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Episode

Hix Nix Stix Pix : Yankee Doodle Dandy

Mike O'Meara, Robb Spewak, Josh Sroka

September 25, 2025 · 51 min

This week on Hix Nix Stix Pix, Robb brings a true slice of Americana to the table with the classic Yankee Doodle Dandy. George M. Cohan struts, sings, and taps his way through history, while Josh gets his very first taste of…

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This week on Hix Nix Stix Pix, Robb brings a true slice of Americana to the table with the classic Yankee Doodle Dandy. George M. Cohan struts, sings, and taps his way through history, while Josh gets his very first taste of this patriotic showstopper. Expect fireworks, flag-waving, and maybe even a little eye-rolling as we dive into whether this old-school musical still hits the right notes today.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Mera, Radio Entertainment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hicks, Nicks, sticks, picks.

[SPEAKER_00]: A podcast about Rob's movies with your hosts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rob's UAC and Josh Sroka.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now, ladies and gentlemen, let the show begin.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, fake Billy Big Voice AI guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, I announce her works.

[SPEAKER_01]: You like him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's back.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're back.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is episode two of your new favorite podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think everybody really likes it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's called Hicks Nick sticks picks.

[SPEAKER_01]: We actually had a few more downloads for episode one than we expected.

[SPEAKER_01]: So thank you everybody that really shocked and surprised and delighted me.

[SPEAKER_02]: And especially those of you outside of the micro-marish show.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like the people in Great Britain?

[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like, if you enjoy this, also check out the micro-marish show.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do, please, watch every day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it's a good stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: But thank you.

[SPEAKER_02]: And thank you for head on an over two Apple podcasts.

[SPEAKER_02]: I already saw some reviews coming over there.

[SPEAKER_02]: So give us five stars and give us a little review and share this show and subscribe to this show separately than the micro-marish show.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the like button if you catch us on YouTube.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like share everywhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: The reviews that are over there.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I go see them, will they make me sad or will they make me happy?

[SPEAKER_02]: Um They will make you happy.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: Good five star here's five stars love it great show can't wait for the next episode

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sign Josh Sproka.

[SPEAKER_02]: FH Orlando or F Orlando.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no idea.

[SPEAKER_01]: But thank you, F Orlando.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we need more F Orlando's.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, we do.

[SPEAKER_01]: And speaking of YouTube, there was a little bit of discord and the fact that we tried to be the world's first black and white podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: And people were dissatisfied with the monochromatic presentation.

[SPEAKER_02]: we don't have to do black and white.

[SPEAKER_02]: But we want to do black and white.

[SPEAKER_01]: We really do.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, well, I don't know that Josh does.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think Josh likes because it's like, it shows off what we can do.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to do it because I love black and white.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think you have maybe, yeah, that or if we really want to stick it to these people that don't like black and white, we stop using Apple podcasts and we will mail you a cassette tapey tweak.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was thinking a super eight real of movie an actual film and if black and white is good then we could be not just the first black and white podcast as a salute to the founding fathers of Hollywood the first silent podcast will just run a music bed in the background and you and I can a mode what we'll about the for the captions on of course we'll show that you understand what we're moving.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that the moving on, the compromises, we'll try this, that black and white movies when we cover them on the show, we will do the podcast and black and white.

[SPEAKER_01]: Color movies, for example, last week we did return to Oz, we could have done that in color because it's a color movie.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that will be our method moving forward thus preserving the black and white.

[SPEAKER_02]: So it's why we are still black and white.

[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Today we are indeed black and white.

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I just want to say thank you to everyone who checked out the show last week.

[SPEAKER_01]: I hope you bring along a friend this time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now this week's movie, before I tell you and announce what it is, although we already told you, um, I don't know if you know this Josh, but back in the 1930s and 40s, the motion picture studios and Hollywood, they all made all kinds of movies, but they all had sort of a reputation where they shined.

[SPEAKER_01]: For example, MGM was sort of the top of the pops that was the big money they had Clark Gable they had all the stars their motto was more stars than there are in the heavens.

[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Mera, Radio Entertainment. [SPEAKER_00]: Hicks, Nicks, sticks, picks. [SPEAKER_00]: A podcast about Rob's movies with your hosts. [SPEAKER_00]: Rob's UAC and Josh Sroka. [SPEAKER_00]: And now, ladies and gentlemen, let the show begin. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, fake Billy Big Voice AI guy. [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, I announce her works. [SPEAKER_01]: You like him. [SPEAKER_01]: He's back. [SPEAKER_01]: We're back. [SPEAKER_01]: This is episode two of your new favorite podcast. [SPEAKER_01]: I think everybody really likes it. [SPEAKER_01]: It's called Hicks Nick sticks picks. [SPEAKER_01]: We actually had a few more downloads for episode one than we expected. [SPEAKER_01]: So thank you everybody that really shocked and surprised and delighted me. [SPEAKER_02]: And especially those of you outside of the micro-marish show. [SPEAKER_02]: Like the people in Great Britain? [SPEAKER_02]: Exactly. [SPEAKER_02]: Like, if you enjoy this, also check out the micro-marish show. [SPEAKER_02]: Do, please, watch every day. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it's a good stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: But thank you. [SPEAKER_02]: And thank you for head on an over two Apple podcasts. [SPEAKER_02]: I already saw some reviews coming over there. [SPEAKER_02]: So give us five stars and give us a little review and share this show and subscribe to this show separately than the micro-marish show. [SPEAKER_01]: And the like button if you catch us on YouTube. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like share everywhere. [SPEAKER_01]: The reviews that are over there. [SPEAKER_01]: If I go see them, will they make me sad or will they make me happy? [SPEAKER_02]: Um They will make you happy. [SPEAKER_02]: We're okay. [SPEAKER_02]: Good five star here's five stars love it great show can't wait for the next episode [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, cool. [SPEAKER_01]: Sign Josh Sproka. [SPEAKER_02]: FH Orlando or F Orlando. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no idea. [SPEAKER_01]: But thank you, F Orlando. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_02]: And we need more F Orlando's. [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, we do. [SPEAKER_01]: And speaking of YouTube, there was a little bit of discord and the fact that we tried to be the world's first black and white podcast. [SPEAKER_01]: And people were dissatisfied with the monochromatic presentation. [SPEAKER_02]: we don't have to do black and white. [SPEAKER_02]: But we want to do black and white. [SPEAKER_01]: We really do. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, well, I don't know that Josh does. [SPEAKER_01]: I think Josh likes because it's like, it shows off what we can do. [SPEAKER_01]: I want to do it because I love black and white. [SPEAKER_02]: I think you have maybe, yeah, that or if we really want to stick it to these people that don't like black and white, we stop using Apple podcasts and we will mail you a cassette tapey tweak. [SPEAKER_01]: I was thinking a super eight real of movie an actual film and if black and white is good then we could be not just the first black and white podcast as a salute to the founding fathers of Hollywood the first silent podcast will just run a music bed in the background and you and I can a mode what we'll about the for the captions on of course we'll show that you understand what we're moving. [SPEAKER_01]: So I think that the moving on, the compromises, we'll try this, that black and white movies when we cover them on the show, we will do the podcast and black and white. [SPEAKER_01]: Color movies, for example, last week we did return to Oz, we could have done that in color because it's a color movie. [SPEAKER_01]: So that will be our method moving forward thus preserving the black and white. [SPEAKER_02]: So it's why we are still black and white. [SPEAKER_01]: Exactly. [SPEAKER_01]: Today we are indeed black and white. [SPEAKER_01]: And again, I just want to say thank you to everyone who checked out the show last week. [SPEAKER_01]: I hope you bring along a friend this time. [SPEAKER_01]: Now this week's movie, before I tell you and announce what it is, although we already told you, um, I don't know if you know this Josh, but back in the 1930s and 40s, the motion picture studios and Hollywood, they all made all kinds of movies, but they all had sort of a reputation where they shined. [SPEAKER_01]: For example, MGM was sort of the top of the pops that was the big money they had Clark Gable they had all the stars their motto was more stars than there are in the heavens. [SPEAKER_01]: So if you saw a big budget movie with a lot of really, really famous people in it, likely it was MGM. [SPEAKER_01]: On the other side of the scale there was monogram pictures ultra low budget you got a lot of cereals like Charlie Chan and low budget stuff that were great for fill in double [SPEAKER_01]: uh... under the tutelage of a harry cone had uh... frank capra who was a great director for sort of more cozy uh... homespun type uh... classic films they also had the three stewardes it was a big money maker for them over Columbia paramount was known for comedy paramount had the marksbrothers and many other classic comedy acts universal monsters [SPEAKER_01]: Frankenstein and draping somewhere will that they were all that but Warner Brothers had the corner on gangster pictures that was their deal going back into like really when sound first began the really you know like pretty hard to make out a soundtrack with all the static and stuff they were making gangster pictures in the late 20s to 19th century. [SPEAKER_02]: It makes sense that each studio would have their specialty because they beg the employees around that know how to do that. [SPEAKER_01]: They got good at it. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so before Yankee Doodle Dandy, that's our movie today. [SPEAKER_01]: Before it came out, and by the way, it is a Warner Brothers film. [SPEAKER_01]: So we start with the Warner Brothers fanfare, which always makes me happy. [SPEAKER_01]: They had Jimmy Cagney, James Cagney, under contract, along with a lot of other great gangster players, but he was known as a gangster actor. [SPEAKER_01]: He was a tough guy. [SPEAKER_01]: He had made one musical prior to this. [SPEAKER_01]: He would do another one or two after it, but for the guy that was known for shooting people and robbing banks and pushing a grapefruit and make Clark's face. [SPEAKER_01]: He loved to do musicals. [SPEAKER_01]: He'd like to be a song and danceman. [SPEAKER_01]: Yankee Dulldandy was his favorite movie that he made for his entire career. [SPEAKER_01]: And he got to one best actor for it. [SPEAKER_01]: And that maybe has something to do with it. [SPEAKER_01]: But it was sort of a little bit out of left field to have this come out with a guy that was known for gangster pictures to be the star. [SPEAKER_01]: And it almost didn't happen because Jack Warner, one of the Warner Brothers, [SPEAKER_01]: Hated James Cagney. [SPEAKER_01]: He made him a lot of money, but he hated him. [SPEAKER_01]: His nickname for him back then and Hollywood was, and he called this, and Jimmy Cagney was represented, his agent was his brother, William Cagney, and so they would, you know, sort of team up against the studios, and Jack Warner called him a professional against her. [SPEAKER_01]: He said no matter what I suggest, he's against it. [SPEAKER_01]: And so he did not work well, [SPEAKER_01]: with the studio as far as that goes, but come 1941 when they're making this movie. [SPEAKER_01]: James Cagney realized he had sort of a bad reputation, not just with Jack Warner, but with the world in general, because he was really politically active in the 30s. [SPEAKER_01]: He loved, loved, loved, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the New Deal. [SPEAKER_01]: And so he was very, very outspoken and defending it, and it put some people off, because I think then, as now, people don't necessarily want to see performers and actors speaking out on politics. [SPEAKER_01]: So their idea was this. [SPEAKER_01]: William Cagney said, we need to make [SPEAKER_01]: the biggest flag waving, I love America movie ever and put you in it and that will save your reputation as an American. [SPEAKER_01]: They were able to sell that to Jack Warner. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, it's all, you can feel that in the movie. [SPEAKER_01]: You really can, it's over the top, flag waving stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. [SPEAKER_01]: And so that was the method to get it made. [SPEAKER_01]: Now one thing you talk about sometimes movies. [SPEAKER_02]: So it's an ego project. [SPEAKER_01]: Kind of, yeah, but that's how it began, but even though America in 1941 was seeing the world war happen overseas, we weren't yet involved. [SPEAKER_01]: This movie began production and began filming before Pearl Harbor was bombed. [SPEAKER_01]: Now when you talk about... [SPEAKER_01]: right place, right time. [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people cite the the Tiger King coming out right at the beginning of COVID as being a perfect release time. [SPEAKER_01]: Right. [SPEAKER_01]: Because everyone watched it. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, by the time this movie came out, the boys were actually heading overseas and we needed as a country to sort of fuel our patriotism or we craved it. [SPEAKER_01]: Whatever it was, it was a massive hit. [SPEAKER_01]: for Warner Bros. [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think that it would have been as big a hit if it hadn't been released at that time. [SPEAKER_01]: The news was sort of developing. [SPEAKER_01]: So I know the name Epstein is not real popular right now, but Philip and Julius Epstein were known as script doctors back then. [SPEAKER_01]: And as the war sort of progressed during production, there were rewrites every day. [SPEAKER_01]: building up to the end of the soldiers in World War II. [SPEAKER_01]: So that's, it has a backstory and it fits very well into sort of the history of the United States in this century. [SPEAKER_01]: I see that. [SPEAKER_01]: It opens up, this is the story of George M. Cohen, probably the go ahead. [SPEAKER_02]: Well, now as you tell the story of George M. Cohen, I will tell you, I have a hand. [SPEAKER_02]: It's not Kohan, I hate George M. Kohan. [SPEAKER_02]: He has a dick, right? [SPEAKER_02]: He is the biggest, dicksy and tire movie. [SPEAKER_02]: He's cocky to the point that, he's dad's deathbed, it's still all about him. [SPEAKER_02]: I know. [SPEAKER_02]: I know, it's about him. [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that reflects the real co-hand, although, [SPEAKER_01]: They apparently softened him up and made him more likable. [SPEAKER_01]: But he is an absolute jerk face in this movie. [SPEAKER_02]: And it was on a, I bought it, rendered it from Apple. [SPEAKER_02]: So it was like 399. [SPEAKER_02]: And it lives listed as a biography. [SPEAKER_02]: It's which may me say, wait, so George Cohen is. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, man. [SPEAKER_01]: Am I saying the name wrong? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's co-han, AJ and Cohen, Ian is, that's actually a joke in the movie where they assume it's subtle. [SPEAKER_01]: They assume he's Jewish. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I wrote that. [SPEAKER_01]: Because he's a joke is, and they call it's co-han. [SPEAKER_02]: Got it. [SPEAKER_02]: But it is vaguely a biography. [SPEAKER_02]: Well, to the point that he was involved in the first script right in. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, about himself, but he didn't throw in things like he got married twice not once and his second wife wasn't even named Mary, which is why he said he wrote this song, Mary, for a girl named Agnes. [SPEAKER_02]: This, this, well his middle, her middle name was Mary. [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. [SPEAKER_02]: It was Agnes Mary, but still her name is Agnes. [SPEAKER_02]: Agnes would not be a good song. [SPEAKER_02]: We all know that. [SPEAKER_01]: It does not work. [SPEAKER_02]: My mom was named Angus, so she named me Angus, of course, that doesn't work. [SPEAKER_02]: But he's a Dick's entire movie. [SPEAKER_02]: He wrote a li

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