Farewell, Doris
DORIS Day has taken a final curtain call and departed for the big musical in the sky.
The word legend is not strong enough for this icon of the screen. From Calamity Jane to Hitchcock, she could do it all. Thanks for the memories, Doris.
DORIS Day, the wholesome, all-American sweetheart who charmed the world with her films and her songs, has died at the age of 97.
The original girl next door, famous for such hits as Sentimental Journey and Que Sera, Sera, as well as her screen partnership with Rock Hudson, died early yesterday from pneumonia at her home in Carmel Valley, California.
She had lived there since the 70s, when she turned her back on showbiz to become an animal activist, setting up The Doris Day Animal Foundation.
She once told an interviewer: “I have never found in a human being loyalty comparable to that of any pet.”
Because behind her sunny image, her life had been marked by periods of physical, emotional and financial abuse.
Her first husband, musician Al Jorden, was possessive and violent.
He hit her on the second day of their marriage in 1941 and continued to beat her when she became pregnant and refused to have an abortion. Married at 19, she was divorced and a mum at 20.
Her second husband, George Weidler, a saxophonist, was a gentle man.
She was happily living with him in a trailer park in Los Angeles when he left, telling her he thought she was going to become a big star and he did not want to be known simply as Mr Doris Day.
When third husband Martin Melcher died in 1968, he left her so broke she was forced to sue to reclaim more than £15million from his business partner.
She wed Barry Comden in 1976. They divorced six years later.
In her book, Doris Day: Her Own Story, she said: “I have the unfortunate reputation of being Miss Goody Two-Shoes, America’s Virgin. I’m afraid it’s going to shock some people for me to say this but I staunchly believe no two people should get married until they have lived together.”
Let down by people, she found comfort in her animals, and once said: “During the painful and bleak periods I’ve suffered through these past years, my animal family has been a source of joy and strength to me.
“When you are deeply troubled, there are things you get from the silent, devoted companionship of your pets that you can get from no other source.”
Her dying wish was that there be no memorial service and that fans pay tribute by donating to her foundation.
The youngest of three children, Day was born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff on April 3,1922, the daughter of a Cincinnati music teacher. Under her mother’s influence, she became a singer and dancer, and changed her name to Day when, as a teenager, she began singing on the radio.
At 15, she won the £330 first prize in a dance
97th birthday contest. Her mother and the parents of her 12-year-old partner used the money to take them both to LA for professional dancing lessons.
The families intended to move west permanently but Day’s right leg was shattered when the car she was in was hit by a train. During her recuperation, she worked on her singing voice with a vocal coach. She became the US armed forces’ sweetheart with her million-selling recording of Sentimental Journey, which was released in 1945 and set the tone as GIs returned home from the war.
She had another huge hit in 1956 with Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be). Big-band leader Les Brown, whose musicians performed with Day on Sentimental Journey, said: “She was every band leader’s dream, a vocalist who had natural talent, a keen regard for the lyrics and an attractive appearance. As a singer, Doris belongs in the company of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. And I’d say that next to Sinatra, Doris is the best in the business on selling a lyric.” Day’s freckle-faced good looks and warm personality helped her transition to acting, and her most famous role as Calamity Jane in 1953. In 1959, she and Rock Hudson starred in Pillow Talk, and their partnership in sex farce comedies became a huge box-office draw in the 50s and 60s. Hudson said: “I suppose she was so clean-cut,
with perfect, uncapped teeth, freckles and turned-up nose, that people just thought she fitted the concept of a virgin. “But when we began Pillow Talk, we thought we’d ruin our careers because the script was pretty daring stuff.” The film’s plot, he said, “involved nothing more than me trying to seduce Doris for eight reels”. James Cagney, her co-star in Love Me or Leave Me, said Day had “the ability to project the simple, direct statement of a simple, direct idea without cluttering it”.
During her career, she starred in almost 40 movies and The Doris Day Show, on American TV, ran for five years before she retired in 1973.
Her image had not worked with the sexually liberated late-60s and 70s.
Day famously refused the part of middle-aged temptress Mrs Robinson in 1967 film The Graduate because, she said, it “offended my sense of values”.
One critic called her “the all-American middle-aged girl”, and another described her as “wholesome as a bowl of cornflakes and at least as sexy”. She blamed her fear of flying for turning down several other roles and accolades, including an honorary Oscar.
In 2004, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President George W Bush for her animal charity work but she refused to take a plane, and so missed the ceremony.
Day had one son, Terry Melcher, who died in 2004, and she is survived by his son, Ryan, her grandson. She also leaves two stars on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, one for her films and one for her music.
She said: “I just feel so blessed and fortunate to have been able to entertain people in the theatres and on record. It’s an amazing life that I’ve experienced.”