My grandfather was a close friend of Cagney's from childhood, they later went to college together. Grandpa was 6 when he came to the States, and Yiddish was the language he spoke at home. No surprises here that Cagney spoke some also, with the proper accent. He had to have known my great grandparents, and spoke to them too. Until now, I never knew or realized that! Very touching video.
My dad was born and raised on the lower Eastside of NY too and was of Irish & German decent. He had a great ear for languages and became quite fluent in Yiddish. He spent his adult life in the entertainment industry and most of his friends and associates were Jewish. I can still remember him correcting many of them when they mispronounced a Yiddish word or misinterpreted a Yiddish expression.
@@juliasharon5337 if he was part German then he prolly heard a grandparent speak it as a kid and had a major advantage. Yiddish is a dialect of German and mutually intelligible with most modern German dialects except for Swiss
Wow that's impressive at the same token my dad who was a Holocaust immigrant spoke only Yiddish, Romanian, some Ukrainian. He opened a store in an Italian and Portuguese part of town and he learned to speak both fluently with his grade 2 Education
Many of Cagney's classmates were Jewish. He said that he picked up Yiddish as he went along. He was an incredible man, actor, dancer, and a truly great American!!!!!
@@BigGuyBoleslaw Yiddish IS a German language. It's based on Medieval High German. The "accent" is more similar to Swiss and Austrian than to standard modern German.
@@Lagolop There a a number of dialects of Yiddish. Polish Yiddish, for example, has incorporated Polish and Russian words. And most every variant of Yiddish has Hebrew words.
@@zzy09azy Yo, ikh veys ;) But still, Yiddish is mainly of Middle High German grammar and words regardless of regional variation. BTW, the variation are not so much in words but in pronunciation. For example the word "good" can be pronounced GUT to GIT depending on geographic location.
My dad was a watch maker and I remember when we went on a day trip to Tijuana, Mex. he didn't speak Spanish, but could converse with other vendors in Yiddish. Those days are long gone.
@@msquaretheoriginal New York then: "Excuse me, mister officer sir, where might I find Ellis Island?" New York now: "Ay yo cuh where can a homie push someone onto the subway tracks the ocky way?"
Director Francis Ford Coppola spent a day at Cagney's New York state home in 1973 showing him the script to The Godfaher part 2. He wanted Cagney to play the part of Jewish mob boss, Hyman Roth in the film. Cagney loved the script and called Coppola an amazing talent, but decided to stay in retirement. Lee Strasberg took the role and garnered an Oscar for it. I think Cagney would have been awesome in the part as well. A shame he didn't take it.
Thing is, Strasberg looked exactly like a NY Jewish mobster, whereas Cagney looked like an Irish wiseguy through and through, irrespective of his perfect Yiddish. Also, it's my understanding nearly the entire Godfather cast took acting lessons from Strasberg
@@dpetrano Strasberg was terrific in the role. I still think Cagney would have been great too. Anthony Hopkins looked hardly like the real Nixon, but I think he pulled it off anyway. Great actors can do amazing things with the right director.
When Cagney was negotiating his contract with the Warner Brothers , they spoke Yiddish to try to lower what they wanted to pay him. He surprised them by also speaking Yiddish.
On my own curiosity, I looked up on Google about James Cagney grew up in Yorkville, which the answer I received was he was born in the Lower East Side & grew up there then grew up in Yorkville as well.
All I can say is that he and grandpa were close friends for many years, and my grandfather never lived in Yorkville. My mother was not a healthy child and was frequently hospitalized. Cagney came to visit her on multiple occasions, and she said the other kids really loved his visits. I never met the man myself, but mom always had wonderful stories about him.
yep, at the end of this clip, the cop says what part of Ireland is your family from. Cagney says Delancey St. In his day, Delancey Street in NY was very mixed, mainly Irish, Italian and European Jewish. He learned it on the streets
Great clips, too bad the full film isn't available any more. George Raft's first screen appearance in the dance contest? Dangerous use of live ammunition in scenes that led Cagney to get such recklessness stopped.
The movie is probably still under Copyright and should not be posted on TH-cam in its entirety for free. Clips like this should entice you to splurge something along the lines of $8.69 - $11.99 to buy a copy of your very own. If you appreciate fine acting, you would be spending an equal amount (or more) to see a movie in an actual theater nowadays...
Yeah as I won't forget that incident Cagney & George Raft got into with eachother on the dance floor. Well it wasn't the only time they got into it as in "Each Dawn I Die" made 7 years later they got into it with eachother again while handcuffed together on a train heading to a state prison.
Cagney also spoke Yiddish in a movie called The Fighting 59th. A Jew asks him about the drill sergeant..."iz duss der balaboos?' (is that the boss?) and Cagney answers "Nisht far mayn gelt". (Not for my money).
Cagney claimed he learned it in Hell's Kitchen, but that was almost entirely Irish (with some Germans mixed in). I think he learned during his years playing vaudeville houses; Yiddish was the lingua franca of the lower rungs of show business.
1:47 I know this is a classic movie, but judging from the way that James Cagney was throwing his punches in this scene, he was definitely WAY ahead of his time. If he was acting in modern times in an alternate universe, he'd fit in perfectly with the action sequences from films made over the past 30 or 40 years.
"You dirty, yellow-bellied rat" (in TAXI), to be precise. Comedians loved to do their Cagney impressions and say "MMMmmm, you dirty rat" but Cagney never uttered those exact words in any of his movies.
Here is a little background on the Yiddish language for anyone who is not very familiar with it and wonders why it resembles German: Yiddish and modern German both descend (both evolving through the years) from Middle High German, the language spoken in the Rhine River area about a thousand years ago. Jews had migrated there and needed to communicate with their neighbors, so they learned the language, but for use among Jews they retained many Semitic (Hebrew and Aramaic) words, today about 15% of modern Yiddish. They had also retained some words from medieval French and other Romance languages. Further migrations into Poland and other Slavic-speaking countries added Slavic words (maybe 5% of modern Yiddish) and even some influence on the grammar. In the last 150 years or so, English and other "international" words have entered Yiddish, but it is still a Germanic language, with 75% or so of the vocab intelligible by German-speakers. Yiddish speakers can usually understand German, but a German-speaker will be unable to understand Yiddish if the sentences include key words of Semitic or Slavic origin. In conclusion, Yiddish is a separate language, not a dialect of German, but related (the way Spanish and Portuguese are related [Romance] languages -- neither is a dialect of the other).
He is trying to get to Ellis Island to pick up his wife and children. That's the best I can do. It has been many years since I have spoken it on a regular basis.
1932. when this film was made millions of people were in their houses, working in the fields, and factories. They had dreams, they loved their families and they wanted to prosper. 13 years later they all had met the most horrendous death. Whole families disappeared forever from the face of this earth. Cities, towns, history, livestock, pets, people. Erased from this earth through immense pain and suffering.
He grew in a neighborhood that was predominantly made up of Russian immigrant Jews. He learned Yiddish from the kids he played with and could speak it fluently. He learned a lot from watching shows from the Yiddish theater.
If you look around the comment I'm making now, you'll see a lot of great comments! Yes, Cagney was wonderful, but after reading your comments, I think all of you are wonderful too!!!!!!
Actually, as a young man, he was a “shabbos goy”. The job was to turn of and on for Jewish people who could not do these things on the sabbath. They could drive or be driven or use the oven. Lots of things that Cagney would be paid for because it was not his religion. That is how he picked up Yiddish.
@@jamieorourke767 Not remotely. It is a variant that derived from Middle High German beginning over a thousand years ago. Written samples of the language go back to the 13th century. Do you consider Plattdeutsch, Oberbayrisch, and the court tongue of Vienna bastardizations? What is that even supposed to mean...
Cagney may our relatives from Ellis Island registration included declancey vst include Doylestown source book directory by D-Town by Declan type of name's
in the start of the talkie films set in large cities, Jewish people were presented as comedic stereotypes due to their agitated nature and their habit of breaking into Hebrew; when a hero treats such a person with regard instead of ridicule, its a short cut method of identifying him/her as square minded and humanitarian. In the 40's on to today, this method of identifying a nice guy has the (Caucasian) hero bonding with Black characters exhibiting stereotypical behavior.
Food lions black water tigers lynx II Gemini man relay is Jewish brown beanie lined nasturtium jaune. Yamica is Yiddish brown with yellow nasturtium italics design for her atheist from Ellis island to Delaney st. It was their abbeyance by obedience that Raul particular womanizing
My grandfather was a close friend of Cagney's from childhood, they later went to college together. Grandpa was 6 when he came to the States, and Yiddish was the language he spoke at home. No surprises here that Cagney spoke some also, with the proper accent. He had to have known my great grandparents, and spoke to them too. Until now, I never knew or realized that! Very touching video.
My dad was born and raised on the lower Eastside of NY too and was of Irish & German decent. He had a great ear for languages and became quite fluent in Yiddish. He spent his adult life in the entertainment industry and most of his friends and associates were Jewish. I can still remember him correcting many of them when they mispronounced a Yiddish word or misinterpreted a Yiddish expression.
that is incredible. all four of my grandparents spoke it and i only know a few words -but my parents of course knew more as they grew up around it
@@juliasharon5337 if he was part German then he prolly heard a grandparent speak it as a kid and had a major advantage. Yiddish is a dialect of German and mutually intelligible with most modern German dialects except for Swiss
Wow that's impressive at the same token my dad who was a Holocaust immigrant spoke only Yiddish, Romanian, some Ukrainian. He opened a store in an Italian and Portuguese part of town and he learned to speak both fluently with his grade 2 Education
👍🎯
Irish and German? Was your dad Tom Hagen? LOL.
Many of Cagney's classmates were Jewish. He said that he picked up Yiddish as he went along. He was an incredible man, actor, dancer, and a truly great American!!!!!
Jay Rosen I think he learned the language too.
I think you need to study a bit to have any chance of learning German. Can't pick it up by walking through Yiddish neighbourhoods.
The deal was that Cagney gave a Jewish friend dance lessons in exchange for Yiddish lessons.
@@SirPeter6464 He grew up in brooklyn. Apparently he was a completely fluent yiddish speaker
i believe it was more from the older people in the building he lived in - the younger kids in school would not really have spoken yiddish
Having been raised on the lower East Side Cagney really was fluent in Yiddish. A remarkable actor with tremendous energy.
My personal favorite!
He grew up in Yorkville, not the lower East Side. He was also fluent in German, but with a Yiddish accent.
He's many people's personal favorites!
@@BigGuyBoleslaw Yiddish IS a German language. It's based on Medieval High German. The "accent" is more similar to Swiss and Austrian than to standard modern German.
@@Lagolop There a a number of dialects of Yiddish. Polish Yiddish, for example, has incorporated Polish and Russian words. And most every variant of Yiddish has Hebrew words.
@@zzy09azy Yo, ikh veys ;) But still, Yiddish is mainly of Middle High German grammar and words regardless of regional variation. BTW, the variation are not so much in words but in pronunciation. For example the word "good" can be pronounced GUT to GIT depending on geographic location.
James Cagney - A real Mensch!
absolutely!!
My dad was a watch maker and I remember when we went on a day trip to Tijuana, Mex. he didn't speak Spanish, but could converse with other vendors in Yiddish. Those days are long gone.
Eh. They have the Sholem Aleichem schools in Mexico. So there are kids there who know it.
It's comforting to know that New York hasn't changed in 90 years.
Very sadly, it has. Greatly.
@@davidh9844 not really. The faces change, the ethnicities change, the attitude remains.
Taxi drivers are still completely nuts
@@davidh9844 Yes, not the same at all. Yes, sad.
@@msquaretheoriginal New York then: "Excuse me, mister officer sir, where might I find Ellis Island?"
New York now: "Ay yo cuh where can a homie push someone onto the subway tracks the ocky way?"
An actor with talent and a past that never left him. Using what he learned before becoming famous.
Director Francis Ford Coppola spent a day at Cagney's New York state home in 1973 showing him the script to The Godfaher part 2. He wanted Cagney to play the part of Jewish mob boss, Hyman Roth in the film. Cagney loved the script and called Coppola an amazing talent, but decided to stay in retirement. Lee Strasberg took the role and garnered an Oscar for it. I think Cagney would have been awesome in the part as well. A shame he didn't take it.
Thing is, Strasberg looked exactly like a NY Jewish mobster, whereas Cagney looked like an Irish wiseguy through and through, irrespective of his perfect Yiddish. Also, it's my understanding nearly the entire Godfather cast took acting lessons from Strasberg
@@dpetrano Strasberg was terrific in the role. I still think Cagney would have been great too. Anthony Hopkins looked hardly like the real Nixon, but I think he pulled it off anyway. Great actors can do amazing things with the right director.
@@speedystriper Imagine Edward G. Robinson as Roth? Unfortunately, he was too old at the time of Godfather.
@@dpetrano Oh man, that would've been mind-blowing!
@@dpetrano Too bad. If Cagney was in it I would have went to see it. Godfather #1 was enough for me.
The greatest of the greats...still no one to compare him to.
Cagney is a wonder man. Thank you
That was great. It kinda shows how we New Yorkers grew up in the Melting Pot.
DAMN what a scene. "Cagney speaking Yiddish" is why I clicked, but I stayed for this excellent solution to a parking problem.
When Stanley Kubrick was asked, "Who is the greatest actor you ever saw?" Kubrick replied, "Cagney."
And Baryshnikov said the same if his dancing.
Orson Welles said the same
Jimi Hendrix said the same about his guitar playing.
Clint Eastwood also said James Cagney was his favorite actor
A good Irish Catholic lad who was smarter than most in his era to appreciate diversity! Always has been my favorite!
Think Jim was as much Norwegian as he was Irish.
Talent wins out over pandering...are you kidding yourself?
@John Doe Norwegian maternal Grandfather
@John Doe Just doesn't make him 100% Irish.
And was always a farmer at heart.
When Cagney was negotiating his contract with the Warner Brothers , they spoke Yiddish to try to lower what they wanted to pay him. He surprised them by also speaking Yiddish.
On my own curiosity, I looked up on Google about James Cagney grew up in Yorkville, which the answer I received was he was born in the Lower East Side & grew up there then grew up in Yorkville as well.
All I can say is that he and grandpa were close friends for many years, and my grandfather never lived in Yorkville. My mother was not a healthy child and was frequently hospitalized. Cagney came to visit her on multiple occasions, and she said the other kids really loved his visits. I never met the man myself, but mom always had wonderful stories about him.
Man, that mick sure could speak the mama loshen!
Thanks for posting!!!
This happens every time I use Uber.
The Yiddish actor is Joe Barton (1878-1937)
Jimmy Cagney actually could speak Yiddish in real life
Yes, apparently he used to speak it to other performers like Sylvia Sidney.
yep, at the end of this clip, the cop says what part of Ireland is your family from. Cagney says Delancey St. In his day, Delancey Street in NY was very mixed, mainly Irish, Italian and European Jewish. He learned it on the streets
James is the best.thank you
There is a short scene in THE FIGHTING 69TH when Cagney speaks Yiddish also.
Wow he’s got a great accent
Love this more and more each time I see it
The actor playing the cop portrayed Cagney's mob boss, Paddy Ryan in The Public Enemy.
And future father in law in "Picture Snatcher"
Great clips, too bad the full film isn't available any more. George Raft's first screen appearance in the dance contest? Dangerous use of live ammunition in scenes that led Cagney to get such recklessness stopped.
The movie is probably still under Copyright and should not be posted on TH-cam in its entirety for free. Clips like this should entice you to splurge something along the lines of $8.69 - $11.99 to buy a copy of your very own. If you appreciate fine acting, you would be spending an equal amount (or more) to see a movie in an actual theater nowadays...
Yeah as I won't forget that incident Cagney & George Raft got into with eachother on the dance floor.
Well it wasn't the only time they got into it as in "Each Dawn I Die" made 7 years later they got into it with eachother again while handcuffed together on a train heading to a state prison.
Actually, it is available (May 2020) on Amazon on DVD and as Prime Video. Go to Amazon and use "taxi 1932" as search terms.
it's available...forgot where I saw it, either amazon, tubi, one of those
@@johnmarengo3988 I found a copy.
Superb actor , dancer and man
Road rage 1.0: it has been around since people started driving.
Yiddish Doodle Dandy.
How about THAT? One of the greats....
You have to love the close-captioning!
Cagney also spoke Yiddish in a movie called The Fighting 59th. A Jew asks him about the drill sergeant..."iz duss der balaboos?' (is that the boss?) and Cagney answers "Nisht far mayn gelt". (Not for my money).
It’s similar to German so I understand a little of it.
Love that accent!
As a native Yiddish speaker for 73 years I’m seconding your opinion:)
Cagney claimed he learned it in Hell's Kitchen, but that was almost entirely Irish (with some Germans mixed in). I think he learned during his years playing vaudeville houses; Yiddish was the lingua franca of the lower rungs of show business.
@Oona Craig Good point.
You only had to work for a Jewish business like Colin Powell. Jimmy was actually as much Norwegian as Irish.
@@charlesstuart7290 Wait, Colin Powell knows Yiddish??
I believe Cagney...
@@steveweinstein3222 yes he did. He worked in a furniture store where everyone spoke it. A true New Yorker.
Many Jewish actors spoke Yiddish with him ,but the Warner Brithers were shocked by his knowledge of Yiddish!
I LOVE IT !!!! He went to Stuyvestant High School, didn't he ?
1:47 I know this is a classic movie, but judging from the way that James Cagney was throwing his punches in this scene, he was definitely WAY ahead of his time. If he was acting in modern times in an alternate universe, he'd fit in perfectly with the action sequences from films made over the past 30 or 40 years.
I believe James Cagney went to old Stuyvesant High School on 15th Street near 1st Avenue. So did I, but much later on!
Did you ever notice that he actually does say "You dirty rat" at 1:43!!!.
He said "you dirty....something" but it didn't sound like "rat".
He has said "dirty double crossing rat" in a movie.
"You dirty, yellow-bellied rat" (in TAXI), to be precise. Comedians loved to do their Cagney impressions and say "MMMmmm, you dirty rat" but Cagney never uttered those exact words in any of his movies.
According to his autobiography he claims he never said that!
@@maryellenquinn5267 He came close to saying it in TAXI, but not verbatim.
1:47
And the thing about this is, James could really do it!
Cagney used to insult Jack Warner in yiddish.
There was a cop there just less than a minute ago when the old man got into the cab.
Where was he when Cagney's cab got blocked in?
Having coffee and donuts.
He's probably the one who called the other drivers to harass him.
My favorite forever!
He was a tough little dude
I did see the whole movie online recently. Forget where.
Here is a little background on the Yiddish language for anyone who is not very familiar with it and wonders why it resembles German: Yiddish and modern German both descend (both evolving through the years) from Middle High German, the language spoken in the Rhine River area about a thousand years ago. Jews had migrated there and needed to communicate with their neighbors, so they learned the language, but for use among Jews they retained many Semitic (Hebrew and Aramaic) words, today about 15% of modern Yiddish. They had also retained some words from medieval French and other Romance languages. Further migrations into Poland and other Slavic-speaking countries added Slavic words (maybe 5% of modern Yiddish) and even some influence on the grammar. In the last 150 years or so, English and other "international" words have entered Yiddish, but it is still a Germanic language, with 75% or so of the vocab intelligible by German-speakers. Yiddish speakers can usually understand German, but a German-speaker will be unable to understand Yiddish if the sentences include key words of Semitic or Slavic origin. In conclusion, Yiddish is a separate language, not a dialect of German, but related (the way Spanish and Portuguese are related [Romance] languages -- neither is a dialect of the other).
Can someone please translate the extensive Yiddish dialogue in this clip? Thanks in advance!
He is trying to get to Ellis Island to pick up his wife and children. That's the best I can do. It has been many years since I have spoken it on a regular basis.
So THEN what happened? Did he ever get his cab out on the road? Did he take that man where he wanted to go?
1932. when this film was made millions of people were in their houses, working in the fields, and factories. They had dreams, they loved their families and they wanted to prosper. 13 years later they all had met the most horrendous death. Whole families disappeared forever from the face of this earth. Cities, towns, history, livestock, pets, people. Erased from this earth through immense pain and suffering.
JosE eDuardo , I was thinking the same thing.
Downer
BLM are the new Brownshirts
Does anyone know where I can find the full movie?? Thank you, toda
Now a days if two cars bumped like that it would be 2-3 grand in damage.
He says "You dirty fink"
WSweetpea He actually say "you dirty rat." Two times in this movie.
I am trying to find this on warner archive but without success? I am in the UK maybe that is the problem?
man he was great rip🚓🇺🇸
He really was the best.
Very Nice
Perhaps Mary Nolan on Maureen is calling cards names
Great!!
He grew in a neighborhood that was predominantly made up of Russian immigrant Jews. He learned Yiddish from the kids he played with and could speak it fluently.
He learned a lot from watching shows from the Yiddish theater.
О, так это Джеймс Кэгни.
We should have Yiddish as a high school language choice. More likely to use it here with a fellow American citizen than French.
Our delancey St family reference Philadelphia independence Hall
It would have been nice to have subtitles put on this. Just saying.
Berosus books with berosis books are ledged by st Eusebius station at shrine for Vatican guard's decisions domestic policy
Fulton Mackay !
How do you say , in Yiddish :
“ Don’t talk to us about stealing land , you stole yours from the Native Americans “
Maureen is Mary Maureen Nolan. They said these Days
"Valenti's???"
😁面白い❗😄
Officers admittance by nunciature I was speaking Yiddish by carriages carryover
If you look around the comment I'm making now, you'll see a lot of great comments! Yes, Cagney was wonderful, but after reading your comments, I think all of you are wonderful too!!!!!!
Cagney it says ellis island by kinder books dilemmas return foiblies
Actually, as a young man, he was a “shabbos goy”. The job was to turn of and on for Jewish people who could not do these things on the sabbath. They could drive or be driven or use the oven. Lots of things that Cagney would be paid for because it was not his religion.
That is how he picked up Yiddish.
Jit got finna clapped
Ha ha ha!
Fun Fact: Did you know that the language Yiddish, what James is fluent in and speaking, it's actually sounds similar to German.
Yiddish is a Germanic language.
@Daniel Baird Yep!
@Daniel Baird It's actually a variation of the Hebrew alphabet.
That’s why I could understand some of it, since I understand a little German.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Yiddish a mix of German, Russian and Hebrew?
vas ken ikh zagn? di velt darf mer eydish! :)
BASTARDIZATION OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE?
@@jamieorourke767 Not remotely. It is a variant that derived from Middle High German beginning over a thousand years ago. Written samples of the language go back to the 13th century. Do you consider Plattdeutsch, Oberbayrisch, and the court tongue of Vienna bastardizations? What is that even supposed to mean...
@@jamieorourke767 So you're speaking a bastardization of Old English with all those Frenchy words you use.
Cagney may our relatives from Ellis Island registration included declancey vst include Doylestown source book directory by D-Town by Declan type of name's
Officer Nolan relay Maureen does know you by conte naste Traveller Dublin and Belfast
Finally found this clip but it's ruined by a bunch of link bubbles popping up and covering the video. BOOOOO!!!!
Doos is Manish gevaldig
Mamesh...
😉👌
Jesus l hope ur lrish😊
Audrey Dempsey Yes, he got both Irish and Norwegian ancestry in him. If you look it up, then it should say that. :)
in the start of the talkie films set in large cities, Jewish people were presented as comedic stereotypes due to their agitated nature and their habit of breaking into Hebrew; when a hero treats such a person with regard instead of ridicule, its a short cut method of identifying him/her as square minded and humanitarian. In the 40's on to today, this method of identifying a nice guy has the (Caucasian) hero bonding with Black characters exhibiting stereotypical behavior.
Breaking into HEBREW? You mean Yiddish
ער האָט זײער גיך גערעדט! כ'האָב ניט גאָרניטש פארשטאנען.
Food lions black water tigers lynx II Gemini man relay is Jewish brown beanie lined nasturtium jaune. Yamica is Yiddish brown with yellow nasturtium italics design for her atheist from Ellis island to Delaney st. It was their abbeyance by obedience that Raul particular womanizing