Re: Cohan: not a Jew.

[alfesta <alfesta...>]

Hi There,

Many thanks for your quick response.
George M Cohan's name is mentioned 8 times in the book
THE JEWS OF TIN PAN ALLEY by Kenneth Aaron Kanter, so I presumed he was
Jewish.

Regards

Alf Keiles
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eliott Kahn" <Elkahn (at) JTSA(dot)EDU>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2003 8:28 PM
Subject: Re: Cohan: not a Jew.


>
> >
> >
> >In conclusion, I'd say that not every great American Broadway/popular
> >songwriter has to be Jewish.
>
>
> Not every one was--there were Cole Porter and Harry Warren after all.
>
> But you must realize that Cohan was popular during the first decade of the
twentieth century and was a fitting representative of the waves of Irish
immigrants that preceded the Russian and Eastern European Jews (and
Italians) that began trickling into America from ca. 1884. Cohan was
preceded by the late nineteenth-century Harrigan and Hart shows, some of
America's earliest "musical theatre." Of course some of the characters and
situations in their shows had to do with Irish immigrants.
>
> There was a famous story, I believe from the early days of ASCAP, when
Cohan introduced the young, up and coming Irving Berlin as a talented "Jew
Boy." One shouldn't be too surprised at such behavior between two street
smart immigrant groups, but--as I've mentioned previously--one should give
people like Berlin credit for breaking down the ethnic barriers that he did.
Purists frequently complain that people like Berlin and other assimilated
Jewish songwriters should have written more "Jewish" or "ethnic" music. I'm
sure if they wanted to work in the Yiddish Theatre like Sholom Secunda and
Abe Ellstein they would have.
>
> I still maintain that the ground work of these assimilated songwriters
made it possible for people to freely express themselves in a Jewish musical
idiom today--as most of the people do on this list. Times change. But
Berlin's commitment to "Americanizing" Jewish music and Jews did play well
with the general population and made us far more acceptable as Americans.
>
> I suppose if there was one thing Berlin and many of these artists--as well
as the entire movie industry--regretted, was that they could have been more
vocal about helping their European cousins survive the Holocaust. But I'm
afraid most Americans' actions on that account were sadly lacking.
>
> Eliott Kahn
>
>
>


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