
Doris Day: a great entertainer,
not a symbol of repression
Joan
Merrill remembers a singer and actress
whose work will chime with many jazz fans
By
Jazz Journal
June
1, 2019
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She never won an Oscar, never won a
Grammy.
But, except for perhaps Frank
Sinatra and Bing Crosby, no other American entertainer left such
an impressive legacy as Doris Day. She did 39 movies, 600
recordings which include 18 albums and five seasons of the
sitcom The Doris Day Show,
plus television specials. Nearly 60 percent of Day’s movies
topped $100 million in domestic gross box office sales,
according to Ultimate Movie Rankings. She was the No. 1 box
office female star for
four years - matched only by
Shirley Temple - in the 1960s. Two of Day’s songs won Oscars:
“Secret Love” from Calamity Jane (1953) and “Que Sera,
Sera” from The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). Day
was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004, five
Golden Globe awards - including the Cecil B. DeMille Award -
as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the
LA Critics’ Career Achievement Award. She might have been
honoured by the Kennedy Center or received an honorary Oscar if
she had wanted them, but she shunned the spotlight and never
sought fame. Her fans, however, thought differently. They
thought she deserved these honours and were disappointed she
didn’t get them. Will Friedwald, author of
A Popular Guide to the Great Jazz and
Pop Singers
(Pantheon, 2010), said of Day’s singing: “At her very best,
she’s worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Frank
Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald, yet she’s never gotten a fraction of
their respect.” And renowned film critic Molly Haskell said, “I
think Doris Day is the most underrated, underappreciated actress
that has ever come out of Hollywood.”
But now, in death, Day is still underappreciated. Obits mention
how, due to the roles she sometimes played
- a virtuous woman resisting the advances of playboys
- she symbolized the
sexual repression of the 50s. As if she chose those roles, as if
she declared that image for herself. It was a great entertainer
who died, not a symbol. Critics also seem to blame her for the
inferiority of some of her songs and movies, as if she had
chosen them. Day was perfectly aware that the material given her
was often bad, but she didn’t have control over the matter. She
gave each project her best effort and should be lauded for that.
Let’s take a closer look at her legacy.
Doris Day had parallel careers as movie star and recording
artist. Her film career lasted from 1948 to 1968 and her
recording contract with Columbia Records from 1947 to 1967. From
1968 to 1973, she appeared in a TV sitcom,
The Doris Day Show, which
was among the top 20 in the Nielsen ratings for two straight
years. (Her husband and manager Marty Melcher, who died suddenly
in 1968, had signed a contract for this show without her
knowledge.) And she excelled in each field: recording, movies,
and television. When CBS offered to renew the sitcom, Day
declined and moved to Northern California in 1973, spending the
rest of her life concentrating on her animal welfare foundation,
The Doris Day Animal Foundation. In her animal activism, Day
also helped launch World Spay Day, opened a
pet-friendly hotel and encouraged people to adopt pets
from shelters.
When Day died on 13 May 2019, she hadn’t made a record or a film
for almost fifty years. Does her work have lasting value? What
exactly is her legacy? Her recordings will be of interest longer
than her films. She worked briefly as
the featured singer with
Bob Crosby’s orchestra
and then with Les Brown’s, recording “Sentimental Journey,”
which was a huge and lasting hit, marrying a sideman in this
band, the first of her unfortunate marriages.
She was one of the great vocalists of the
classic age of popular music and so long as the Great American
Songbook exists, so will Doris Day’s best recordings, such as
Day by Day,
Day by Night, Canadian Capers and Latin for
Lovers, among others.
Her films fall into two broad categories, those with music and
those without. And of those with music, some are
Broadway-originated musicals, and some are movies where music is
an integral part of the story. The musicals are
Calamity Jane, Pajama Game
and Billy Rose’s Jumbo.
Calamity Jane (1953): Day plays an
Annie Oakley type, dressed in buckskin and speaking rough.
Howard Keel plays Wild Bill Hickok.
Some of the musical numbers call for elaborate acrobatics from
our girl. This is a fun movie with Day’s characterization of
Calamity worthy of an Oscar. She introduced
“Secret Love,” which was a huge hit and won an Academy
Award for Best Song.
Pajama Game (1957): Film version
of the Broadway hit, with Day as the only performer not from the
original cast. John Raitt plays the male lead with Carol Haney
and Eddie Foy as comic relief. Very enjoyable, clever staging,
and good songs.
Billy Rose’s Jumbo (1962): Another
film version of a Broadway show. Day plays the daughter of the
circus owner (Jimmy Durante). The male lead is Stephen Boyd and,
of course, it features Jumbo the elephant. Martha Raye is
Durante’s fiancée. Lots of circus acts and beautiful songs
written by none other than Rodgers and Hart.
(“My Romance,” “Little Girl Blue.”)
The movies with music are more numerous. Day was hired by Warner
Bros director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca,
Mildred Pierce) mainly for her singing. Curtis saw
potential star power during her screen test, saying “She said
her lines like a human being.” In fact, he advised her
not to take acting lessons, and he
was proven right. In Romance On the High Seas (1948), she
introduced “It’s Magic” and sang a few songs with the Page
Cavanaugh Trio. Her singing combined with her looks and
charisma made her an instant star.
Of her subsequent 16 Warner’s movies, she played a singer in
most of them. Though the stories are sometimes silly, a few of
these movies are charming, even today.
My Dream Is Yours (1949):
Agent Jack Carson helps Day’s character become a star while
their love blossoms. Eve Arden is a great presence, as usual.
While not perfect, the movie has enough good singing
to make up for its flaws. Included are the title song, “Someone
Like You,” “Canadian Capers” and the tender “I’ll String Along
With You.”
Lullaby of Broadway (1951): With excellent
dancer Gene Nelson and comic character actors, S.Z. Sakall and
Billy de Wolfe. The plot involves Day dancing and singing on
Broadway with Nelson. Day had wanted to be a dancer as a girl
but was involved in a horrendous car crash. Her leg was
shattered, and doctors feared she would never walk again. In
Lullaby of Broadway, she fulfilled her dream. She
danced some very complex numbers with Nelson, drawing praise
from one of the film’s choreographers.
Curtiz directed Day in two biographical movies, in which she
played a singer:|
Young Man With a Horn (1950):
Based on the life of jazz trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke, this is an
overwrought story of a disturbed musician (Kirk Douglas) and his
equally disturbed wife (Lauren Bacall) with Day playing a band
singer. The music is terrific throughout with Harry James on
trumpet accompanying Day on standards such as “Too
Marvelous For Words” and “With A Song In My Heart.”
This is among the best singing she does in movies.
I’ll See You In My Dreams (1951):
Bio of lyric writer Gus Kahn, played by Danny Thomas, with Day
as his wife, who can sing like a dream. Frank Lovejoy is Kahn’s
songwriting partner. A drama with plenty of music from the
Songbook.
Both these movies are worthy of being included in Day’s film
legacy.
Doris Day may have gotten her tagline “the girl next door” from
the movies On Moonlight Bay
(1951) and its sequel By the Light of the Silvery Moon
(1953). In these she
plays the tomboyish teenage daughter of a bank manager in an
idealistic small town in the early 1900s. She falls in love with
the boy, not next door but across the street, the handsome,
golden-voiced Gordon MacRae. With her hair natural and no
makeup, the 29-year-old actress is believable as a teen.
Nevertheless, the films are sitcoms, not movies, and have
little appeal today.
When her contract with Warner’s ended in 1955, Day and
her husband formed Arwin
Productions. Their first film as independents was based on the
life of 1930s torch singer Ruth Etting and her relationship with
her husband/manager gangster Marty Snyder.
Love Me Or Leave Me (1955): It’s a
misnomer to call this a musical, since we associate the genre
with pleasant fun. This movie is a drama, bordering on tragedy,
with lots of music. Day’s acting (doubtful producers only gave
her the part on James Cagney’s recommendation) is superb and she
holds her own with the dynamic Cagney. This is without doubt
Day’s best film, worthy of an Oscar. She demonstrates her great
skill as both a singer and actress.
And another Class A film was directed by Alfred Hitchcock.The
Man Who Knew Too Much (1956): The film is about a
tourist couple (James Stewart and Day) who are innocently drawn
into a sinister plot, with their son being kidnapped. As part of
the story, Day sings “Que Sera,
Sera.” A very good movie, pure Hitchcock. Fine acting by
Day.
In 1958, 1959 and 1960, Day
made three excellent movies, with no music to speak of. (She
usually did a title song for each romantic comedy, but no
singing in the film.)
Teacher’s Pet
(1958): With Clark Gable
(clearly too old for Day, but still….!) and Gig Young for comic
bits. A journalism teacher (Day) and a newspaper editor (Gable)
have opposing ideas as to what makes a good story. A logical
script (for a change). This is by far the best of the romantic
comedies.
It Happened To Jane (1959): A lobster farm owner
(Day) is thwarted from delivering a big order by a mean railroad
company owner (Ernie Kovaks). Jack Lemmon assists in getting the
lobsters delivered on time. Very good movie.
Please Don’t Eat the Daisies
(1960): Based on a popular book, this is the story of a wife and
mother of four boys, Day, who talks her New York drama critic
husband (David Niven) into moving to the country. With Janis
Paige as a sexy actress who tempts Niven. Good solid movie.
In 1958, producer Ross Hunter decided to
co-star Day with handsome hunk Rock Hudson in
Pillow Talk,
which is about neighbours who share a telephone party
line. The story revolved around her resisting his advances. It
was extremely popular and the first of similar movies, which
resulted in Day being called the “perpetual virgin” and deemed
the representative of sexual repression in the
1950s and early 1960s. (Several factors contributed to
this societal attitude and Doris Day wasn’t one of them!) The
main plot line of Pillow Talk
- Brad Allen’s quest to bed Jan Morrow - is not as
amusing today as it was in 1958. If Jan Morrow (Day) is
ridiculous for trying to protect her virtue, then Brad Allen
(Hudson) is a prime candidate for a #MeToo
takedown.
The Ballad of Josie
(1967) had real potential. A widow
(Day) decides to raise sheep on her land to make a living. She
shocks the town folk by donning jeans and annoying her male
neighbours who raise cattle. When the cattle ranchers threaten
her, the sheriff (Peter Graves) comes to her rescue. She falls
into his arms and throws her jeans into the fireplace, another
sitcom plot. Imagine what it could have been with a good script
and John Wayne - a great movie with the top box office stars of
the time. (Wayne once said, “I would crawl on my hands and knees
to Beverly Hills to be in a movie with Doris Day.”)
Of Day’s 39 movies 12 are of lasting
interest, a pretty good record. Her later films might have been
better were it not for Melcher, who refused to allow Day to get
another agent who might have gotten her better parts. Melcher
cared for money, not artistic merit.
But despite the sometimes poor
material she was forced to work with, Doris Day was a
phenomenon: a first-rate dancer, one of America’s greatest
vocalists, and a popular actress who did musicals, drama and
comedy at their highest level and with the greatest of ease. She
was culturally influential in that she was one of the first
actresses to play a successful career woman, as she did, for
example, in Pillow Talk (interior decorator) and on her
television show (magazine writer) in the years before women’s
liberation. She played a career woman much more often than “the
girl next door” or the “perpetual virgin.” As Tom Santopietro
says in his excellent book, Considering Doris Day (St.
Martin’s Press, 2007), “Doris Day could do it all, and did it so
naturally, in such an unintimidating package, that people didn’t
realize just how great she really was.”
Amen.
Joan
Merrill is the producer of two Doris Day tribute shows, Que
Sera! Celebrating Doris Day and Everybody Loves Doris Day with
Palm Springs-based vocalist Kristi King.
www.kristiking.com
(2011-present)
To learn more about
Doris Day’s life, read her autobiography,
Doris Day: Her
Own Story
(with A.E. Hotchner).
To learn more about her career, read Considering Doris Day by
Tom Santopietro.
To keep up with the latest
news, see
Discovering Doris Day at
www.dorisdaytribute.com.
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COPYRIGHT, 2019, ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED, JOAN MERRILL
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