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George M. Cohan: My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you.
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[George M. Cohan comes into apartment and smells something cooking]
George M. Cohan: Mmmmm... ham or bacon?
Mary: Bacon.
George M. Cohan: Good. Ham makes me self-conscious.
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George M. Cohan: Thanks, Sam. It'll be great as long as those critics don't start to eat off my leg.
Sam Harris: Oh, don't worry about the critics! You got a smash hit! It's in the air, kid! It's in the air! You can't stop anything that's in the air!
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[first lines]
Critic #1: I call it a hit. What'll your review say?
Critic #2: I like it too, so I guess I'll pan it.
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[a group of soldiers in marching off to fight in World War II, singing Cohan's World War I song, "Over There"]
Sergeant on parade: What's the matter, old timer? Don't you remember this song?
George M. Cohan: Seems to me I do.
Sergeant on parade: Well, I don't hear anything.
[Cohan starts singing along, with tears coming into his eyes]
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George M. Cohan: It seems it always happens. Whenever we get too high-hat and too sophisticated for flag-waving, some thug nation decides we're a push-over all ready to be blackjacked. And it isn't long before we're looking up, mighty anxiously, to be sure the flag's still waving over us.
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Eddie Foy: [Cohan's competitor Eddie Foy is reading a poster advertising Cohan's latest success] "Cohan and Harris present George Washington Jr. starring the author and composer George M. Cohan."
[...]
Eddie Foy: "George M. Cohan and his royal family. Books and lyrics, music and directed by George M. Cohan. Printed by Sam Divensky". That must be Cohan's alias.
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Mary: George, I didn't know you could yodel.
George M. Cohan: Learned it on the farm. Nothing but pig callin' with frost on it.
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Eddie Foy: [Cohan's competitor Eddie Foy is reading a poster advertising Cohan's latest success. Noticing the many times 'George M. Cohan' is printed on the poster] What does the 'M' stand for? Modesty!
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Mary: [George has been wearing a wig to look like an old man]
[Mary screams]
George M. Cohan: [He throws the wig on the floor and stomps on it] Got it!
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George M. Cohan: Being versatile, I played my mother's father.
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George M. Cohan: ..I wouldn't worry about this country, if I were you. We got this thing licked. Where else in the world can a plain guy like me come in and talk things over with the head man?
The President: That's about as good a definition of America that I ever heard.
Yankee Doodle Dandy Quotes
Extended Reading
