George M. Cohan

He was not the nice guy portrayed by Jimmy Cagney in the movie. If you have ever watched YANKEE DOODLE DANDY based on the life of George M. Cohan, you probably came away feeling Cohan must have been a great fellow; who wouldn't have liked him? That question was emphatically answered during the Actors' Strike of 1919 when bitter contempt was directed toward Cohan by the vast majority of those who shared his profession, his fellow actors. The strike was engendered by a long history of mistreatment of actors and the obstinate refusal of theatrical producers to recognize their union, the Actors Equity Association. Incredibly, the producer who was the most obdurate and the most vitriolic opponent to the actors' cause was a man who spent his entire life on the stage, George M. Cohan. Commenting on this paradox, Equity's first president, Francis Wilson, said, "It seems remarkable what with his theatrical lineage, he could have set his face against the fighting of long-standing abuses to the people of his profession. This attitude of his is still a matter of amazement."