Doris Day

            Doris Day, age 97, passed away early this morning, May 13, 2019, at her Carmel Valley, California, home. She was born Doris von Kappelhoff and dreamed of a dance career. Her dream ended when she was 12 years old when her leg was badly broken when a train hit the car that she was in. As she was recuperating, she listened to Ella Fitzgerald on the radio and tried to learn the subtleties of her voice. 

            Then known as Doris von Kappelhoff, Day’s first singing gig was at a Cincinnati radio station. From there she went to a local nightclub and then to New York. Her long last name would not fit on a marquee, so a bandleader changed her name to Doris Day, supposedly after the song “Day after Day.” According to James Garner, she was a natural born actress. She was in her early 20s when she starred in her first musical hit, “Sentimental Journey” in 1945 where she sang with the Les Brown Band. She starred in her last film “With Six You Get Eggroll” in 1968 and retired from movies the same year after the death of her husband, Martin Melcher. She turned to television where she had moderate success, and then turned her attention to the Doris Day Animal Foundation.

            Day was unlucky in marriage. She first married in 1941 at age 17 to trombonist Al Jorden. She was eight months pregnant when he beat her, and they divorced in 1943. She married George Weidler in 1946, and they divorced in 1949. She married Martin Melcher in 1951, and he died in 1968. She married Barry Comden, a maître d’ in Beverly Hills in 1976, and they divorced in 1982. She had one child, a son named Terry who took the last name of Melcher. 

            Like Debbie Reynolds, Doris Day was one of the movie stars from my childhood. She has been described as being “cheerful as a sunrise,” and I agree. I appreciated the clean comedies that she starred in and was sad when she retired.