My report focuses on George M. Cohan, the Congressional Medal of Honor, and his impact on World War I. George Michael Cohan, American singer, dancer, songwriter, producer, lyricist, actor, playwright, composer, or simply entertainer, impacted World War I in many ways. George Michael Cohan, professionally known as George M. Cohan, was born July 3, 1878. Cohan published over three hundred songs during his lifetime. Some of these songs included "The Yankee Doodle Boy", "You're a Grand Old Flag" and others. Before World War I, George M. Cohan was also known as "the man who owned Broadway." George M. Cohan is considered the father of American musical comedy. The life of George M. Cohan was depicted in the 1942 Academy Award-winning film "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and the 1968 musical George M.. George M. Cohan has a statue in Times Square in New York that commemorates his contributions to American musical theater. He appeared in films until the 1930s and continued to perform as a featured artist until 1940. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayEarly Career George M. Cohan was born in 1878 in Providence Rhode Island to Irish Catholic parents. A birth certificate from St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church indicated that Cohan was born on July 3, but his parents always said that Cohan was born on "July 4." George M. Cohan's parents were traveling vaudeville performers, and Cohan joined them on stage when he was a baby. While Cohan was on stage with his parents as a child, he started out as a prop, and eventually learned to walk and talk and soon after learned to sing and dance. George M. Cohan began as a performing artist at the age of 8. At age 8, George M. Cohan began playing the violin on stage and eventually turned to dancing. He was the fourth person in the family vaudeville group called The Four Cohans, which included his father Jeremiah Cohan, his mother Helen Costigan Cohan, his sister Josephine Cohan and himself. The Four Cohans toured primarily together from 1890 to 1901. George M. Cohan toured as the star of a show called "Peck's Bad Boy." George M. Cohan and his sister both made their Broadway debuts in 1893 in a sketch called "The Lively Bootblack." Cohan began writing original sketches of over 150 sketches and songs for the family act in vaudeville and minstrel shows while he was a teenager. Soon, he began writing professionally and eventually, he began selling his first songs to a national publisher in 1893. In 1901, he wrote, produced and directed his own Broadway musical called "The Governor's Son", for The Four Cohans . His first success on Broadway was in 1904 in the show "Little Johnny Jones", which featured his songs "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "The Yankee Doodle Boy". Cohan soon became one of Tin Pan Alley's leading songwriters, publishing to the top. of 300 original songs known for their clever lyrics and catchy melodies. His major hits include "You're a Grand Old Flag", "Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway", "Mary Is a Grand Old Name", "The Warmest Baby". in the Bunch", "Life's a Funny Proposition After All", "I Want to Hear a Yankee Doodle Tune", "You Ain't Doing No Business If You Don't Have a Band", "The Small Town Gal" , "I'm Very Happy to Live, That's All", "This Haunting Melody", "Always Leave Them Laughing When You Say Goodbye", and themost popular American song of World War I "Over There", recorded by Enrico Caruso and others. The latter song became very popular among troops and shipyard workers: a ship was named "Costigan" in honor of Cohan's grandfather, Dennis Costigan. During the baptism, “Là-bas” was played. From 1904 to 1920, Cohan made and. released more than 50 musicals, revues and plays on Broadway with his friend Sam H. Harris. Some of these songs included "Give My Regards to Broadway" and the popular "Going Up" in 1917, which became a hit in London the following year. His shows were broadcast simultaneously in five theaters. One of Cohan's most creative plays was a dramatization of the mystery "Seven Keys of Baldpate" in 1913, which intrigued some audiences and critics but nevertheless became a success. Cohan finally adapted it for film in 1917, and it was adapted for film six more times, as well as for television and radio. He eventually gave up acting for a few years after his 1919 dispute with the Actors' Equity Association. In 1925, he published his autobiography, “Twenty Years on Broadway and the Years It Took to Get There.” Later career Cohan appeared in 1930 in a revival of his tribute to vaudeville and his father, "The Song and Dance Man." In 1932, Cohan played the dual role of a cold, corrupt politician and his charming, idealistic campaign double in the Hollywood musical film "The Phantom President." The film starred Claudette Colbert and Jimmy Durante, with songs by Rodgers and Hart. , and was released by Paramount Pictures. He appeared in some earlier silent films, but he disliked Hollywood production methods and made only one other sound film, "Gambling", in 1934, based on his own 1929 play and filmed in New York. One critic called "Gambling" a "heavy adaptation of a decidedly dated play staged with obsolete theatrical technique." It is considered a lost film. In 1940, Judy Garland played the title role in a film version of her 1922 musical "Little Nellie Kelly." Cohan's mystery play "Seven Keys to Baldpate" was first produced in 1916 and has been remade seven times, most recently as "House of Long Shadows" in 1983, starring Vincent Price. In 1942, a musical biopic of Cohan, "Yankee Doodle Dandy," was released and James Cagney's performance in the title role won him an Academy Award for Best Actor. The film was privately screened for Cohan as he battled the final stages of abdominal cancer. Cohan's comment on Cagney's performance was: "My goodness, what an act to watch!" » Cohan's 1920 play "The Baddest Man in the World" was filmed in 1943 starring Jack Benny. Although Cohan is best remembered for his songs, he became an early pioneer in the development of the "Musical Book", using his engaging librettos to bridge the gap between theater and music more than three decades before Agnes de Mille. choreographed Oklahoma!, Cohan used dance not only as a dazzling spectacle, but to advance the plot. Cohan's main characters were "Average Joes and Janes" who appealed to a wide American audience. In 1914, Cohan became one of the founding members of ASCAP. Although Cohan was known to be extremely generous to his fellow actors in need, in 1919 he unsuccessfully opposed a historic strike by the Actors' Equity Association, for which many theater professionals did not support him. never forgiven. being an actor in his productions, he was also the producer of the musical who set the conditions of employment for the actors. During the strike, he..