Doris Day
Doris Mary Anne von Kapelhoff
BORN: April 3, 1922, Cincinnati, OH
Doris Day has packed four careers into one lifetime, two each in music and
movies. The pity is that all most people remember are her movies from Teacher's
Pet (1957) onward, as the quintessential all-American girl, the perpetually
virginal screen heroine, cast opposite such icons of masculinity as Clark
Gable and, rather ironically, Rock Hudson. She also transposed this following
to television at the end of the 1960s with a situation comedy that lasted
into the early '70s. If most people remember her as a singer, it's usually
for such pop hits as "Secret Love" and her Oscar-winning "Que Sera, Sera
(Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," which became her signature tune.
But before all of that, from 1939 until the end of the 1940s, Doris Day was
one of the hottest, sultriest swing band vocalists in music. That body of
work -- which contains at least one unabashed classic early-'40s recording,
"Sentimental Journey" -- is one of the most impressive in the fields of swing
and popular jazz, and deserves to be heard far more than it is. Moreover,
before those late-'50s comedies, Day had a film career that included adaptations
of Broadway musicals (The Pajama Game), classic thrillers (The Man Who Knew
Too Much), and searing social drama (Storm Warning).
She was born Doris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff on April 3, 1924, in Evanston,
OH, a suburb of Cincinnati. Her father was a music teacher, choir master,
and church organist. Her mother loved popular music, especially (surprisingly)
country music.
Her parents divorced when she was 12, and Doris lived with her mother and
older brother in College Hill, OH. From age six, she had taken dancing lessons,
and that was the career she ultimately intended to pursue. In 1937, when
she was 13, she and a young male partner won a 500 dollar prize in an amateur
dance contest. The family decided to pursue stardom for their young child
in Hollywood.
Her hopes for a career in dance were shattered on the trip out West in an
automobile accident that severely injured her right leg. Her recuperation,
over the Cincinnati tavern owned by an uncle, gave the young teenager access
to a jukebox that played the hits of the day; and by the time she was 14,
she had developed a taste for swing stars such as Benny Goodman and the Dorsey
Brothers, among numerous other bands. She also started singing along with
Ella Fitzgerald's records and tried to develop her own style.
Music became a new aspiration, and the timely intervention of voice coach
Grace Raine helped her develop the approach to song that was to characterize
her career. Raine arranged for Doris to appear on the Cincinnati radio station
WLW on an amateur showcase -- the song that she sang was Howard Dietz and
Arthur Schwartz's "Day After Day," from 1932, which earned her a featured
spot on the station.
She was still known as Doris Kappelhoff when she got a job singing at a local
club, but when a chance for radio broadcasts from the club was brought up.
She ultimately took the name Doris Day, owing to the popularity of "Day After
Day," and while the gig didn't last, the name did. In 1939, however, she
was told of the opening for a vocalist in the band of Bob Crosby, Bing's
brother and a star band leader in his own right. Day auditioned and got the
job at age 17. She stayed with Crosby's band for three months before she
was approached by band leader Les Brown.
This was 1940, and the musical world was dominated by the big bands, jazz-influenced
swing outfits that gave singers like Sinatra (who was just getting rolling
himself as a star vocalist) extraordinary opportunities to interpret the
songs of the day. Tin Pan Alley still ruled the airwaves (though country
and, to a lesser degree, blues were making inroads), and there was no shortage
of great songs.
In the middle of all that was this little 17-year-old girl, who could impart
a feeling of world-weary sensuality or sensual innocence to a song, shading
her voice in textures almost too delicate to analyze. And Doris Day became
a budding star, in an era in which Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra -- not to
mention Ella Fitzgerald -- were just a few of the vocalists competing for
public attention.
While singing with Bob Crosby's band, she first worked with many of the sidemen
-- Bob Haggart, William Stegmeyer, Billy Butterfield, and Zeke Zarchy --
who would later work on her own recording sessions. It was with Les Brown's
band, however, that the public first got to hear her voice and know her name,
initially on the radio and then on Brown's recordings. From 1940 until 1946,
with a two-year break for an unhappy marriage, Day was a star vocalist, most
notably on hits like "Sentimental Journey" and "My Dreams Are Getting Better
All the Time," both of which were monster hits for the band. "Sentimental
Journey" also became especially popular among American soldiers stationed
overseas during World War II. By the end of the war and her time with Les
Brown, when she was barely into her 20s, Day was considered one of the top
band vocalists in the world.
Apart from having a beautiful voice and command of its every shading, Day's
success was based on her approach to songs and audiences. When she sang,
she sounded as though she were singing not to a crowd or a mass "audience,"
but to each individual listener. People resonated to her records and her
performances personally, and coupled with the considerable merits of her
voice and the quality of Brown's band, it made her a huge favorite with almost
anyone who heard her.
Her tenure with the band was interrupted by another unsuccessful marriage,
and when it ended, Day -- with a young son named Terry from her first marriage
to provide for -- was ready to return to Cincinnati and forget about music.
So the story goes, her agent persuaded her to attend a party in Hollywood
where she impressed songwriters Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn with an impromptu
performance of "Embraceable You." They were writing the score for a Warner
Bros. movie called Romance on the High Seas, which had been planned for several
leading ladies, all of whom fell out for one reason or another. Sammy Cahn
got Day and her agent down to the studio, and she auditioned before director
Michael Curtiz, who ordered a screen test for her. Day's screen test was
run for the studio executives alongside two actresses whom they'd previously
asked to audition, and she won the role.
The movie was a hit, and Day became a star, not in the perky, virginal persona
that people remember today, but as a top-flight singer and actress. After
that, Day's two careers went along in tandem, as she starred in movies and
often turned their songs into hits. She also appeared in non-musical films,
and revealed herself a superb dramatic actress in the groundbreaking topical
dramatic thriller Storm Warning (1950), in which she played the victimized
wife of a boorish, murderous Ku Klux Klan member (Steve Cochran); but she
could also play perky tomboyish parts in movies like On Moonlight Bay (1951).
Day resumed her recording career in 1947, and even amid the growing number
of ballads in her output, her early solo sides remained very jazzy, and are
among her best sides. Her music softened somewhat as the 1940s wore on, although
she did record some superb jazz-style sides for the 1950 movie Young Man
With a Horn.
Her most visible sides from the 1950s onward were pop songs. She had huge
hits with "Secret Love," a song derived from the movie Calamity Jane (1953),
and "Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," which she'd sung in the
Alfred Hitchcock thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), in which she
co-starred with James Stewart. During the 1950s, Doris Day was the most popular
and one of the highest paid singers in America; and the sudden burst of popularity
of her movies, beginning with Teacher's Pet (1958), only added to her overall
impact on the country's popular culture, though the movies ultimately eclipsed
the music career. In the midst of her pop-music/movie career, Day recorded
an entire album of jazz with Andre Previn as her accompanist, entitled Duet.
Its impact was muted by the popularity of her movies which, by the early
'60s, turned her into a cultural icon, her wholesome innocence the perfect
non-threatening match for Marilyn Monroe's innocent sexuality.
The growth of rock music as the dominant force in popular music in the mid-'60s
left Day on the musical sidelines; ironically, her son Terry Melcher became
one of the most successful rock producers of the period, most notably in
association with the Byrds' early work and Paul Revere & the Raiders.
Day's personal and professional life took a bad turn in the wake of the death
of her third husband, Marty Melcher, in 1968. Melcher had managed her business
affairs for 17 years, and she learned after his death that he had lost or
embezzled her entire career's earnings. Day was left broke, and the ensuing
stresses led her to a nervous breakdown.
Her recovery came in 1968, when she began work on her CBS network situation
comedy. Melcher had committed her to doing the show immediately prior to
his death, without her consent, but the program was a success and Day was
restored to solvency during the series' four-year run. A year after the program
ended, she was awarded a $22 million dollar judgment against her former attorney
for his role in Melcher's handling of her finances. Since the cancellation
of the CBS series in 1973, she has been less visible, although she did a
cable television series, Doris Day and Friends, in the mid-'80s. ~ Bruce
Eder, All Music Guide
The epitome of the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality and "Que
Sera Sera" mantra, Doris Day has weathered the numerous storms of both career
and personal life, using these carefree and easygoing sentiments as a testament
to the endearing endurance and eternal optimism that defines her infectiously
positive outlook on life.
Born Doris Mary Ann Von Kappelhoff in Evanston, OH, Day's optimistic philosophies
would be tested from her earliest experiences. With childhood dreams of becoming
a ballerina dashed after being involved in a near-fatal car crash, Day took
to heart her mother's suggestion of refining her skills as a vocalist. Possessing
a voice of distinct beauty at the youthful age of 14, Day was soon discovered
by a vocal coach who arranged an appearance on a local radio station WLW.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Soon after her radio appearance, Day was approached by local bandleader Barney
Rapp, leading the young songstress to adopt the moniker that would soon become
a household name. Revealing her birth name to Rapp after auditioning with
the song "Day By Day," Rapp jokingly suggested that her name was nice, though
a little long for the theater's marquee. With her auditioning ballad becoming
the inspiration for her stage persona, 14-year-old Day now had all the makings
of a starlet ripe with potential. Discovered shortly after by big-band maestro
Les Brown in 1940, Day toured briefly with his band, soon departing to accept
the marriage proposal of sweetheart Al Jorden and pursue dreams of starting
a family. Day's matrimonial happiness was short-lived, however, when Jorden's
violent and jealous tendencies proved to be too much to take. Soon after
the birth of their son in 1942, the couple divorced and Day rejoined Les
Brown and his band, leading to the collaboration that would project the young
singer into the heart of millions -- "Sentimental Journey."
Day's contribution to film began with her appearance in Warner Bros.' romantic
musical Romance on the High Seas (1948). The film, in which she co-starred
with Jack Carson, was recognized with an Oscar nomination for the song "It's
Magic," providing young Day with her first success as a pop singer. Throughout
the 1950s, Day's wholesome image sustained her film career with successful
turns in musicals (Calamity Jane [1953]) and romantic comedies (Teacher's
Pet [1958]). Day's successful film career continued well into the 1960s with
highlights including Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956),
The Pajama Game (1957), and Pillow Talk (1959). The latter is considered
among the best of the Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedies, with her image as the
innocently alluring virgin breathing new life into her previously wholesome
persona.
In April of 1968, just as she was beginning five-year contract with CBS for
The Doris Day Show, Day's film career came to an abrupt end with the death
of her husband/manager/producer Marty Melcher. Left penniless and deep in
debt through a series of Melcher's sordid investments, Day soon bounced back.
Awarded a 22-million-dollar settlement, Day found success in television with
The Doris Day Show. Her future television ventures, including Doris Day Today
(1975) and Doris Day's Best Friends (1985) (which included one of the last
appearances of a gravely ill Rock Hudson) were just a few examples of Day's
enthusiastic and enduring nature. In 1975 Doris Day authored her biography,
Doris Day: Her Own Story, which became a number one best-seller. Day went
on to become an active and vocal supporter of animal rights, focusing the
majority of her attentions on her Animal League and Animal Foundation organizations,
as well as owning the pet-friendly Cypress Inn in Carmel, CA. ~ Jason Buchanan,
All Movie Guide