Foreword Acknowledgments About the Companion Website Introduction 1 The Flag-Waving Patriot 2 The Entertainer: Defining the Cohanesque 3 The Man Who Owned Broadway 4 The Irish American 5 The Celebrity 6 The "Great American Service" of Yankee Doodle Dandy Epilogue: Cohan's Legacies Notes Selected Bibliography Index

"In true virtuoso style, Elizabeth T. Craft exquisitely weaves together various threads of the personality that was George M. Cohan - playwright, songwriter, performer, Irish American, businessman, self-publicist, Broadway mythmaker - to create a brilliantly nuanced tapestry that illuminates and celebrates her subject's extraordinary contributions not just to the American musical theatre but also to continuing perceptions of nationhood, patriotism, and identity." -- William A. Everett, Ph.D., Curators' Distinguished Professor of Musicology Emeritus, University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory "Craft gives us a multi-faceted Cohan who loudly played his patriotic Irish American self to audiences both on and off the stage. Always both appreciative and critical, this deeply researched book puts a largely forgotten figure where he belongs: at the center of the Broadway musical stage during its formative years." -- Todd Decker, Paul Tietjens Professor of Music, Washington University in St. Louis "Elizabeth T. Craft, in illuminating the life and tunes of George M. Cohan, outlines the roots of so many musical theater branches that continue to flourish today. A compulsively readable addition to the history of musical theater." -- Lin-Manuel Miranda "Elizabeth T. Craft's Yankee Doodle Dandy... will be a revelation for the Cohan-curious with only a passing familiarity of George Michael Cohan's work (there are hundreds of songs beyond the rousers "Over Here," "You're a Grand Old Flag," and those named above) and his influence (his plays' songs were more integrated with the plot than others in his time). We admirers of well-built, rhyme-filled catchy musical theatre songs who admit to being Cohan junkies are glad to welcome anything new that's in this book and to welcome the Cohan-curious co-readers new to the fan club for the grandfather of Broadway." -- Rob Lester, Talkin' Broadway "Craft offers an informed and entertaining account." -- John Check, Notes

Selling point: Presents George M. Cohan as a multifaceted performer and creator and also a central figure of his day, using an interdisciplinary approach Selling point: Furthers our understanding of the American musical and the institution of Broadway in the understudied early decades of the twentieth century Selling point: Draws upon previously unexamined and inaccessible archival material