Trivia / Yankee Doodle Dandy

• Approval of God: Cohan, aged and ailing when the film was made, acted as consultant for a time, and approved highly of James Cagney's portrayal of himself. After a private screening of the completed film just before his death, he was heard commenting "What an act to follow".
• Creative Differences: Second unit director Seymour Felix was removed from the production because he didn't get on with Michael Curtiz. He was replaced by LeRoy Prinz.
• Dawson Casting: James Cagney was eleven years older than his screen mother Rosemary DeCamp.
• Hostility on the Set: James Cagney hated working with character actor S. Z. Sakall, whom he felt upstaged him at every turn. He complained to Michael Curtiz about him but Curtiz took no action, as he had great respect for Sakall, who was once Hungary's leading actor. Cagney refused to work with Sakall again.
• Playing Against Type: James Cagney's performance in this can be a revelation for those who only know him for his roles as gangsters and other tough guys (amusingly, Cagney got his start as a song-and-dance man).
• Real-Life Relative: Jeanne Cagney, who plays George M. Cohan's sister Josie, was James Cagney's sister.
• Role Reprise: Cagney later played Cohan in a cameo in the 1955 Bob Hope film The Seven Little Foys.
• Throw It In!: Walking down the stairs at the White House, James Cagney goes into a tap dance. That was completely ad-libbed.
• Underage Casting: Joan Leslie portrays Mary Cohan, aging from 18 to 57 throughout proceedings. Leslie turned 17 during the production of the film. The fact that she was still attending school during production caused numerous delays.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Fred Astaire was first offered the leading role but turned it down.
  • Joan Crawford turned down the role of Mary Cohan.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: The film began production without a completed script and was continually requiring rewrites.

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