Talk:Yankee Doodle Dandy

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The discussion of Cagney and Communism is really lacking. It currently claims that he couldn't've done the film to avoid the blacklist because the McCarthy era didn't begin until the '50s. The Army McCarthy Hearings didn't start until then, true, but the blacklist started with the HUAC hearings and the Hollywood 10 in '47. McCarthy is irrelevant. The article then goes on to say that, yes, Cagney did agree to do the film to dispel any lingering doubts about his patriotism. So the claim is true except for the part about the blacklist. But by starting with the implausibility of the blacklist claim, it makes it sound like the whole story is false. Anyone skimming the article will get the wrong impression.Seantrinityohara (talk) 14:40, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

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I don't understand why anyone thinks it's an "inside joke" when Cagney as Cohan says he played "legitimate theater." "Legitimate theater" was a phrase people in show business in the early and mid twentieth century used to refer to theaters that were not vaudeville or movie houses. For instance, a 9/28/46 Billboard article is headlined "Vaude Short, Legit Long as Parisians Greet New Season." Another on 1/1/49 is titled "Anti-Trust Blast at Legit" and talks about how "the Department of Justice is quietly investigating the legitimate theater industry in the nation." You'll find frequent references to "legit" and "legit houses" in magazines like Billboard and Variety. Cagney isn't making a joke at all, much less an inside one.