George M. Cohan

George M. Cohan was born July 3, 1878 (legend has it as July 4), in Providence, R.I., the son of vaudevillians. He first appeared on stage as a violinist in the family act and then as a "buck and wing" dancer. He was the star of Peck's Bad Boy in 1890, and at age 15 he made his Broadway debut. At the concluding curtain call, his words to the audience, "My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you," became a sentimental trademark of his act. His first wife, Ethel Levey, whom he married in 1899, was his dancing partner after his sister left the act. He married a second time in 1908.

The first Broadway production which he wrote, composed, and directed was The Governor's Son (1901). Among the more than 50 plays, comedies, and revues he wrote, produced, or acted in were Little Johnny Jones (1904), Forty-five Minutes from Broadway (1906), George Washington, Jr. (1906), The Man Who Owns Broadway (1908), The Yankee Prince (1908), Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913) (which earned him a reputation as a serious playwright), and The Cohan Revues (1916 and 1918). He also wrote over 100 vaudeville sketches.  His famous World War I song, "Over There" (1917), sold 2 million copies of sheet music and 1 million records. President Woodrow Wilson described it as an inspiration to American manhood, and President Franklin Roosevelt cited the song when presenting Cohan with a congressional medal. Cohan died on Nov. 5, 1942.