Jimmy Cagney — or Does the Way We Fight Make Us Strong or Weak?

Art: The Greatest Opponent of Contempt

In The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known #151, "The Fight," Eli Siegel says that art is:

...the most successful agency of anti-contempt so far, is love of the world or reality, arising from its not being seen just personally or narrowly, but in terms of all space, time, and possibility.

"Space, time and possibility"—Jimmy Cagney did new things to these when he sang and danced. I love Cagney's dancing—in his power and grace, the sturdiness and delicate precision of his movements, he gets to grandeur. Cagney had been in vaudeville in the early days, and felt his training there was a key part of who he was.

Time and again critics noted that Cagney—even in his non-musical roles—moved with grace and elegance, and more than other actors, directors shot him full frame, showing his entire body, because the way he moved said so much about his character. When he played a prizefighter in one film, a critic said Cagney's believ-ability in the ring came from his background in dance; it "made the fight scenes so real. The footwork was flawless." There again—fight with form.

Cagney's singing and dancing as George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy is great. He gives all of himself in that jaunty, beautifully awkward gait which he worked to get to be true to Cohan's style, and the way he talk-sings the songs from his very soul.

I want people everywhere to know the greatest man and beauty that have ever been—Eli Siegel and Aesthetic Realism.

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