Yankee Doodle Dandy Trivia

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In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #98 Greatest Movie of All Time.

The movie`s line "My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you." was voted as the #97 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).

James Cagney`s performance as George M. Cohan is ranked #6 on Premiere Magazine`s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.

Warner brothers second highest grossing film of 1942 ($4.8 million).

Frances Langford is listed in the credits simply as "singer". In the film Cagney calls her "Nora" so this character is probably the real life Nora Bayes (1880-1928). Bayes was a popular performer who recorded many Cohan songs and entertained the troops with Cohan during World War I. Bayes wrote "Shine on Harvest Moon" and was the subject of her own biopic in the 1944 Warner Brothers film of the same name. "Over There" isn`t the only singing that Langford does in "Yankee Doodle Dandy". She also sings the medley "In a Kingdom of Our own/Love Nest/Nellie Kelly, I Love You/The Man Who Owns Broadway/Molly Malone/Billie" which backs up one of Don Siegel`s great montage sequences. Francis Langford sang "Over There" to WW I American troops and toured with Bob Hope to entertain American troops in WW II, Korea and Viet Nam.

James Cagney was eleven years older than his screen mother Rosemary DeCamp.

The movie deviated so far from the truth that, following the premiere, Cohan commented, "It was a good movie. Who was it about?"

Many facts were changed or ignored to add to the feel of the movie. For example, the real George M. Cohan was married twice, and although his second wife`s middle name was Mary, she went by her first name, Agnes.

This was the very first black and white movie to be colorized using a controversial computer-applied process. Despite widespread opposition to the practice by many film aficionados, stars and directors, the movie won over a sizeable section of the public on its re-release.

George M. Cohan chose James Cagney to play him.

Fred Astaire was first offered the leading role but turned it down.