George M. Cohan

Cohan married Ethel Levey, an actress and dancer, in 1899. She had joined ‘The Four Cohan’ when his sister left to get married. The couple had a daughter and later divorced.

He married Agnes Mary Nolan in 1908 and remained married until his death. They had three children.

He suffered from cancer during his later years, and died in 1942 at the age of 64.

George Cohan was born as the second child of Jeremiah Cohan and Helen Costigan. His parents were traveling vaudeville performers, and he was taught to sing and dance as soon as he could walk and talk.

He received little formal education as a result of his family’s constant traveling, but it is apparent that he had received some training in reading, writing and mathematics as is evident from his later achievements.

He started as a child performer when at the age of eight he played violin and performed as a dancer. He was the fourth member to join the family vaudeville act, ‘The Four Cohans’ which included his father, mother and sister.

‘The Four Cohans’ toured all over the U.S from 1890 to 1901. He made his Broadway debut in 1893 along with his sister in a sketch called ‘The Lively Bootblack’. It was during this time that Cohan coined his famous curtain speech: "My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you.”

During the early 1900s, he met and formed a long-term partnership with playwright Sam Harris. Together they produced several musicals, plays and revues on Broadway including the highly appreciated ‘Little Johnny Jones’ (1904).

Cohan was very successful as a playwright and entertainer; his shows ran simultaneously in as many as five theatres. His ‘Seven Keys to Baldpate’ in 1913 cemented his reputation as a serious playwright. The play created some controversy, but became a bit hit.

The three-act musical comedy ‘Going Up’, co-produced by Cohan and Sam Harris in 1917 became a smash hit. The same year, he wrote his song ‘Over There’ which became very popular with the U.S soldiers during both world wars.

In 1919, he became involved in a dispute with the Actors’ Equity Association following which he stopped acting for sometime. The dispute also led to the dissolution of his partnership with Sam Harris.

One of his biggest successes was the musical play, ‘Little Johnny Jones’ (1904) which was co-produced with Sam Harris. The play based on the real life story of American jockey Tod Sloan, included Cohan’s songs ‘Give My Regards to Broadway’ and ‘The Yankee Doodle Boy’ which also became smash hits.

His play ‘Seven Keys to baldpate’ (1913) is his most popular play, famous for the innovative dramatization of Earl Derr Biggers’s novel. He also produced a silent film of the same name based on the play in 1917.

The 1917 musical comedy, ‘Going Up’, based on a play by James Montgomery, tells the story of a writer who turns into an aviator to win the hand of the girl he loves. The play was a super hit and was later made into a film.