The Night I Discovered James Cagney

One spring night in 1974 the AFI saluted James Cagney and I became an instant fan.

On a spring evening in 1974 the American Film Institute broadcast their 2nd annual Lifetime Achievement award show on CBS television to an audience of nearly fifty million viewers. The honoree was James Cagney. The inaugural award the previous year had gone to director John Ford but the powers that be had wisely chosen Cagney as the first actor to be so honored.

Fortunately for me my father decided to watch the program (of course in 1974 he had only two other channels to choose between). I stayed up past my bedtime, surreptitiously watching, my eyes riveted to the black and white set. I was a few weeks away from my seventh birthday but I retain vivid memories of the show. It not only made me an instant fan of Jimmy Cagney’s, it also sparked a lifelong interest in classic Hollywood movies. For that I am grateful.

The show was hosted by Frank Sinatra. He told a story about how he and his brothers used to play a trick on their mom after seeing Cagney as Tom Powers in Public Enemy. At the end of the movie Tom’s body is wrapped up like a mummy and delivered to his mother’s house. When the door is opened Tom is pushed forward and falls dead on the floor. Sinatra and his brothers liked to reenact this scene for their mother’s benefit. This story got quite a laugh.

The program was punctuated with many classic Cagney movie clips. Scenes from Angels with Dirty Faces, The Roaring Twenties, Yankee Doodle Dandy, White Heat and many others sparked my eager imagination. Here was a tough guy who could also sing and dance. He wasn't your typical movie star in the looks department but he strutted across the screen like a rooster in a concrete barnyard. I was intrigued by Cagney’s celluloid world.

The list of stars in attendance was quite impressive. Charlton Heston and Governor Ronald Reagan each spoke briefly. Comic impersonator Frank Gorshin did a song and dance tribute with Kirk Douglas and George Segal. Former Cagney screen flames including Doris Day, Joan Blondell and Mae Clarke of the famous grapefruit-in-the-kisser scene were on hand, as was Cagney’s wife of more than fifty years. Other heavyweights at the banquet were John Wayne, Bob Hope, Cicely Tyson, George C. Scott, Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon.

At the end of the show the man himself took the stage for a few words. He graciously thanked everyone involved and then read a poem about art by the English poet laureate John Masefield. He also mentioned in passing: “I never said , ‘Mmm, you dirty rat!’ What I actually did say was, ‘Judy, Judy, Judy.’”

He also said, “And about the award, I’m very grateful for it. But why don’t we say for now that I’m merely the custodian, holding it for all those wonderful guys and gals who worked over the years to bring about this night for me? I really mean it. I’m thanking you for them and for me.”

And I’m thanking James Cagney for awakening my six-year-old imagination so many years ago and for providing such a magical body of work for all of us to enjoy for all time.