Thursday, July 17, 2008

Celebrating James Cagney

EV Grieve favorite James Cagney was born on this date in 1899. According to Wikipedia (oh, c'mon): Cagney was born on the Lower East Side . . . above his father's saloon on the corner of Avenue D and 8th Street to James Cagney Sr., an Irish American bartender and amateur boxer, and Carolyn Nelson; his maternal grandfather was a Norwegian ship captain while his maternal grandmother was an Irish American. The family moved twice when Cagney was still young, first to East 79th Street, and then to East 96 Street.

Cagney and Jean Harlow in The Public Enemy (1931)

2 comments:

Jill said...

There has been this persisting rumour (fueled by my husband) that James Cagney was born or lived in our building on 12th St. Thank you for clearing this up, now he can stop.

Anonymous said...

He'll just have to come up with another actor...How about Gary Cooper?