Yankee Doodle - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

• President John F. Kennedy, from Massachusetts, bought a pony for his little daughter Caroline while he was in the White House. The family named the pony "Macaroni", after the pony in Yankee Doodle.
• The Voice of America begins and ends all broadcasts with the interval signal of "Yankee Doodle."
• The song featured in a famous sequence in the 1942 James Cagney film, Yankee Doodle Dandy.
• The title of the song has also been parodied in the Looney Tunes Cartoon Yankee Doodle Daffy.
• At the conclusion of the 1981 Wimbledon Championships, in which American tennis star John McEnroe had defeated his long-time rival Björn Borg, TV commentator Bud Collins took note of the July 4th holiday and also McEnroe's red-white-and-blue attire, and quipped "Stick a feather in his cap and call him 'McEnroe-ni'!"
• The song featured in the 1963 film, The Great Escape. The scene also references the painting Spirit of '76 (Yankee Doodle) by Archibald Willard.
• The 1965 children's cartoon Roger Ramjet adopts Yankee Doodle as its theme song: "Roger Ramjet and his Eagles/Fighting for our freedom/Fly through in and outer space/Not to join 'em, but to beat 'em/Roger Ramjet, he's our man/Hero of our nation/For his adventures, just be sure/and stay tuned to this station". Ramjet's four child sidekicks, the "American Eagle Squadron", are named Yank, Doodle, Dan and Dee.