| Little Johnny Jones | |
|---|---|
 Pamphlet, 1907 | |
| Music | George M. Cohan |
| Lyrics | George M. Cohan |
| Book | George M. Cohan |
| Productions | 1904 Broadway 1982 Broadway revival |
Little Johnny Jones is a musical by George M. Cohan. The show introduced Cohan's tunes "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "The Yankee Doodle Boy." The "Yankee Doodle" character was inspired by real-life Hall of Fame jockey Tod Sloan.
The show was Cohan's first full-length musical. A famous American jockey, Tod Sloan, had gone to England in 1903 to ride in the Derby for King Edward VII of England. This gave Cohan the idea for the story. The musical is patriotic in tone and contains a number of quips aimed at European targets, such as, "You think I'd marry an heiress and live off her money? What do you take me for? An Englishman?" and, "French pastry ain't worth 30¢ compared to American apple pie." In Little Johnny Jones Cohan introduced some of the dance steps and comedy features for which he would become famous. [1]
This musical is credited as the first American musical, albeit with several rivals to the title such as The Black Crook and Evangeline . [2]
For clarity, only the principal speaking parts are listed.
Lead
Supporting
Featured
Settings: Act I - Courtyard of Cecil Hotel, London; Act II - American Line dock at Southampton; Act III - Chinatown, San Francisco
A brash, patriotic American jockey, Johnny Jones, goes to England to ride his horse, Yankee Doodle, in the English Derby. Jones falls in love with Goldie Gates, a San Francisco copper heiress, who follows him to Britain, disguising herself as a man to discover if Jones really loves her. Anthony Anstey, an American who runs a Chinese gambling establishment in San Francisco, offers Jones a bribe to lose the race deliberately, but he refuses. After Jones loses, Anstey spreads rumors that he threw the race intentionally. Jones' detective, pretending to be a drunkard, searches for evidence to clear Johnny's name and finds out that it was Anstey that framed Jones. Jones tells his friends who are returning to America, "Give My Regards to Broadway," but he stays in London to try to regain his reputation. Jones returns to America with his name cleared, eager to propose marriage to Goldie, but he finds that Anstey has kidnapped her. He and his detective search for her in San Francisco's Chinatown, eventually finding her.
Little Johnny Jones was produced by Sam H. Harris and directed by George M. Cohan, who also performed in it. Other members of The Four Cohans in the cast were his parents, and his then wife Ethel Levey, who had replaced Cohan's sister Josie in the family act. [3] [4]
Cast lists were not a usual feature of theater reviews in 1904-1905, so the following is dependent on a few exceptions. [5] [6] [7]
| Role | Actor | Dates | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goldie Gates | Ethel Levey | Oct 1904 – Dec 1905 | |
| Johnny Jones | George M. Cohan | Oct 1904 – Dec 1905 | |
| Henry Hapgood | Donald Brian | Oct 1904 – Jun 1905 | His character disguises himself as Leslie, valet to the Earl of Bloomsbury |
| William D. Meehan | Jun 1905 – Dec 1905 | ||
| Timothy D. McGee | Sam J. Ryan | Oct 1904 – Dec 1905 | |
| Florabelle Fly | Truly Shattuck | Oct 1904 – Jul 1905 | |
| Adele Rafter | Jul 1905 – Dec 1905 | [8] | |
| Anthony Anstey | Jerry J. Cohan | Oct 1904 – Dec 1905 | |
| Mrs. Andrew Kenworth | Helen F. Cohan | Oct 1904 – Dec 1905 | |
| Whitney Wilson | Tom Lewis | Oct 1904 – Dec 1905 | Lewis' role was easily the most popular character with audiences and reviewers. |
| Sing Song | J. Bernard Dyllin | Oct 1904 – May 1905 | |
| Charles Bachmann | May 1905 – Dec 1905 | Bachmann originally played Inspector Perkins but took over this role when Dyllin left. [9] | |
| Jenkins / Capt. Squirvey | C. J. Harrington | Oct 1904 – Dec 1905 | Harrington played two roles, as a Cecil Hotel starter in Act I and a ship's captain in Act II. |
| Bessie | Edith Tyler | Oct 1904 – Dec 1905 | |
| Bellboy | William Seymour | Oct 1904 – Dec 1905 | |
| Stevens | Joseph Leslie | Oct 1904 – Dec 1905 | |
| Inspector Perkins | Charles Bachmann | Oct 1904 – May 1905 | |
| Fred Wolcott | May 1905 – Dec 1905 | ||
| Chung Fow | Howard Stevens | Oct 1904 – Jun 1905 | |
| Harry Kittridge | Jun 1905 – Dec 1905 | ||
The musical was first tried out at the Parsons Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut on October 10, 1904, [10] moving to the Shubert Hyperion Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut three days later. [11] It opened at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia on October 17, 1904 for a two-week engagement, [12] then finished its tryout period at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Delaware starting October 31, 1904. [13]
Little Johnny Jones opened on Broadway at the Liberty Theatre on November 7, 1904. [14] The first Broadway run of only 52 performances was followed by tours, during which some rewrites were made. One of these was a new song Life's a Funny Proposition After All , added to the finale in May 1905. [9] Little Johnny Jones was revived twice in 1905 at the New York Theatre, playing successfully for over 200 performances through most of that year, and touring until the next Broadway revival in 1907 for a short run at the Academy of Music. The production was mounted with a huge cast. [15]
Little Johnny Jones was adapted twice for the motion pictures, first as a silent film released in 1923 by Warner Bros. [16] First National followed this in 1929 with an early talkie musical version directed by Mervyn LeRoy, who played a bit part in the 1923 film. Eddie Buzzell, who co-wrote the screenplay with Adelaide Heilbron, played the title role. Only two of Cohan's original songs survived the transition to the screen ("Give My Regards To Broadway" and "Yankee Doodle Boy"). The five other tunes in the film's score were contributed by various other songwriters, mainly Herb Magidson and Michael H. Cleary. [17]
James Cagney appeared in a play-within-a-play staging of numbers and dances from Little Johnny Jones in the 1942 film, Yankee Doodle Dandy .
David Cassidy starred in a touring revival in 1981. [18] After previewing at Connecticut's Goodspeed Opera House and touring, [19] a 1982 revival, adapted by Alfred Uhry and starring Donny Osmond in the lead [20] closed at the Alvin Theatre after only one performance.
An adaptation of the show was produced by the Light Opera of Manhattan in the late 1980s, called Give My Regards to Broadway and was successful for that company. [21]
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"The Yankee Doodle Boy", also known as "(I'm a) Yankee Doodle Dandy" is a patriotic song from the Broadway musical Little Johnny Jones, written by George M. Cohan. The play opened at the Liberty Theater on November 7, 1904. The play concerns the trials and tribulations of a fictional American jockey, Johnny Jones, who rides a horse named Yankee Doodle in the English Derby. Cohan incorporates snippets of several popular traditional American songs into his lyrics of this song, as he often did with his songs. The song was performed by James Cagney in the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy, in which he played Cohan.
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