Episode Description
"My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you."
Dr. Vaughn Joy joins us on the show to talk about the musical biopic that won James Cagney his Academy Award, the patriotic propaganda piece Yankee Doodle Dandy. We talk George M. Cohan's cultural significance, the film's seemingly waning place in the consensus cinematic canon, and how the film laid the groundwork for the type of Hollywood pro-American propaganda films of the Cold War (the subject of Dr. Joy's new book, Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy).
Buy Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy here, or wherever you buy your books.
Follow the Show:
Music by Mike Natale