Only that even at 90 Doris Day is still the nations sweetheart and even though she retired in 1973 new generations of people are taking her to their hearts everyday with her endless list of classic music and her fabulous array of movies.
She has worked with some of Hollywood's biggest leading men, Grant, Hudson, Sinatra, Gable. Known as the sweet girl next door with stunning wholesome features and a full rich voice. Perfect for romantic comedies and musicals, she then gave the world the sex comedy and developed a whole new audience.
As a tribute to Doris Day on being 90 years young I am taking a quick look back at her career, and what a career it was.
Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff was going to be a great dancer, that was until a terrible car accident left her leg broken in many places and unable to walk for months. This put an end to her dancing career, it was whilst lying in bed she began singing along with the radio. Her mother recognised her talent and got her daughter voice lessons, Doris began working with local bands and it was then that one of her band leaders hit on the surname Day after a song she had sang. Due to her tremendous talent and the hit record Sentimental Journey it wasn't long before Hollywood came calling. She was signed to Warner Brothers and was making her first film Romance on the High Seas (1948) directed by Michael Curtiz. It was a smash and so was Doris, romantic comedy, showing off her musical talent was a product that sold and Warners wasted no time getting Doris on the screen again. She really made a name for herself with 2 such films with Gordon MacRae; On Moonlight Bay (1951) and its sequel By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953) in which she played the tom-boy Marjorie Winfield who learns to become a proper feminine young lady when she falls for the boy across the street.
The same year Doris made one of her favourite films and a musical that remains a classic to this day, the film was Calamity Jane (1953). In it she plays the gun-toting titular character again a tom-boy with rough edges and rougher tongue. In love with Lieutenant Danny Gilmartin who unfortunately has eyes for the new singer who Calamity has brought personally into town (but who as it happens isn't a singer at all but the singers maid). Doris was put opposite leading musical man Howard Keel as Wild Bill Hickok who is a thorn in Calamity's side. Filled with memorable songs and an upbeat comedic performance from Day this film couldn't fail. In the next few years she made a number of films that secured her success as the typical 50's woman. Young at Heart (1954) with crooner Frank Sinatra and Love Me or Leave Me (1955) with the great James Cagney which showed off Doris' great dramatic ability. It was this film that got her the role with the greatest director of the decade Alfred Hitchcock, in 1956 he was remaking his earlier success The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) Day was cast opposite James Stewart and proved to audiences she had more than a great voice. Although the song in the movie Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be) did win the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year, made number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and became her signature song (it was used as the theme on her television show which ran from 1968-1973).
In 1959 after a string of successful films including The Pajama Game (1957), Teachers Pet (1958) with ageing King of Hollywood Clark Gable, and It Happened to Jane (1959) with Jack Lemmon Doris Day entered into a film which turned her wholesome image upside. In Pillow Talk she plays Jan Morrow a frustrated single designer sharing a party line with a playboy musician (Rock Hudson). She loathes him, he despises her but after seeing how pretty she is at a club he decides to romance her by disguising his voice and using a fake name. The script was smart up-to-date (for the time) and full of double meanings, and the audiences loved it. It proved also to be a winning partnership for Day, the chemistry between her and Rock Hudson was magnetic and they repeated the success of Pillow Talk twice more with Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964). All the films followed a similar pattern, but audiences loved to see Day and Hudson bicker and fight, (nobody got angry better than Doris Day) then realise they had fallen in love.Doris Day as hard as it may seem to believe introduced the sex comedy, and not only that, she was extremely good in them. She completed Please don't Eat The Daisies (1960) with David Niven and That Touch of Mink (1962) with Cary Grant, both cementing Doris as one of the most successful actresses working in Hollywood during that decade. She was fast becoming an advocate for modern women, the housewife who decided she didn't need to choose the career or the family, she could do both. Day thoroughly enforced this in her 60's pictures. She was a woman that was looked upon as an ideal partner for men and a symbol of change for women around the world. Doris found another partner in crime in hunky actor James Garner they made The Thrill of it All (1963) and Move Over Darling (1963) in the same year, like Hudson the pair had great chemistry in fact I think even better than Day and Hudson and again they have remained firm friends ever since (a credit to her character - Doris has remained friends with many of her leading men and co-stars throughout the years). In both films Doris goes toe to toe with Garner with hilarious results, and like every Doris Day film it all works out well in the end.
As the 60's came to an end so did an era, times had been changing throughout the decade, the wholesome, content, family friendly ideal that Doris Day represented had gone and the baby boomer's were leading the country and ruling the cinema. Doris made flimsy comedies like Do Not Disturb (1965) and The Glass Bottom Boat (1966) but audience interest was evaporating. They were looking elsewhere for their entertainment, violence and realism being the thrill of the day. Doris did not like the scripts she was being sent, Hollywood was changing and she refused to change along with it. She made her last film With Six You Get Eggroll (1968) with Brian Keith and left Hollywood.
Doris Day had been working constantly for 20 years, she thought (and rightly so) that she has a lovely nest egg, in which she could retire and spend time doing things dear to her heart. Unfortunately her third husband Marty Melcher who also managed her career and finances died and she learned that he had trusted the wrong man with her money; it was all gone and she owed millions in debts. She was in talks to star in her own television show which she did in 1968 it ran successfully for 5 years. It brought her thousands of new fans and also paid the lawyers bills as she was fighting to get her stolen money back. She won her fight in 1973 and received a portion of her earnings back.
It has been 41 years since Doris Day was last seen on screen in a movie or television show, but she has never, not for a minute been forgotten. It is amazing that she is as popular today as she was when she gracefully exited in 1973. She is greatly loved by audiences all over the world and her songs pop up everywhere. She is one talented lady and it is for this reason and also being one of the kindest, happiest people in films and the industry that has created such an astounding fan base.
Every film mentioned above shows just how funny, graceful and extremely talented Doris Day was and how fortunate we are to have had the privilege of seeing her films and listen to her music. For more information on Doris you could watch the documentary that was made about her life and career in 1991: Doris Day: A Sentimental Journey it is well worth a watch, packed with interviews from colleagues fans and Doris herself charming and grateful, and plenty of clips from her best films.
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