An Indelible Sense of Loss With Cagney’s Death

My own best recollection of Jimmy Cagney was while he was being interviewed on TV some years back and was relating a very brief, open-and-close, engagement as a “hoofer” in his early years.

Why was it so brief?, he was asked. “No good!” he answered. “What?” asked the interviewer, not understanding. “No good!” again the reply. Still not comprehending, the interviewer was knitting up his brow. Cagney then said, “We were no good!”.

To me this exchange spoke volumes about the man and the world we all live in. He was a true “celebrity,” a true “personality,” who was honest and direct in a world (and industry) that simply doesn’t quite comprehend those attributes (as he himself well knew). And, oh yes, he was anything but “no good.”

GEORGE T. CRAIG

Los Angeles