Little Johnny Jones
Encyclopedia
For the blues pianist, see Little Johnny Jones (pianist)
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
.
, 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.
This musical is also credited as being the first American Musical, along "with The Black Crook
, Evangeline, Show Boat
, The Beggar's Opera
, The Wizard of the Nile
, or any number of other works." (The Black Crook (1866) is considered a prototype of the modern musical in that its popular songs and dances are interspersed throughout a unifying play and performed by the actors.)
in October 1904 and then opened on Broadway
at the Liberty Theatre
on November 7, 1904. The original production was produced by Sam H. Harris
and directed by George M. Cohan
who also performed as part of the cast with the other members of The Four Cohans (Cohan, his parents and sister). Ethel Levey, Cohan's wife, co-starred. Among the other performers were William Seymour and Donald Brian
. The Broadway run of only 52 performances was followed by tours, during which some rewrites were made. It 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.
followed this in 1929 with an early talkie musical version directed by Mervyn LeRoy
, who played a bit part in the 1924 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.
David Cassidy
starred in a touring revival in 1981. After previewing at Connecticut's Goodspeed Opera House and touring, a 1982 revival, adapted by Alfred Uhry
, closed at the Alvin Theatre after only one performance. It starred Donny Osmond
in the lead.
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.
Little Johnny Jones (pianist)
Little Johnny Jones was an American Chicago blues pianist and singer, best known for his work with Tampa Red, Muddy Waters and Elmore James.-Life and career:Jones was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1924...
Little Johnny Jones is a musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
by George M. Cohan
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....
. The show introduced Cohan's tunes "Give My Regards to Broadway
Give My Regards to Broadway
"Give My Regards to Broadway" is a song written by George M. Cohan for his musical play Little Johnny Jones ....
" and "The Yankee Doodle Boy
The Yankee Doodle Boy
"The Yankee Doodle Boy", also well known as " Yankee Doodle Dandy" is a patriotic song from the Broadway musical Little Johnny Jones written by George M. Cohan...
." The "Yankee Doodle" character was inspired by real-life Hall of Fame
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers...
jockey
Jockey
A jockey is an athlete who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing.-Etymology:...
Tod Sloan
Tod Sloan (jockey)
James Forman "Tod" Sloan was an American thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955.-Early life and U.S. racing career:...
.
Background
The show was Cohan's first full-length musical. A famous American jockey, Tod SloanTod Sloan (jockey)
James Forman "Tod" Sloan was an American thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955.-Early life and U.S. racing career:...
, 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.
This musical is also credited as being the first American Musical, along "with The Black Crook
The Black Crook
The Black Crook is considered to be the first piece of musical theatre that conforms to the modern notion of a "book musical". The book is by Charles M. Barras , an American playwright...
, Evangeline, Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
, The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...
, The Wizard of the Nile
The Wizard of the Nile
The Wizard of the Nile was a burlesque operetta in three acts, composed by Victor Herbert to a libretto by Harry B. Smith.Herbert's second operetta after Prince Ananias, The Wizard of the Nile was his first real success...
, or any number of other works." (The Black Crook (1866) is considered a prototype of the modern musical in that its popular songs and dances are interspersed throughout a unifying play and performed by the actors.)
Synopsis
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.Original production
The musical was first tried out at the Parsons Theatre in Hartford, ConnecticutHartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
in October 1904 and then opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
at the Liberty Theatre
Liberty Theatre
The Liberty Theatre was a Broadway theater from 1904 to 1933, located at 236 West 42nd Street in New York City.In 1996 it was used for a staged reading of T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land, with actress Fiona Shaw, directed by Deborah Warner. The New York Times review described the theater as...
on November 7, 1904. The original production was produced by Sam H. Harris
Sam Harris (playwright)
Sam H. Harris was a Broadway producer and theater owner.-Career:After a stint as a cough drop salesman and boxing manager, Harris's first production was Theodore Kremer's The Evil That Men Do co-produced with Al Woods in 1903. Harris found success in 1904 as the producing partner of George M...
and directed by George M. Cohan
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....
who also performed as part of the cast with the other members of The Four Cohans (Cohan, his parents and sister). Ethel Levey, Cohan's wife, co-starred. Among the other performers were William Seymour and Donald Brian
Donald Brian
Donald Brian was an actor, dancer and singer born St. John's, Newfoundland , at the age of eighteen was crowned "King of Broadway" by the New York Times in 1907. Brian is noted for helping President Theodore Roosevelt act more relaxed in public and teaching Frank Sinatra to dance and entertain U.S...
. The Broadway run of only 52 performances was followed by tours, during which some rewrites were made. It was revived twice in 1905 at the New York Theatre
New York Theatre
Several theatres in New York City have been called New York Theatre at various times during the building's life. They include the following:*Bowery Theatre*Olympia Theatre *Church of the Messiah...
, 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.
Subsequent adaptations and productions
Little Johnny Jones was adapted twice for the motion pictures, first as a silent film released in 1924 by Warner Bros. First NationalFirst National
First National was an association of independent theater owners in the United States that expanded from exhibiting movies to distributing them, and eventually to producing them as a movie studio, called First National Pictures, Inc. It later merged with Warner Bros.-Early history:The First National...
followed this in 1929 with an early talkie musical version directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Mervyn LeRoy
Mervyn LeRoy was an American film director, producer and sometime actor.-Early life:Born to Jewish parents in San Francisco, California, his family was financially ruined by the 1906 earthquake...
, who played a bit part in the 1924 film. Eddie Buzzell
Edward Buzzell
Edward Buzzell was an American film director whose credits for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer included Honolulu , the Marx Brothers films At the Circus and Go West , the musicals Best Foot Forward with Lucille Ball and Neptune's Daughter with Esther Williams, and Easy to Wed, starring Van Johnson,...
, 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
Herb Magidson
Herbert A. "Herb" Magidson was an American popular lyricist. His work was used in over 23 films and four Broadway reviews. He won the first Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1934....
and Michael H. Cleary.
David Cassidy
David Cassidy
David Bruce Cassidy is an American actor, singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for his role as the character of Keith Partridge in the 1970s musical/sitcom The Partridge Family. He was one of pop culture's most celebrated teen idols, enjoying a successful pop career in the 1970s, and...
starred in a touring revival in 1981. After previewing at Connecticut's Goodspeed Opera House and touring, a 1982 revival, adapted by Alfred Uhry
Alfred Uhry
Alfred Fox Uhry is an American playwright, screenwriter, and member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He is one of very few writers to receive an Academy Award, Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize for dramatic writing....
, closed at the Alvin Theatre after only one performance. It starred Donny Osmond
Donny Osmond
Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond is an American singer, musician, actor, dancer, radio personality, and former teen idol. Osmond has also been a talk and game show host, record producer and author. In the mid 1960s, he and four of his elder brothers gained fame as the Osmond Brothers on the long...
in the lead.
An adaptation of the show was produced by the Light Opera of Manhattan
Light Opera of Manhattan
Light Opera of Manhattan, known as LOOM, was an Off-Broadway repertory theatre company that produced light operas, including the works of Gilbert and Sullivan and European and American operettas, 52 weeks per year, in New York City between 1968 and 1989....
in the late 1980s, called Give My Regards to Broadway and was successful for that company.
Song list
- The Cecil in London - Jenkins
- They're All My Friends - Timothy D. McGee
- Mam'selle Fauchette - Goldie Gates
- 'Op in the 'Ansom - Cabbies and Reformers
- Nesting in a New York Tree - Florabelle Fly
- Yankee Doodle Boy - Johnny Jones
- Off to the Derby - Company
- Girls from the U.S.A. - Florabelle Fly
- Sailors of St. Hurrah - Sailors
- Captain of a Ten Day Boat - Captain Squirvy
- Goodbye Flo - Goldie Gates
- Good Old California - Henry Hapgood
- A Girl I Know - Johnny Jones and Goldie Gates
- Give My Regards to BroadwayGive My Regards to Broadway"Give My Regards to Broadway" is a song written by George M. Cohan for his musical play Little Johnny Jones ....
- Johnny Jones - March of the Frisco Chinks - Company
- Life's a Funny Proposition - Johnny Jones