville. Scenes "It's A Boy" and "Peck's Bad Boy" performed to the Cohan tune "The Dancing Master." Tap scenes include: "It's Easy" a waltz clog; "Peck's Bad Boy" featuring the Four Cohans in blackface makeup doing a minstrel-styled dance; "Old Man's Visitor" shows old-style Irish crossing steps; "I Was Born in Virginia" Four Cohans performing a soft-shoe; "Harrigan"; "Yankee Doodle Dandy"; "Give My Regards to Old Broadway"; "Patriotic Jubilee" and "Strictly Off the Record." The latter, when shown to Irish Dance Scholars at the first international Irish Dance Forum conference in Limerick, Ireland (June 25, 2006), scholars commented that the choreography was not at all resembling of traditional Irish step dancing (in fact, it looks all cakewalk!); and that this choreography only added to the stereotype of the Irish dancer as a rogue and wit; nothing of the authentic Irish; all strut and cakewalk. The triumph of Cagney's career found him not as a tough guy but as a song and dance man-- George M. Cohan; Cohan, the first important creator of purely American musicals wrote the words and music and the plots; directed and produced and starred; was a fine hoofer whose style had been greatly influenced by the Irish step dancing, and to it he brought his own slightly antic style based on his familiar body movements, the char. use of his arms;, and shoulders, and his bursting sense of energy. which Cagney captures perfectly. Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts Frank, Rusty E.: Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and their Stories 1900-1955. New York, William Morrow. (1990). Smith, Ernie: Selected List of Films and Kinescopes. In Jean and Marshall Stearns' Jazz Dance (1968). Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html James Cagney (biography) loc.music.tdabio.45 tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.233