Music in American Life [4 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories That Shaped Our Culture

Music in American Life [4 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories That Shaped Our Culture
Jacqueline Edmondson Ph.D. (Author)

New!: $415.00 (as of 05/07/2013 12:38 PST)

Music

Music has been the cornerstone of popular culture in the United States since the beginning of our nation's history. From early immigrants sharing the sounds of their native lands to contemporary artists performing benefit concerts for social causes, our country's musical expressions reflect where we, as a people, have been, as well as our hope for the future. This four-volume encyclopedia examines music's influence on contemporary American life, tracing historical connections over time.

Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories That Shaped Our Culture demonstrates the symbiotic relationship between this art form and our society. Entries include singers, composers, lyricists, songs, musical genres, places, instruments, technologies, music in films, music in political realms, and music shows on television.

• Rank: #784859 in Books
• Published on: 2013-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 4
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1684 pages

Description #1 by eCrater - backlotmovie:

This is a 12" x 17" Spanish Lobby Card from WARNER BROS STUDIOS. It has edgewear and tack holes. Some corner wear, It features great artwork, for the a film that is SCARCE to find anything on! It is for the 1935 Gangster Crime-Drama Action film,'G' MenIt's the early days of the FBI - federal agents working for the Department of Justice. Though they've got limited powers - they don't carry weapons and have to get local police approval for arrests - that doesn't stop fresh Law School grad Eddie Buchanan from joining up, and he encourages his former roommate James "Brick" Davis (James Cagney) to do so as well. But Davis wants to be an honest lawyer, not a shyster, despite his ties to mobster boss McKay, and he's intent on doing so, until Buchanan is gunned down trying to arrest career criminal Danny Leggett. Davis soon joins the "G-Men" as they hunt down Leggett (soon-to-be Public Enemy Number One) and his cronies Collins and Durfee, who are engaged in a crime and murder spree from New York to the midwest.Director: William KeighleyWriters: Seton I. Miller (story), Seton I. Miller (screenplay),Stars:James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay and Ann DvorakCastJames Cagney... 'Brick' Davis Margaret Lindsay... Kay McCord Ann Dvorak... Jean Morgan Robert Armstrong... Jeff McCord Barton MacLane... Collins Lloyd Nolan... Hugh Farrell William Harrigan... 'Mac' McKay Russell Hopton... Gerard Edward Pawley... Danny Leggett Noel Madison... Durfee Monte Blue... Fingerprint Expert Regis Toomey... Edward 'Eddie' Buchanan Addison Richards... Bruce J. Gregory Harold Huber... Venke Raymond Hatton... Gangsters' Messenger with Warning LOW OPENING buy because of condition. Nice for the foreign Lobby Card collector! or fans of this popular classic!Shop with confidence! This is part of our in-store inventory from our shop which is has been located in the heart of Hollywood where we have been in business for OVER 37 years!MORE INFO ON JAMES CAGNEY: One of Hollywood's pre-eminent male stars of all time (eclipsed, perhaps, only by "King" Clark Gable and arguably by Gary Cooper or Spencer Tracy), and the cinema's quintessential "tough guy." Was also an accomplished if rather stiff hoofer and easily played light comedy. Ending three decades on the screen, retired to his farm in Stanfordville, New York (some 77 miles/124 km. north of his New York City birthplace), after starring in Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three (1961). Emerged from retirement to star in the 1981 screen adaptation of EL Doctorow's novel Ragtime (1981), in which he was reunited with his frequent co-star of the 30's, the actor 'Pat O'Brien', and which was his last theatrical film. (Ironically - or fittingly, if one prefers - it was O'Brien's last film as well.) Cagney's final performance came in the title role of the made-for-TV movie Terrible Joe Moran (1984) (TV), in which he played opposite Art Carney.Cagney's first job as an entertainer was as a female dancer in a chorus line.According to his authorized biography, Cagney, although of Irish and Norwegian extraction, could speak Yiddish since he had grown up in a heavily Jewish area in New York. He used to converse in Yiddish with Jewish performers like Sylvia Sidney.Ranked #45 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]Brother of actor-producer William Cagney and of actress Jeanne Cagney.Films co-starring James Cagney and 'Pat O'Brien (I)' were these nine: Here Comes the Navy (1934), Devil Dogs of the Air (1935), The Irish in Us (1935), Boy Meets Girl (1938), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Torrid Zone (1940), The Fighting 69th (1940), Ceiling Zero (1936), as well as their finale together, four decades later, Ragtime (1981).American Film Institute Life Achievement Award [1974]Interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne, New York, USA.President of Screen Actors Guild (SAG). [1942-1944]Convinced decorated war hero Audie Murphy to go into acting.His widow Frances (nicknamed 'Bill') outlived Cagney by eight years, dying aged 95 in 1994.Father of actor James Cagney Jr.Pictured on a 33 USA commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 22 July 1999.Had two adopted children, Casey and James Jr.Was best friends with actors Pat O'Brien and Frank McHugh.Earned a Black Belt in Judo.He was voted the 14th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.Extraordinarily (for Hollywood), he never cheated on his wife Frances, resulting in a marriage that lasted 64 years (ending with his death). The closest he came was nearly giving into a seduction attempt by Merle Oberon while the two stars were on tour to entertain WWII GIs.Despite the common perception that he was full-blooded Irish of origin this was not all-together true. His grandfather was from Norway, but as he told an interviewer shortly before his death in 1986: "My mother's father, my Grandpa Nelson, was a Norwegian sea captain, but when I tried to investigate those roots I didn't get very far, for he had apparently changed his name to another one that made it impossible to identify him within the rest of the population."Was of Irish-Norwegian origin.His electric acting style was a huge influence on future generations of actors. Actors as diverse as Clint Eastwood and Malcolm McDowell point to him as their number one influence to become actors.Lived in a Gramercy Park building in New York City that was also occupied by Margaret Hamilton and now boasts Jimmy Fallon as one of its tennants.Though most Cagney imitators use the line "You dirty rat!", Cagney never actually said it in any of his films.According to James Cagney's autobiography Cagney By Cagney, (Published by Doubleday and Company Inc 1976, and ghost written by show biz biographer Jack McCabe), a Mafia plan to murder Cagney by dropping a several hundred pound klieg light on top of him was stopped at the insistence of George Raft. Cagney at that time was president of the Screen Actors Guild, and was determined not to let the mob infiltrate the industry. Raft used his many mob connections to cancel the hit.He was voted the 11th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.Named the #8 greatest Actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends List by The American Film InstituteAccording to his autobiography his brother Bill (who was also his manager) actively pursued the role of Cohan in the ultra-patriotic film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) as a way of removing the taint of Cagney's radical activities in the 1930s, when he was a strong Roosevelt liberal. When Cohan himself learned about Cagney's background as a song-and-dance man in vaudeville, he okay-ed him for the project.Lost the role of Knute Rockne to his friend Pat O'Brien when the administration of Notre Dame - which had approval over all aspects of the filming - nixed Cagney because of his support of the far-left (and anti-Catholic) Spanish Republic in the then-ongoing Spanish Civil War.Originally a very left-wing Democrat activist during the 1930s, Cagney later switched his viewpoint and became progressively more conservative with age. He supported his friend Ronald Reagan's campaigns for the Governorship of California in 1966 and 1970, as well as his Presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1984. President Reagan delivered the eulogy at Cagney's funeral in 1986.His performance as George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is ranked #6 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).His performance as Tom Powers in The Public Enemy (1931) is ranked #57 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is ranked #88 on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time.Often said that he did not understand the method actors like Marlon Brando. Cagney admitted that he used his own personal experiences to help create his performances and encouraged other actors to do so, but he did not understand actors who felt a need to go to the extreme length that method actors went to.Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986- 1990, pages 149-152. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.To protest the quality of scripts he was given at Warner Brothers, instead of violating his contract by refusing to appear in a picture he used his appearance to get even. In Jimmy the Gent (1934) he went and got an ugly crew-cut to make himself look like the hoodlum Warners wanted him to play. In movies like He Was Her Man (1934) he sported a thin mustache to upset thin-mustachioed studio boss Jack Warner.Encouraged by his mother to take up boxing as a hobby. She thought it was a necessary skill to have, especially in the rough Eastside section of New York City where he grew up. She would often show up and watch him take on neighborhood kids in a street fight. However when he wanted to become a professional boxer, she disapproved. She started to put on a pair of boxing gloves and told him "If you want to become a professional fighter, then your first fight will have to be against me". He abandoned the idea of doing boxing professionally from that moment on.Inspiration for the Madonna song, "White Heat", from her album, True Blue.Turned down Stanley Holloway's role as Eliza's father in My Fair Lady (1964).Turned down the lead role in The Al Jolson Story.When filming the remake of "White Heat", special effects had not developed "squibs" yet. Special effects used low velocity bullets to break windows or to show bullets hitting near the characters. Special effects used marksmen. It ended up that Cagney was missed by mere inches in the factory scene.Broke a rib while filming the dance scene in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) but continued dancing until it was completed.He once claimed that problems with Horst Buchholz had convinced him to retire from acting.Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan at a ceremony at the White House on 26 March 1984.Along with Rita Hayworth, is mentioned by name in the Tom Wait

Description #2 by eCrater - backlotmovie:

Great ORIGINAL Color Lobby Card measuring 11 x 14 from UNITED ARTISTS CORP featuring JAMES CAGNEY for the 1960 Navy War Motion picture,The Gallant Hours Director:Robert MontgomeryScreenplay by Frank D. Gilroy & Beirne Lay Jr. A semi-documentary dramatization of five weeks in the life of Vice Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey, Jr., from his assignment to command the US naval operations in the South Pacific to the Allied victory at Guadalcanal. The entire cast included: James Cagney... Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey Jr.Dennis Weaver... Lt. Commander Andy LoweWard Costello... Captain Harry BlackVaughn Taylor... Commander Mike PulaskiRichard Jaeckel... Lieutenant Commander Roy WebbLes Tremayne... Captain Frank EnrightWalter Sande... Captain Horace KeysKarl Swenson... Captain Bill BaileyLeon Lontoc... ManuelRobert Burton... Major General Roy GeigerCarleton Young... Colonel Evans CarlsonRaymond Bailey... Majpr General Archie VandergriftHarry Landers... Captain Joseph FossRichard Carlyle... FatherJames Yagi... Rear Admiral Jiro KobeCard has light staples and slight wear and light corner bend, Nice for 50 years old!MORE INFO ON JAMES CAGNEY: One of Hollywood's pre-eminent male stars of all time (eclipsed, perhaps, only by "King" Clark Gable and arguably by Gary Cooper or Spencer Tracy), and the cinema's quintessential "tough guy." Was also an accomplished if rather stiff hoofer and easily played light comedy. Ending three decades on the screen, retired to his farm in Stanfordville, New York (some 77 miles/124 km. north of his New York City birthplace), after starring in Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three (1961). Emerged from retirement to star in the 1981 screen adaptation of EL Doctorow's novel Ragtime (1981), in which he was reunited with his frequent co-star of the 30's, the actor 'Pat O'Brien', and which was his last theatrical film. (Ironically - or fittingly, if one prefers - it was O'Brien's last film as well.) Cagney's final performance came in the title role of the made-for-TV movie Terrible Joe Moran (1984) (TV), in which he played opposite Art Carney.Cagney's first job as an entertainer was as a female dancer in a chorus line.According to his authorized biography, Cagney, although of Irish and Norwegian extraction, could speak Yiddish since he had grown up in a heavily Jewish area in New York. He used to converse in Yiddish with Jewish performers like Sylvia Sidney.Ranked #45 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]Brother of actor-producer William Cagney and of actress Jeanne Cagney.Films co-starring James Cagney and 'Pat O'Brien (I)' were these nine: Here Comes the Navy (1934), Devil Dogs of the Air (1935), The Irish in Us (1935), Boy Meets Girl (1938), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Torrid Zone (1940), The Fighting 69th (1940), Ceiling Zero (1936), as well as their finale together, four decades later, Ragtime (1981).American Film Institute Life Achievement Award [1974]Interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne, New York, USA.President of Screen Actors Guild (SAG). [1942-1944]Convinced decorated war hero Audie Murphy to go into acting.His widow Frances (nicknamed 'Bill') outlived Cagney by eight years, dying aged 95 in 1994.Father of actor James Cagney Jr.Pictured on a 33 USA commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 22 July 1999.Had two adopted children, Casey and James Jr.Was best friends with actors Pat O'Brien and Frank McHugh.Earned a Black Belt in Judo.He was voted the 14th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.Extraordinarily (for Hollywood), he never cheated on his wife Frances, resulting in a marriage that lasted 64 years (ending with his death). The closest he came was nearly giving into a seduction attempt by Merle Oberon while the two stars were on tour to entertain WWII GIs.Despite the common perception that he was full-blooded Irish of origin this was not all-together true. His grandfather was from Norway, but as he told an interviewer shortly before his death in 1986: "My mother's father, my Grandpa Nelson, was a Norwegian sea captain, but when I tried to investigate those roots I didn't get very far, for he had apparently changed his name to another one that made it impossible to identify him within the rest of the population."Was of Irish-Norwegian origin.His electric acting style was a huge influence on future generations of actors. Actors as diverse as Clint Eastwood and Malcolm McDowell point to him as their number one influence to become actors.Lived in a Gramercy Park building in New York City that was also occupied by Margaret Hamilton and now boasts Jimmy Fallon as one of its tennants.Though most Cagney imitators use the line "You dirty rat!", Cagney never actually said it in any of his films.According to James Cagney's autobiography Cagney By Cagney, (Published by Doubleday and Company Inc 1976, and ghost written by show biz biographer Jack McCabe), a Mafia plan to murder Cagney by dropping a several hundred pound klieg light on top of him was stopped at the insistence of George Raft. Cagney at that time was president of the Screen Actors Guild, and was determined not to let the mob infiltrate the industry. Raft used his many mob connections to cancel the hit.He was voted the 11th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.Named the #8 greatest Actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends List by The American Film InstituteAccording to his autobiography his brother Bill (who was also his manager) actively pursued the role of Cohan in the ultra-patriotic film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) as a way of removing the taint of Cagney's radical activities in the 1930s, when he was a strong Roosevelt liberal. When Cohan himself learned about Cagney's background as a song-and-dance man in vaudeville, he okay-ed him for the project.Lost the role of Knute Rockne to his friend Pat O'Brien when the administration of Notre Dame - which had approval over all aspects of the filming - nixed Cagney because of his support of the far-left (and anti-Catholic) Spanish Republic in the then-ongoing Spanish Civil War.Originally a very left-wing Democrat activist during the 1930s, Cagney later switched his viewpoint and became progressively more conservative with age. He supported his friend Ronald Reagan's campaigns for the Governorship of California in 1966 and 1970, as well as his Presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1984. President Reagan delivered the eulogy at Cagney's funeral in 1986.His performance as George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is ranked #6 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).His performance as Tom Powers in The Public Enemy (1931) is ranked #57 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is ranked #88 on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time.Often said that he did not understand the method actors like Marlon Brando. Cagney admitted that he used his own personal experiences to help create his performances and encouraged other actors to do so, but he did not understand actors who felt a need to go to the extreme length that method actors went to.Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986- 1990, pages 149-152. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.To protest the quality of scripts he was given at Warner Brothers, instead of violating his contract by refusing to appear in a picture he used his appearance to get even. In Jimmy the Gent (1934) he went and got an ugly crew-cut to make himself look like the hoodlum Warners wanted him to play. In movies like He Was Her Man (1934) he sported a thin mustache to upset thin-mustachioed studio boss Jack Warner.Encouraged by his mother to take up boxing as a hobby. She thought it was a necessary skill to have, especially in the rough Eastside section of New York City where he grew up. She would often show up and watch him take on neighborhood kids in a street fight. However when he wanted to become a professional boxer, she disapproved. She started to put on a pair of boxing gloves and told him "If you want to become a professional fighter, then your first fight will have to be against me". He abandoned the idea of doing boxing professionally from that moment on.Inspiration for the Madonna song, "White Heat", from her album, True Blue.Turned down Stanley Holloway's role as Eliza's father in My Fair Lady (1964).Turned down the lead role in The Al Jolson Story.When filming the remake of "White Heat", special effects had not developed "squibs" yet. Special effects used low velocity bullets to break windows or to show bullets hitting near the characters. Special effects used marksmen. It ended up that Cagney was missed by mere inches in the factory scene.Broke a rib while filming the dance scene in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) but continued dancing until it was completed.He once claimed that problems with Horst Buchholz had convinced him to retire from acting.Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan at a ceremony at the White House on 26 March 1984.Along with Rita Hayworth, is mentioned by name in the Tom Waits' song "Invitation To The Blues".In his autobiography, he mentions when playing a chorus part in Pitter Patter, he earned $55 a week, of which he sent $40 a week back to his mother. As his salary increased, so did the amount he sent back home. While working on The Public Enemy, he earned $400 a week, sending over $300 back home. Until his mother passed, he never kept more than 50% of his earnings.Often left the set early claiming he was too ill to continue filming in order to ensure an extra day of filming so that the extras and the film crew, whom he thought woefully underpaid, could get an additional day's salary.Winning buyder agrees in advance to pay an additional Mail postage (Foreign orders will require additional postage) and to remit full payment within 10 days afte

Description #3 by eCrater - backlotmovie:

This is an ORIGINAL Belgium Poster, measuring 14 x 22 with the ORIGINAL Bruxelles postage stamps on the top. These posters use to be rolled up and the stamp was affixed to the top for mailing. It features great artwork of JAMES CAGNEY. It was playing at the QUEEENS. It doe have some tears by Queens. and some edgewear tears, because of the thinner paper These type of ORIGINAL Posters were hardly ever saved. They were folded in the middle, stamped and mailed as is. Nice shape considering all it went through! This poster was to promote the classic MGM Metro-Goldwyn Mayer 1956 Western MGM Cinemascope motion picture,Tribute to a Bad Man Director:Robert WiseScreenplay by Michael Blankfort & Jack Schaefer As it really was! A big, blazing drama of the West! Jeremy Rodock is a tough horse rancher who strings up rustlers soon as look at them. Fresh out of Pennsylvania, Steve Miller finds it hard to get used to Rodock's ways, although he takes an immediate shine to his Greek girl Jocasta.The entire cast included: James Cagney... Jeremy RodockDon Dubbins... Steve MillerStephen McNally... McNultyIrene Papas... Jocasta ConstantineVic Morrow... Lars PetersonJames Griffith... BarjakOnslow Stevens... HearnJames Bell... LA PetersonJeanette Nolan... Mrs. LA PetersonChubby Johnson... BaldyRoyal Dano... AbeLee Van Cleef... Fat JonesPeter Chong... CookyGraphics are still colorful. Framed would look amazing . Great for the foreign movie poster collector or fans of CagneyMORE INFO ON JAMES CAGNEY: One of Hollywood's pre-eminent male stars of all time (eclipsed, perhaps, only by "King" Clark Gable and arguably by Gary Cooper or Spencer Tracy), and the cinema's quintessential "tough guy." Was also an accomplished if rather stiff hoofer and easily played light comedy. Ending three decades on the screen, retired to his farm in Stanfordville, New York (some 77 miles/124 km. north of his New York City birthplace), after starring in Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three (1961). Emerged from retirement to star in the 1981 screen adaptation of EL Doctorow's novel Ragtime (1981), in which he was reunited with his frequent co-star of the 30's, the actor 'Pat O'Brien', and which was his last theatrical film. (Ironically - or fittingly, if one prefers - it was O'Brien's last film as well.) Cagney's final performance came in the title role of the made-for-TV movie Terrible Joe Moran (1984) (TV), in which he played opposite Art Carney.Cagney's first job as an entertainer was as a female dancer in a chorus line.According to his authorized biography, Cagney, although of Irish and Norwegian extraction, could speak Yiddish since he had grown up in a heavily Jewish area in New York. He used to converse in Yiddish with Jewish performers like Sylvia Sidney.Ranked #45 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]Brother of actor-producer William Cagney and of actress Jeanne Cagney.Films co-starring James Cagney and 'Pat O'Brien (I)' were these nine: Here Comes the Navy (1934), Devil Dogs of the Air (1935), The Irish in Us (1935), Boy Meets Girl (1938), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Torrid Zone (1940), The Fighting 69th (1940), Ceiling Zero (1936), as well as their finale together, four decades later, Ragtime (1981).American Film Institute Life Achievement Award [1974]Interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne, New York, USA.President of Screen Actors Guild (SAG). [1942-1944]Convinced decorated war hero Audie Murphy to go into acting.His widow Frances (nicknamed 'Bill') outlived Cagney by eight years, dying aged 95 in 1994.Father of actor James Cagney Jr.Pictured on a 33 USA commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 22 July 1999.Had two adopted children, Casey and James Jr.Was best friends with actors Pat O'Brien and Frank McHugh.Earned a Black Belt in Judo.He was voted the 14th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.Extraordinarily (for Hollywood), he never cheated on his wife Frances, resulting in a marriage that lasted 64 years (ending with his death). The closest he came was nearly giving into a seduction attempt by Merle Oberon while the two stars were on tour to entertain WWII GIs.Despite the common perception that he was full-blooded Irish of origin this was not all-together true. His grandfather was from Norway, but as he told an interviewer shortly before his death in 1986: "My mother's father, my Grandpa Nelson, was a Norwegian sea captain, but when I tried to investigate those roots I didn't get very far, for he had apparently changed his name to another one that made it impossible to identify him within the rest of the population."Was of Irish-Norwegian origin.His electric acting style was a huge influence on future generations of actors. Actors as diverse as Clint Eastwood and Malcolm McDowell point to him as their number one influence to become actors.Lived in a Gramercy Park building in New York City that was also occupied by Margaret Hamilton and now boasts Jimmy Fallon as one of its tennants.Though most Cagney imitators use the line "You dirty rat!", Cagney never actually said it in any of his films.According to James Cagney's autobiography Cagney By Cagney, (Published by Doubleday and Company Inc 1976, and ghost written by show biz biographer Jack McCabe), a Mafia plan to murder Cagney by dropping a several hundred pound klieg light on top of him was stopped at the insistence of George Raft. Cagney at that time was president of the Screen Actors Guild, and was determined not to let the mob infiltrate the industry. Raft used his many mob connections to cancel the hit.He was voted the 11th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.Named the #8 greatest Actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends List by The American Film InstituteAccording to his autobiography his brother Bill (who was also his manager) actively pursued the role of Cohan in the ultra-patriotic film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) as a way of removing the taint of Cagney's radical activities in the 1930s, when he was a strong Roosevelt liberal. When Cohan himself learned about Cagney's background as a song-and-dance man in vaudeville, he okay-ed him for the project.Lost the role of Knute Rockne to his friend Pat O'Brien when the administration of Notre Dame - which had approval over all aspects of the filming - nixed Cagney because of his support of the far-left (and anti-Catholic) Spanish Republic in the then-ongoing Spanish Civil War.Originally a very left-wing Democrat activist during the 1930s, Cagney later switched his viewpoint and became progressively more conservative with age. He supported his friend Ronald Reagan's campaigns for the Governorship of California in 1966 and 1970, as well as his Presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1984. President Reagan delivered the eulogy at Cagney's funeral in 1986.His performance as George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is ranked #6 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).His performance as Tom Powers in The Public Enemy (1931) is ranked #57 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is ranked #88 on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time.Often said that he did not understand the method actors like Marlon Brando. Cagney admitted that he used his own personal experiences to help create his performances and encouraged other actors to do so, but he did not understand actors who felt a need to go to the extreme length that method actors went to.Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986- 1990, pages 149-152. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.To protest the quality of scripts he was given at Warner Brothers, instead of violating his contract by refusing to appear in a picture he used his appearance to get even. In Jimmy the Gent (1934) he went and got an ugly crew-cut to make himself look like the hoodlum Warners wanted him to play. In movies like He Was Her Man (1934) he sported a thin mustache to upset thin-mustachioed studio boss Jack Warner.Encouraged by his mother to take up boxing as a hobby. She thought it was a necessary skill to have, especially in the rough Eastside section of New York City where he grew up. She would often show up and watch him take on neighborhood kids in a street fight. However when he wanted to become a professional boxer, she disapproved. She started to put on a pair of boxing gloves and told him "If you want to become a professional fighter, then your first fight will have to be against me". He abandoned the idea of doing boxing professionally from that moment on.Inspiration for the Madonna song, "White Heat", from her album, True Blue.Turned down Stanley Holloway's role as Eliza's father in My Fair Lady (1964).Turned down the lead role in The Al Jolson Story.When filming the remake of "White Heat", special effects had not developed "squibs" yet. Special effects used low velocity bullets to break windows or to show bullets hitting near the characters. Special effects used marksmen. It ended up that Cagney was missed by mere inches in the factory scene.Broke a rib while filming the dance scene in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) but continued dancing until it was completed.He once claimed that problems with Horst Buchholz had convinced him to retire from acting.Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan at a ceremony at the White House on 26 March 1984.Along with Rita Hayworth, is mentioned by name in the Tom Waits' song "Invitation To The Blues".In his autobiography, he mentions when playing a chorus part in Pitter Patter, he earned $55 a week, of which he sent $40 a week back to his mother. As his salary increased, so did the amount he sent back home. While working on The Public Enemy, he earned $400 a week, sending over $300 back home. Until his mother passed, he never kept more than 50% of his earnings.Often left the set early c