Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff (born April 3, 1924) is an American singer, actress, and animal welfare advocate known as Doris Day. A vivacious blonde with a wholesome image, Day was one of the most prolific actresses of the 1950s and 1960s. Able to sing, dance, and play comedy and dramatic roles, she has been an all-round star whose personality has permeated many popular and diverse movies.

Day was born in Evanston, a neighborhood within the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, to Alma Sophia Welz and William/Wilhelm Kappelhoff; all four of her grandparents were German immigrants. The youngest of three, she had two brothers, Richard, who died before she was born and Paul, a few years older. She was named after silent movie actress Doris Kenyon, whom her mother admired. Her family was Roman Catholic and her parents were known to have divorced. She later embraced Christian Science. Growing up in the 1930's Day developed an interest in dance, and by mid-1930's formed a dance duo that performed locally in Cincinnati until a car accident damaged her legs and curtailed her prospects as a professional dancer. However, while recovering Day took up singing. Soon she began to take lessons and at age 17 began performing locally. It was while working for local bandleader Barney Rapp that she adopted the stage name "Day" as an alternative to "Kappelhoff", at his suggestion as he felt her last name was too long. After working with Rapp, Day worked with a number of other bandleaders including Bob Crosby and Les Brown. It was while working with Brown that Day scored her first hit recording Sentimental Journey, which was released in early 1945 and soon became anthematic of the desire of demobilising troops to return home. To some extent this song is still associated with Day, and was notably re-recorded by her on several occasions, as well as being included in her 1971 television special.

During her time with Les Brown, and a brief stint with Bob Hope, Day toured extensively across the United States. Her popularity as a radio performer and vocalist, including a second hit record My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time, led directly to a career in films. After her separation from second husband George Weidler in 1948, Day was set to leave Los Angeles and return to her mother's home in Cincinnati, when her agent, Al Levy, convinced her to attend a party at the home of composer Jule Styne. Her personal circumstances at the time and her reluctance to perform contributed to an emotive performance of Embraceable You which greatly impressed Styne and his partner, Sammy Cahn. They then recommended her for a role in Romance on the High Seas (which they were working on for Warner Bros.). The withdrawal of Betty Hutton due to pregnancy left the main role to be re-cast. Thus, Day began her film career, in 1948, in a "peppy" Hutton-esque role. (The film was digitally remastered and released on DVD in May 2007.)

The success of this film established her as a popular movie personality, and provided her within another hit recording It's Magic. In 1950, US servicemen in Korea voted her their favorite star. Early publicity saddled her with such unflattering nicknames as "The Tomboy with a Voice" and "The Golden Tonsil." She continued to make saccharine and somewhat low-level musicals such as Starlift, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, and Tea For Two for Warner Bros., but 1953 found Day as pistol-packin' Calamity Jane in what has become one of Hollywood's most enduring musicals, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Secret Love.". Her recording of which became her fourth US "Number One" recording.

After filming Young At Heart, a lackluster musical, Day chose not to renew her contract with Warner Bros. and instead freelanced under the management of her third husband, Martin Melcher. As a consequence, the range of roles she played broadened to include more dramatic roles. In 1955, she received some of the best notices of her career for her portrayal of singer Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave Me, co-starring James Cagney. Doris would later call it, in her autobiography, her best film. She continued to be paired with some of Hollywood's biggest male stars, including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Cary Grant, David Niven and Clark Gable.

In Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, she sang "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)", which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. According to Jay Livingston (who wrote the song with Ray Evans), Day preferred another song used briefly in the film, "We'll Love Again", and skipped the recording for Que Sera, Sera. When the studio pushed her, she relented, but after recording the number in one take, she reportedly told a friend of Livingston's, "That's the last time you'll ever hear that song." The song was used again in her 1960 film, Please Don't Eat the Daisies and was reprised as a brief duet with Arthur Godfrey in The Glass Bottom Boat; it also became the theme song for her television show. This was her only film for Hitchcock and, as she admitted in her memoirs, she was initially concerned at his lack of direction; she finally asked him if anything was wrong and he said everything was fine; if she wasn't doing what he wanted he would have said something.

After the great critical and popular success of Teacher's Pet, Day's popularity at the US box office seemed to wane and some critical attention focused on perceived elements of "blandness" in her on-screen persona, although in some foreign markets (Germany, Britain and the Commonwealth), she remained a top box office draw. A dynamic performance in The Pajama Game received warm critical notices, but box office returns were disappointing. In the case of The Tunnel of Love and It Happened to Jane, both the critical and popular response was uneven. As a result, during the period 1957 to 1959, she was no longer regarded a "Top Ten Box Office Draw" by US film exhibitors. Arguably, this development may have been linked to the marked decline in popularity of musical films during the late 1950s, and some poor choices in material made by Melcher on Day's behalf, rather than any waning in public regard. In addition, Day's popularity as a recording artist was diminished due to the growing popular taste for rock and roll. "Que Sera, Sera," for instance, was never a "US Number One," being kept from the top spot by Elvis Presley's recording of "Hound Dog."

In 1959, Day entered her most successful phase as a film actress with a series of romantic comedies, starting with the hugely popular Pillow Talk, co-starring Rock Hudson, who became a lifelong friend. The film received positive reviews and was a box office favorite. It also brought a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Day. She and Hudson made two more films together, and she also made two films alongside James Garner, starting with 1963's The Thrill of It All. Many of her 1960s films ignored her singing abilities and painted her as a good-hearted woman with a strong will, a hint of naïveté, and the purest virtue. Algonquin Round Table member and showbusiness wit Oscar Levant, who had known Day earlier in her career, summed up the paradox of Day's late-blooming ingenue phase when he famously said, "I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin." But the public loved Day's light, frothy comedies of this period, buying enough tickets to make her by far the top female movie star in America during the first half of the 1960s.

By the late 1960s, the sexual revolution and the widely discussed promiscuity of the maturing baby boomer generation had refocused public attitudes about sex and sexuality. Times changed, but Day's films did not. Critics, comics, and pundits dubbed Day "the world's oldest virgin" and audiences began to shy away from her repetitive, gimmicky roles. As a result, she slipped from the list of top Box-Office stars, last appearing in the Top 10 in 1966, with The Glass Bottom Boat being her final substantial hit. Day herself found many of her mid-late 1960s films to be of very poor quality (her least favorite was Caprice, co-starring Richard Harris) and did them only at the insistence of third husband and sometime producer, Martin Melcher. One of the roles he supposedly turned down for her was that of middle-aged adulteress Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (a role that went to Anne Bancroft). Later, in her published memoirs (co-authored by A.E. Hotchner), Day said that she herself rejected the part on moral grounds.

The impact of changing public tastes can also be seen in the waning popularity of Day as a vocalist and recording artist over this period. Albums like Duet and Latin for Lovers garnered much critical praise but little commercial success in the US, although sales remained strong in overseas markets like Britain. Day's last major hit single was in the UK in 1964 with "Move Over Darling", co-written by her son specifically for her. The recording was a notable departure for Day, with its distinctly contemporary-sounding arrangement and, especially, her breathy and suggestive delivery of the lyrics. In 1967, Day recorded her last album, The Love Album, essentially concluding her recording career, though this album was not released until 1994.

Melcher died in 1968. After more than a decade as a top box office star, Day was shocked to discover that her husband of 17 years and his business partner Jerry Rosenthal had squandered her earnings, leaving her deeply in debt. Day sued Rosenthal and won the largest civil judgment up until that time in California, over $20,000,000 (USD). How much Day actually collected is not certain.

According to Day's autobiography as-told-to A.E. Hotchner, the usually athletic and healthy Melcher had an enlarged heart. Another factor in Melcher's death may be that he converted to the Christian Science religion during his relationship with Day, and his newfound religious beliefs -- which include a doctrine that illness is illusory -- led him to put off going to the doctor for some time.

Upon Melcher's death, Day also learned that he had committed her to a TV series, which became The Doris Day Show. "It was awful" Day told OK! Magazine in 1996. "I was really, really not very well when Marty passed away, and the thought of going into TV was overpowering. But he'd signed me up for a series. And then my son Terry took me walking in Beverly Hills and explained that it wasn't nearly the end of it. I had also been signed up for a bunch of TV specials, all without anyone ever asking me." Day hated the idea of doing television, but felt obligated. "There was a contract. I didn't know about it. I never wanted to do TV, but I gave it 100 per cent anyway. That's the only way I know how to do it." Melcher died on April 20, 1968, and the first episode of the TV show was aired on September 24, 1968.

From 1968 to 1973, Day starred in The Doris Day Show, a situation comedy which had "Que Sera, Sera" as its theme song. Day grudgingly continued with the show, but only as long as she needed the work to help pay off her debts. By the end of the series in 1973, Day was nearing 50, and public tastes had changed to such a degree that her firmly established wholesome persona was now completely out of fashion. Day essentially retired from acting when The Doris Day Show ended. The popularity of Day is still wide spread today.

Although the press had occasionally noted Day's interest in animal welfare, it was not until the early 1970s that her interest in animal rights was widely publicized. In 1971, she co-founded Actors and Others for Animals and appeared in a series of newspaper advertisements denouncing the wearing of fur, alongside Mary Tyler Moore, Angie Dickinson, and Jayne Meadows. Day's friend, Cleveland Amory, wrote about these events in Man Kind? Our Incredible War on Wildlife (1974). Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Day actively promoted the annual Spay Day USA, and on a number of occasions, actively lobbied Congress -- and, it has been suggested, Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton -- in support of legislation designed to safeguard animal rights. The Doris Day Animal League http://www.ddal.org is a group she funds. For many decades, she has stopped her car on LA freeways when she saw an abandoned, stray or hit animal. She is reportedly a vegetarian.

In 2006, The Humane Society of the United States merged with the Doris Day Animal League. Staff members of the Doris Day League took positions within The HSUS, and Day recorded some public service announcements for The HSUS, which is now managing Spay Day USA, the one-day spay neuter event she originated some years before.

In 1975, Day released her autobiography, Doris Day: Her Own Story. it revealed to the general public many of the painful events in her private life that belied the sunny image Day projected on the screen and through her music. In particular, the book detailed Day's first three difficult marriages:

# To Al Jorden, a trombonist whom she had met when he was in Barney Rapp's Band, from March 1941 to 1943. She was not yet 17 when she married Jorden, and her only child, Terry Melcher (a boy), was born from this marriage. Jorden committed suicide after their divorce. # To George Weidler (a saxophonist), from March 30, 1946 to May 31, 1949. Weidler and Day met again several years later and during a brief reconciliation, he helped her become involved in Christian Science. # To Martin Melcher, whom she married on her 27th birthday, April 3, 1951. This looked like a happy marriage, and lasted much longer than her first two. Melcher adopted Terry (thus renaming the boy Terry Melcher), and also produced many of Day's movies. Day also later revealed that Melcher had physically abused Terry. His profligate spending caused money difficulties for Day that continued for a number of years after his death.

After her autobiography was published, Day was married once more, though this marriage also ended in divorce; her fourth unsuccessful marriage was to Barry Comden, from April 14, 1976 to 1981. Comden was her first husband outside show business. Comden was the maitre d' at one of Doris's favorite restaurants. Knowing of her great love of dogs, Comden began the practice of giving Doris a bag of meat scraps and bones on her way out. This is how he got to meet and endear himself to her. This marriage unraveled, and Comden complained that Day cared more for her "animal friends" than she did for him.

The revelations contained in the book about Day's private life, and the testimony of many of her friends and colleagues about aspects of her life and career (most were scathing with regard to husband number three Marty Melcher) helped to make the book a bestseller. In promoting the book, Day also caused a stir by rejecting the "girl next door - virgin" label so often attached to her. Notably, in an interview with Barbara Walters, she commented "I don't know where that label came from. Maybe it's the way I look. Do I look like a virgin?" In later interviews, Day went on to say that she believed that people should live together prior to marriage, something that she herself would do if the opportunity arose again. Her candor won her some admiration among book reviewers and interviewers, and possibly contributed to the book's success.

At the conclusion of her book tour, Day largely retired from show business, though film and TV offers continued. She seemed content to focus on her charity work and business interests (In 1985, she became part-owner of the Cypress Inn in Carmel, California.

Surprisingly, the mid-1980s saw a renewed period of activity. In May 1983, Day became a grandmother, and in 1985, Day hosted her own talk show, Doris Day's Best Friends. The show generated unexpected press when her old friend Rock Hudson appeared in the first episode. Day was taken aback by Hudson's emaciated and wizened frame, as he had always been in top physical condition. Soon after, she and the world learned that he was dying of AIDS. It had been widely thought that Day and Hudson were good friends off-screen, but Doris would later claim she never knew he was gay. Despite the world-wide publicity the show received, it was cancelled after 26 episodes.

After a brief attempt to become a surf music singing star, her son Terry became a staff producer for Columbia Records in the 1960s, and was famous for producing most of the hit recordings by the pioneering folk rock band, The Byrds. In November 2004, after a long period of illness, he died from complications of melanoma (skin cancer), aged 62.

During the 1990s, interest in Day revived. The release of a greatest hits CD in 1992 garnered her another entry into the British charts, while the inclusion of the song "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" in the soundtrack of the Australian film, Strictly Ballroom, gained her a legion of new fans (the song was also covered by the alternative rock outfit, Cake in the same period.) During the late 1990s/early 2000s, the progressive release of her films and TV series/specials on DVD fed into this renewal of interest in and respect for her work, a fact underlined by the development of a large number of websites devoted to her, and the growing number of academic texts analysing various aspects of her career. Perhaps in part to address this phenomena in 2006 Day recorded a commentary for the DVD release of the fifth (and final) season of her TV show. Over the last four years Day has also participated in a number of telephone interviews with a local radio station which celebrates her birthday with an annual Doris Day music marathon, these interviews have been podcast and are currently downloadable.

In 2004, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom but declined to attend the ceremony because of a fear of flying. She has turned down an honorary Academy Award and one of the Kennedy Center Honors for similar reasons. Liz Smith, a long time entertainment gossip columnist, has mounted a campaign for several years trying to drum up support for an honorary Oscar for Day,

(see http://dorisdaytribute.com/discography.htm for details)

*You're My Thrill (1949) *Tea for Two (1950) (soundtrack) *Young Man with a Horn (1950) (w/Harry James) (soundtrack) *Lullaby Of Broadway (1951) (soundtrack) *On Moonlight Bay (1951) (soundtrack) *I'll See You in My Dreams (1951) (soundtrack) *By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953) (soundtrack) *Calamity Jane (1953) (soundtrack) **The Deadwood Stage **Secret Love **Just Blew in From The Windy City **The Black Hills Of Dakota ** A Woman's touch ** I can do without you ** Higher than a Hawk (Deeper than a well) ** Tis Harry I'm plannin' to marry *Young at Heart (1954) (soundtrack) (w/Frank Sinatra) **Till My Love Comes To Me **You, My Love **Ready, Willing and Able **Hold Me In Your Arms ** (2 more)

*Day Dreams **Reissue of "You're My Thrill" **plus 4 more, also early singles *Love Me or Leave Me (Soundtrack of the MGM film: Orchestra arranged and conducted by Percy Faith) (1955) **It All Depends on You (DeSylva, Brown, Henderson) **Sam, The Old Accordion Man (Donaldson) **Shaking The Blues Away (Berlin) **Mean To Me (Ahlert, Turk) **plus 8 more, plus outtakes on current reissues *Day By Day (1956) (Orchestra arranged and conducted by Paul Weston) **The Song Is You (Kern, Hammerstein) **I Remember You (Mercer, Schertzenberger) **Day By Day (Cahn, Stordahl, Weston) **Autumn Leaves (Mercer, Kosma) **plus 8 more *Day By Night (1957) (Orchestra arranged and conducted by Paul Weston) **I See Your Face Before Me (Dietz, Schwartz) **Moonglow **Dream a Little Dream of Me (Kahn) **You Do Something To Me (Porter) **plus 8 more *The Pajama Game (1957) (Soundtrack of the Warner Bros. film: Orchestra arranged and conducted by Ray Heindorf) (w/John Raitt and cast of film) **I'm Not At All In Love **Small Talk **There Once Was A Man **Seven-and-a-Half Cents **Once-A-Year Day *Hooray For Hollywood (2 volumes: orchestra arranged and conducted by Frank DeVol) ** Volume One: (1958) ***Cheek To Cheek (Berlin) ***Over The Rainbow (Arlen, Washington) ***Blues In The Night (Mercer, Arlen) ***Night And Day (Porter) ***plus 8 more ** Volume Two: (1959) ***Three Coins In The Fountain (Cahn, Styne) ***It Might As Well Be Spring (Rodgers, Hammerstein) ***You'll Never Know (Gordon, Warren) ***Nice Work If You Can Get It (GGershwin, IGershwin) ***plus 8 more *Cuttin' Capers (1959) (Orchestra arranged and conducted by Frank DeVol) **Making Whoopee (Kahn, Donaldson) **Sitting On Top Of The World (Brown) **Let's Take A Walk Around The Block (Arlen, Lane, I.Gershwin) **Steppin' Out With My Baby (Berlin) **plus 8 more *What Every Girl Should Know (1960) (Orchestra arranged and consucted by Harry Zimmerman) **When You're Smiling **Something Wonderful (Rodgers, Hammerstein) **Mood Indigo (Ellington) **A Hundred Years From Today (Washington) **plus 8 more *Show Time (1960) (Orchestra arranged and conducted by Axel Stordahl) **On The Street Where You Live (Lerner, Loewe) **They Say It's Wonderful (Berlin) **People Will Say We're In Love (Rodgers, Hammerstein) **I Love Paris (Porter) **plus 8 more *Bright and Shiny (1961) *I Have Dreamed (1961) *Duet (w/ Andre Previn) (1962) *You'll Never Walk Alone (1962) *Billy Rose's Jumbo (soundtrack) (w/ cast of film) (1962) *Annie Get Your Gun (w/ Robert Goulet) (1963) *Love Him (1963) *The Doris Day Christmas Album (1964) *With a Smile and a Song (1964) *Latin for Lovers (1965) *Doris Day's Sentimental Journey (1965) *The Love Album (recorded 1967, released in 1994) (Orchestra arranged and conducted by Sid Feller) **Wonderful One **For All We Know **Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries **Are You Lonesome Tonight? **plus 8 more (2 in a medley)

Complete recorded performances of Doris Day are available by collecting the two above referenced collections: the four Bear Family collections: It's Magic, Secret Love, Que Sera, Sera and Move Over Darling, The Complete Doris Day with Les Brown, and Hidden Treasures.

:(see http://dorisdaytribute.com/discography-singles.htm for details) Hit records: *(with Les Brown's Band of Renown) **"Sentimental Journey" **:5,000,000+ sales **"My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time" **:1,000,000+ sales *(As a solo performer) **"It's Magic" **:1,000,000+ sales **"Again" **"Love Somebody" (duet with Buddy Clark) **:1,000,000+ sales **"Confess" (duet with Buddy Clark) (also done by Patti Page) **"Bewitched" **:1,000,000+ sales **"Shanghai" **"Sugarbush" (duet with Frankie Laine) **:1,000,000+ sales **"Mister Tap Toe" **"Secret Love" **:1,000,000+ sales **"If I Give My Heart to You" (also done by Denise Lor) **"I'll Never Stop Loving You" **:1,000,000+ sales **"Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" ("Que Sera, Sera") **:1,000,000+ sales **"Everybody Loves a Lover" **"Move Over, Darling"

(For other songs, see Alphabetical list of songs recorded by Doris Day.)

*Romance on the High Seas (1948) *My Dream Is Yours (1949) *It's a Great Feeling (1949) *Young Man with a Horn (1950) *Tea for Two (1950) *The West Point Story (1950) *Storm Warning (1951) *Lullaby of Broadway (1951) *On Moonlight Bay (1951) *I'll See You in My Dreams (1951) *Starlift (1951) (Cameo) *Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Night Life (1952) (short subject) *The Winning Team (1952) *April in Paris (1952) *By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953) *So You Want a Television Set (1953) (short subject) (Cameo) *Calamity Jane (1953) *Lucky Me (1954) *Young at Heart (1954) *Love Me or Leave Me (1955) *The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) *Julie (1956) *The Pajama Game (1957) *Teacher's Pet (1958) *The Tunnel of Love (1958) *It Happened to Jane (1959) *Pillow Talk (1959) *Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960) *Midnight Lace (1960) *Lover Come Back (1961) *That Touch of Mink (1962) *Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962) *The Thrill of It All (1963) *Move Over, Darling (1963) *Send Me No Flowers (1964) *Do Not Disturb (1965) *Every Girl's Dream (1966) (short subject) *The Glass Bottom Boat (1966) *The Ballad of Josie (1967) *Caprice (1967) *Rowan & Martin at the Movies (1968) (short subject) *Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968) *With Six You Get Eggroll (1968) *Don't Pave Main Street: Carmel's Heritage (1994) (documentary) (narrator)

In the 1965 Sondheim/Arthur Laurents musical Do I Hear A Waltz? Day's name was used in the song "What Do We Do? We Fly!"

Day's name was also used in The Beatles song Dig It which is on the 1970 album Let it Be.

In 1982 a Dutch band called Doe Maar made a national breakthrough, by scoring a huge hit in the low countries Belgium & The Netherlands. The title of this song was "Doris Day". Lyric excerpt: "Hey, er is niks op de t.v., alleen een film met Doris Day." Translation: "Hey, there is nothing on T.V., only a Doris Day movie."

Her name also appears on British 80s band Wham!'s 1984 hit Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, with the line "You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day".

In 1989, Day was mentioned in the beginning of We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel.

In 2001, she was mentioned in the lyrics to De Phazz's Death By Chocolate album in the song Something Special.

Day was included in the lyrics to the song "Without Love" from the 2002 musical and the 2007 movie Hairspray in the line "Without Love, life is Doris Day at the Apollo."

The Future Bible Heroes have a song called "Doris Day the Earth Stood Still" on their 2002 album Eternal Youth.

In 2003, Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellwegger starred in the film Down With Love, touted as a throwback to the old "Rock Hudson and Doris Day" romantic comedies. In many ways, the film is almost a remake of Day's film Pillow Talk.

In the song "Mirror Door" from The Who's 2006 album Endless Wire, Pete Townshend's lyrics mention a number of music icons, all of whom, with the exception of Doris Day, are dead. Only after the song was recorded and the album mass produced did Townshend discover that Doris Day was still alive. When questioned about it, he suggested asking her to appear in a possible music video for the song.

Day's name is mentioned in the song 'Sandra Dee' from the Grease (1978) soundtrack in the lines 'Watch it! Hey I'm Doris Day' and 'Even Rock Hudson lost his heart to Doris Day.'

The Chumbawamba song 'I'm Coming Out' (on the album 'WYSIWYG') has a line that runs, 'I had a fling with Doris Day / I almost got her in the family way'.

In the 1995 movie adaptation of the comic book, Tank Girl by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett, Doris Day is not only meantioned but also features a wooden bust carved into her likeness.

* * *Doris Day Animal Foundation *PILLOW TALK - The Doris Day Forum *Discovering Doris! comprehensive fan tribute site (started in 1998). *dorisday.net, a fan website (emphasizing her film career) * * Profile at Turner Classic Movies * Photographs of Doris Day


Day, Doris