November 7, 1904: "Little Johnny Jones" Opens On Broadway

November 7, 1904: Little Johnny Jones opens at the Liberty Theatre at 236 West 42nd Street in New York. It is the 1st play staged there. George M. Cohan is the writer, director and star, playing an American jockey who goes to London to race in the famed Epsom Derby, loses, is accused of throwing the race, and must clear his name.

The show contains 2 of Cohan's legendary songs: "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Give My Regards to Broadway." The former not only becomes the title of the 1942 film biography of Cohan, starring James Cagney, but also helps to popularize "Yankees" as an alternative name for the New York Highlanders of baseball's American League.

Ironically, because New York Giants manager John McGraw cultivated Broadway performers as friends, Cohan became a Giants fan, despite being from Providence, Rhode Island. Cagney, however, was a Yankee Fan, and even threw out the ceremonial first ball at a 1981 World Series game. It was one of his last public appearances.

Cohan is best remembered for his patriotic songs, like "Grand Old Flag" and what became known as the theme song of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, "Over There." Of all the stars that Broadway has ever had, he's the only one with a statue on the street, at the northern end of Times Square.

But, contrary to what the song "Yankee Doodle Dandy" says, he was not born on the 4th of July. He was born on July 3, 1878, in Providence. Close enough, he probably thought. He died of cancer on November 5, 1942, at 64, 5 months after the premiere of Yankee Doodle Dandy the film. (Film biographies of classical composers, and of writers of more recent popular songs, were big in the 1930s and '40s.)

The Liberty Theatre still stands, but has been converted into retail space, including a Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum and a Famous Dave's restaurant. With some appropriateness, a Yankees Clubhouse Store is almost right across the street, at 236 West 42nd.

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November 7, 1904 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. Saturday had been standardized as the day for football. And the NBA and the NHL hadn't been founded yet. So there were no scores on this historic day.