Doris Day has passed at 97. The Guardian has a good obituary here. I think that she was under rated both as a singer and as an actress - not at the time of her peak fame, of course, but when the revolution of the 1960s made her "girl next door" appeal passé. She was no longer "sophisticated" enough for the Baby Boomer world.
Bah. The lack of self-awareness among the Boomer generation is epic. Day had a great, expressive voice as you can hear in this.
She (and Rock Hudson) starred in what is perhaps the finest Romantic Comedy of all time, Lover Come Back. She is really funny in this - somehow she never got credit for her comedic timing. This is an excellent New York Times review of the film. If you haven't seen it, you're in for a real treat.
I always enjoyed both her music and her films, and thought it was a shame that she didn't get the recognition that she deserved. Rest in Peace, Doris. Thanks for all the great times.
5 comments:
Wow. You managed to turn a nice retrospective on Doris Day into a boomer-bashing session.
I always enjoyed Doris Day. Apparently her husband the crook signed her up to do the TV series without telling her, and then squandered all her money on bad investments. She had to do the TV series to pay debts, both private and to the IRS.
I always remember Oscar Levant's remark on the Tonight Show -- He said" I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin". That was pretty risque back in the 60s.
She was a lovely woman of enormous talent, and yes, we are unlikely to see her kind again, sadly.
Remember that Hitchcock thought enough of her to use her to great advantage in The Man Who Knew Too Much.
Some of her RomCom acting makes me cringe but my wife loves it. And I love my wife.
I agree with everything but with a slightly different perspective maybe. So many celebs end up being destroyed by their fame, or debased or even perverted and corrupted by it. They get into drugs or start having problems with booze or sex and people revel in it. They seem to love watching their sainted celebs fall to ruin the way they did with Elvis or Marylin. To my knowledge, Day escaped all that and remained a class act all the way. She is the last of a fading generation of better Americans that were raised and lived in better times.
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