Doris Day 100th Birthday Tribute
TCM, beginning at 11 a.m.
Beloved actress/singer/animal welfare activist Doris Day was born (as Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff) in Cincinnati on this day in 1922 (she passed away in Carmel Valley, California, on May 13, 2019, at age 97). To celebrate Day’s centennial today, Turner Classic Movies is airing a 12-hour marathon featuring some of her memorable film and TV appearances. The first eight hours are composed of four of her movies, beginning with the 1951 musical On Moonlight Bay (pictured). After that is Love Me or Leave Me (1955), a biographical musical drama about Ruth Etting, portrayed by Day alongside Best Actor Oscar nominee James Cagney. Day performed most of the 1920s popular standards featured in the film, and the album of the same name she recorded based on that soundtrack became the bestselling album of her career. Next, Day can be seen in the title role of the Western musical Calamity Jane (1953), which co-stars Howard Keel, and then in Lover Come Back (1961), the second of three iconic romantic comedies she made with Rock Hudson and Tony Randall. Following these movies, in primetime and the later evening, TCM airs some of Day’s television work, all making their network premieres. The first hour is composed of two smallscreen projects she did in 1971, beginning with a promo for the Doris Day Animal Shelter, followed by her first CBS TV special, which was self-titled under her actual birth name: The Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff Special. Highlights of this Emmy-nominated program are Day singing duets with Perry Como, reminiscing with screen co-star Hudson and interacting with several of her own family dogs. Following that is Day’s second CBS special, 1975’s Doris Day Today, in which the star is joined by guests Tim Conway, Sammy Davis Jr. and John Denver (who received an Emmy nomination for his appearance). The Doris Day 100th birthday celebration then concludes with four episodes from her Golden Globenominated 1968-73 sitcom The Doris Day Show: “Tony Bennett Is Eating Here” (1970), with Bennett guest-starring as himself; “Billy’s First Date” (1971); “Doris Goes to Hollywood” (1971); and “Hospital Benefit” (1973). —