On July 3, 1878, legendary showman, composer, and playwright George M. Cohan was born in Providence, Rhode Island. Cohan went on to shape the fabric of early American musical theater, writing over 300 songs including immortal, flag-waving standards like Over There and You’re a Grand Old Flag.
The fascinating layer here is that Cohan spent his entire life aggressively lying about his own birthday, insisting to the public that he was born on the Fourth of July to match his famous lyric, I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy, born on the Fourth of July. His birth certificate eventually exposed the July 3rd reality, but Cohan’s lifelong marketing campaign was so incredibly successful that it permanently bonded his legacy to Independence Day anyway.
Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.
