Cohan & Friends

With a bankers' convention in town to whet the edge of its skepticism toward the New Deal, tart old Boston reveled last week in the ribbing 59-year-old George M. Cohan gave 55-year-old Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Actor Cohan, prime Down East favorite, was appearing in the tryout run of the George S. Kaufman-Moss Hart satire, I'd Rather Be Right, due on Broadway next month. Mummer Cohan wore a pince-nez, assumed a Groton inflection in opening his fireside chats. Musing on budget-balancing and third terms, he sang a song called Off The Record, confiding "I'm very fond of Eleanor, but I never read her column,'' vouchsafing further, with intervals of hoofing:

" I'm not re-elected

And the worst comes to the worst,

I'll never die of hunger,

I'll never die of thirst;

I've got one boy with du Pont

And another one with Hearst."

"My messages to Congress Are a lot of boola-boola.

I'm not so fond of Bankhead But I'd love to meet Tallulah --But that's off the record!"

In the opening performance Satirist Cohan irked the authors, annoyed Tunesmiths Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart by balking at other verses about Liberty Leaguer Alfred E. Smith and some of his associates, substituting instead some lyrics of his own devising. "I just wouldn't sing them," said Actor Cohan, who is no less famed for his loyalty than for his wide talent, "because they were about personal friends of mine." Actor Cohan's extempore lyrics were not repeated. Co-Author Kaufman pooh-poohed rumors of backstage discord over the incident. Said he smoothly, "Everything is smooth and lovely."

Meantime, canny Producer Sam H. Harris, sensing a Broadway hit, was reported seeking "sentimental insurance" on President Roosevelt's health for the run of the show.

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