20,000 Vinyl LPs 297: George M. Cohan ~ George M!

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George M. Cohan ~ George M!

vinyl LP front cover 

photo by Styrous®

What  better way to salute the 4th of July, aka Independence Day (although that is slowly disappearing), than to celebrate the birthday of George M. Cohan who was born on July 3, 1878[, in Providence, Rhode Island, to Irish Catholic parents. He was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.        

 

He wrote the patriotic standards, Over There, The Yankee Doodle Boy and You're a Grand Old Flag, as well as the wonderfully uplifting tune, Give My Regards to Broadway.        

 

 

George M. Cohan ~ George M!

vinyl LP back cover 

photo by Styrous®

 

George M! is a musical based on the period of his life from the late 1880s until 1937 and focuses on his life and show business career from his early days in vaudeville with his parents and sister to his later success as a Broadway singer, dancer, composer, lyricist, theatre director and producer.     

 

It was produced by Emanuel Azenberg and directed and choreographed by Joe Layton. The cast featured Joel Grey as George M. Cohan, Bernadette Peters as his sister, Betty Ann Grove as his mother and Jamie Donnelly of Grease fame and Magenta in The Rocky Horror Show as his first wife.    

 

George M. Cohan ~ George M!

vinyl LP back cover detail

detail photo by Styrous®

 

In 1969 I saw the production when it was on tour with Joel Grey; it was pretty exciting to see it live as Grey was totally animated and perfect for the role of Cohen.      

George M! program, June 26, 1969 

photos by Styrous®

 

 

 

 

George M! opened at the Palace Theatre on April 10, 1968 and closed on April 26, 1969 after 433 performances and 8 previews. It did not get very good reviews.          

        

 

 

 

 

A television adaptation, presented as a staged reading of the musical with the performers discussing Cohan's life and work between rehearsal-style song-and-dance routines, was broadcast by NBC on September 12, 1970. Grey and Peters were joined by Jack Cassidy, Nanette Fabray, Anita Gillette, and Blythe Danner. 

 

There are some great videos of both Joel Grey from the play and James Cagney from the film, as well as Enrico Caruso taking a shot at a Cohen song and sound and video of George M. Cohan himself on YouTube (links below).        

 

A 1942 film, Yankee Doodle Dandy, was based on his life and starred James Cagney as Cohan. It also featured Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, Richard Whorf, Irene Manning, George Tobias, Rosemary DeCamp, Jeanne Cagney, and Vera Lewis. Joan Leslie's singing voice was partially dubbed by Sally Sweetland.           

 

 

James Cagney ~ Yankee Doodle Dandy - 1942 

movie poster
 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 - Overture - 3:32
Performer – Orchestra*
        -   
A2a - Musical Moon - 3:59
Performer – Grove*, Dodge*
A2b - Oh, You Wonderful Boy
Performer – Peters*
        -   
A3 - Musical Comedy Man - 2:03
Performer – Chorus*, Peters*, Grove*, Dodge*, Grey*

A4 - Twentieth Century Love - 2:34
Performer – Peters*, Grove*, Donnelly*, Dodge*, Grey*

A5 - My Town - 1:46
Performer – Grey*

       
A6a - Billie -    6:00
Performer – O'Hara*
A6b - Push Me Along In My Push Cart
Performer – Donnelly*, Baker*, Savage*
A6c - Ring To The Name Of Rose
Performer – Bell Ringers*, Peters*
A6d - Popularity
Performer – Orchestra*
        -   
A7 - Give My Regards To Broadway - 4:04
Performer – Company*, Grey*

Side 2:

B1a - Forty-Five Minutes From Broadway - 4:43
Performer – Grey*, Ackerman*
B1b - So Long, Mary
Performer – Martin*, Carroll*, Evans*, Grey*, Ackerman*
B1c - Down By The Erie
Performer – Company*, Politicians*, Allen*, Batson*
Performer – Company*, Politicians*, Allen*, Batson*
        -   
B2 - Mary - 1:49
Performer – Alloway*

B3 - All Our Friends - 1:49
Performer – Company*, Evans*, Grey* - 1:05

B4 - Yankee Doodle Dandy; Nellie Kelly I Love You; Harrigan; Over There; You're A Grand Old Flag - 8:23
Performer – Company*, Grey*

B5 - Finale; Yankee Doodle Dandy - 1:10
Performer – O'Hara*, Grey*

B6 - Epilogue
Performer – Company*, Grey*

Companies, etc.



Credits:

    Arranged By [Vocals] – Jay Blackton
    Directed By – Joe Layton
    Engineer – Fred Plaut, Murray Zimney
    Liner Notes – Charles Burr
    Music By, Lyrics By – George M. Cohan
    Orchestrated By – Philip J. Lang
    Producer – Thomas Z. Shepard
    Supervised By [Musical] – Laurence Rosenthal
    Vocals [Agnes Nolan] – Jill O'Hara
    Vocals [Ethel Levey] – Jamie Donnelly
    Vocals [Fay Templeton] – Jacqueline Alloway
    Vocals [George M. Cohan] – Joel Grey
    Vocals [Jerry Cohan] – Jerry Dodge
    Vocals [Josie] – Bernadette Peters
    Vocals [Nellie] – Betty Ann Grove
    Vocals [Rose] – Loni Ackerman
    Vocals [Sam Harris] – Harvey Evans

Notes:

Sleeve variation, back of sleeve bottom near # shows an Engineering credit. 

Joel Grey – George M!
Label: Columbia Masterworks – KOS 3200
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1968
Genre: Stage & Screen
Style: Musical

   
   
   

         

Viewfinder links:        

         

James Cagney          

Enrico Caruso         

George M. Cohan        

Joel Grey       

William Hopper         

Walter Huston         

Bernadette Peters        

Rocky Horror articles        

        

Net links:        

         

Masterworks Broadway ~ George M! – Original Broadway Cast 1968    

NY Times ~ George M. Cohan, 64, Dies at Home       

NPR ~ The Man Who Created Broadway Was An Anthem Machine 

PBS ~ George M. Cohan         

Playbill ~ George M!

Songwriters Hall of Fame ~ He gave us Yankee Doodle Dandy        

        

YouTube links:        

        

George M! (complete show) (1 hr., 16 mins., 26 secs.)       

      

James Cagney ~           

     Give My Regards To Broadway        

     Yankee Doodle Dandy      

Enrico Caruso ~ Over There

George M. Cohan ~       

     George M. Cohan (sound clips)           

     Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway (1906)     

     Life's A Funny Proposition After All       

     Over There (only Cohen studio recording)         

     You Won't Do Any Business (If You Haven't Got a Band      

     You're a Grand Old Flag (1948)       

Joel Grey ~   

     George M. Cohan Medley, Statue of Liberty, 1986 (TV)     

     George M! 1974 Tony Awards (TV)      

        

        

         

"Ladies and gentlemen, my mother thanks you, 

my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, 

and I thank you!"

                    ~ George M. Cohan 

        

        

        

Styrous® ~ Saturday, July 3, 2021       
       

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The Outlaw        

     

      

     

      

     

     

     

     

      

Walter Huston - 1936

photographer unknown

     

      

     

      

     

      

     

      

     

 

 

 

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Jack Buetel & Jane Russell ~ The Outlaw

Grit TV (Chanel 66.4) has been running The Outlaw recently and it's triggered some long forgotten memories for me. It was 72 years ago this month that the film was originally released; I was too young to have any recollection of it on that go around. It was released to the theaters on February 5, 1943 but after one week it was pulled due to violations of the Production Code on morals grounds.

Because of the moral code violations Century-Fox cancelled the agreement with Howard Hughes, who produced and directed the film, to release The Outlaw. As Hughes stood to lose millions of dollars, he worked out a scheme and had all his managers call ministers, women's clubs and housewives telling them about the 'lewd picture' Hughes was about to release starring Jane Russell. The public responded by protesting and trying to have the film banned, which turned into the publicity Hughes needed to create demand for the film and it was released on April 23, 1946, in San Francisco. And that's when I saw the billboard (above).  

I was five but I remember walking down the street with my mom and dad. I remember seeing the billboard advertizing the movie for an instant. My mom put her hand over my eyes and they walked me quickly away. This was not unusual as it was the mid-forties, after all, and that was the usual reaction to public displays of sensuality in those days. 

The entire incident couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds so the sight of the billboard must have been only a billionth of a second; but the image was burned in my mind for the rest of my life. Along with the image, however, came the message sent to a five year old brain that it was not nice to look at things like this. Of course I had seen women's busts in clothes and sometimes at the beach with full-body swim suits and thought nothing of them but having them almost right out there in the open was a mind blowing thing to me at that age and it was reinforced by the reaction of my parents. 

Now, flash forward not quite twenty or so years later; I finally got to see the film in my late teens. There is no doubt that the attributes of Jane Russell were outstanding; however, I remember I kept trying to avoid looking at her. I didn't know why until I watched the film recently on Grit TV (remember, that's where I started?). I realized that as a teen, I had reacted as the five-year old me had been taught. Then, there is the homoerotic overtone of the film I wasn't aware of at the time (see link below).  

So, if you don't look at Jane Russell, where do you look? Everywhere else, that's where. Thus, it was amazing how much of the details and visuals (other than Jane) of the film I remembered. After Jane, the next major item to focus on was Jack Buetel. He was intensely handsome in a dark and broody way. His looks were akin to that of Tyrone Power.   

Jack Buetel

photographer unknown

The next item to focus on: although they were unearthly beautiful, the acting of both Jane and Jack was not Academy Award winning material.  

Jack Buetel & Jane Russell 

photographer unknown

Even Howard Hughes, the director of the film, realized the limits of their acting abilities and utilized movie star security in the way of Thomas Mitchell, and Walter Huston to cover for them.   

Walter Huston, Thomas Mitchell and Jack Buetel

movie still

Buetel never became a major movie star and limped along in minor roles and movies, however, the film catapulted Russell into a star of major proportions (links below).     

I think it was the first film by Hughes I saw and I looked for and enjoyed seeing his other work as well (see link below). Jack  

Howard Hughes on the movie set of 
The Outlaw, Hollywood, circa 1941
photo by Bob Landry
Howard Hughes Collection 
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

And, of course, there was Jane!

Jane Russell 

photographer unknown

(pretty tame by today's standards but pretty racy back then)

I've having a fun time watching it again fifty years or so later. Good job Grit, and thanks  for the memories.

Net links:           
            
Jack Buetel Filmography           
Jane Russell Filmography           
Howard Hughes films           

Queer Review: The Outlaw (1943)                         
   
 
     
Styrous® ~ February 18, 2015

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