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The Four Cohans was a late 19th-century
The Four Cohans was a late 19th-century vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
family act that introduced 20th-century Broadway legend George M. Cohan to show business. It consisted of father Jeremiah "Jere" Cohan (1848–1917), mother Helen "Nellie" Costigan Cohan (1854–1928), daughter Josephine "Josie" Cohan Niblo (1876–1916), and son George M. Cohan (1878–1942).
By the late 1890s, when the team had become a successful and well-established act in the vaudeville circuits across the country, George Cohan started giving his famous curtain-call speech: " dies and gentlemen, my father thanks you, my mother thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you".
The act disbanded in 1900 when George left vaudeville for Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
.
Josie, who died of heart disease at a young age, was married to Fred Niblo Sr. (1874–1948), an important director of silent films
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
, including '' Ben Hur'' (1925), and a founder of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...
. Their son, Fred Niblo Jr. (1903–1973) was an Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
-nominated screenwriter.
The Four Cohans were reunited after George's death in 1942 at the family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York.
References
{{reflist Vaudeville performers Cohan family