‘You’re a Grand Old Flag’: Flag Day and the Army’s Birthday

Today, June 14, is a double holiday for Americans: Flag Day and the US Army’s Birthday. It’s a day to celebrate all that has been bravest and best in the history of this great country, and to fly the US flag proudly, as it waved so proudly before at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, Fort McHenry, Ft. Sumter, Gettysburg, Iwo Jima, and countless houses and battlefields—even on the moon.

George M. Cohan has been largely forgotten now, but he was one of the most successful lyricists of the 20th century. Uniquely, he not only wrote his own music and plays, he starred in the plays, singing and dancing. Cohan penned such popular tunes as “Over There,” “Mary’s a Grand Old Name,” “Give My Regards to Broadway,” and the especially famous “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

And, of course, he wrote the hugely popular “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” a line he got from a Civil War veteran who had carefully and lovingly preserved a battered old flag. Later, actor James Cagney played Cohan in a 1942 movie, giving an iconic performance of Cohan’s tribute to America’s flag.