—Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, 1922-2019)
Shell, 1927
With owner’s inscription in Insular script ’+ÆDELFLED+MIE+Ah’ (for Æðelflæd me ah ‘Æ. owns me’). Via: English History is a Trip, Man
Betsy Pickering on Wall Street, 1958
Back Seat Romance, Manhattan, New York, USA, 1960
Portrait of Berthe Morisot
circa 1870/71
oil on canvas
Height: 150.2 cm (59.1 ″); Width: 114 cm (44.8 ″)
Rhode Island School of Design Museum
—Doris Day
The Cradle, 1872
oil on canvas
Height: 56 cm (22 ″); Width: 46 cm (18.1 ″)
Musée d’Orsay
The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Katherine Carpenter, Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, New York, 1965
Oil on canvas: 40 3/16 x 60 1/8 in
Fykesunds bru im Hardanger Fjord, 1959
—Doris Day
35 x 38”. Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
Union City Drive-In, Union City, 1993
Saphyr
Tobi Kahn, American, b. 1952
United States, 2002
Acrylic on wood
27 1/2 × 22 1/4 × 9 1/2 in. (69.9 × 56.5 × 24.1 cm)
Collection of The Jewish Museum, NY.
Morning Light
oil on canvas, 1914 Height: 86.36 cm (34 in.), Width: 86.36 cm (34 in.)
Montmartre, Paris, 1948
Its the end of an era. Doris Day was one of the most popular female vocalist and during the late 1950’s and 1960’s Day’s films were constantly in the ten top films of each year.
Here’s how I met Doris Day quite unexpectedly. This was back in 1998 back then I belonged to a Model A Ford Car Club that was based in the San Francisco Bay Area and we were on a tour driving the perimeter of California and the last night we stop in Carmel. Since we had a small 10 pound terrier mix named Maria we had to stay at a pet friendly hotel. The Cypress Inn was the name of the hotel that Doris Day co-owned along with her business partner Dennis LeVett.
While waiting for my partner to check in with the rest of our group I decided to sit down in the lobby with Maria on my lap. A few minutes later a lady sits down in the chair next to me and starts asking questions about Maria. I told the lady that she was a rescue and that seemed to perk her interests more. As she was talking I noticed her that her voice sounded kind of familiar I figured it out that the lady whom I was talking to was Doris Day. Well I was floored the reason why I did not recognize her was that she was wearing a kind of cloche hat that was pulled down around her ears. We talked for another 15 minutes about dogs and rescue dogs. As she was leaving I told Doris how much I admired her and that I’ve seen all her films. She laughed when I mentioned that. Back in 2010 I wrote to Doris Day telling her that I had to put Maria to sleep and that she was 18 years old which even for a little dog is an achievement. A few weeks later a sympathy card arrived from Doris Day telling me how sorry she was but she told me to get another rescue dog.
Doris Day will be sorely missed but her films and recordings will live on and will be entertaining us for decades to come.
She had a good heart
Another fabulous and thought=provoking post, Robert. Well done.
Thar watch may be fun, but it is also a little disturbing too! I will give the designer credit for such an original design though!
The car looks “over-sized”. I expect the Art Deco roadsters to look smaller, but the front end on this one looks big (is that a port-a-potty in the background of the photo?)
Doris Day is an enigma to me. I read some recent articles calling her a sex goddess — comparing her to Kim Novak and others — but I always felt she came across as a “Miss Goody Two Shoes”. I am reminded of Oscar Levant quote “I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin” — not exactly how I would describe a “sex goddess” (like Novak). I enjoyed Pillow Talk, but I think “The Man Who Knew Too Much” was my favorite Doris Day movie.
Bill: I can understand her “totally rotten life” comment. According to her own quote, she wanted to be a “good wife” more than anything else. She had 4 failed marriages, including 1 husband who beat her and another who abandoned her. One husband bilked her out of 20 million dollars and that forced her to work in TV to make a living (she did not like doing TV). Her son, Terry Melcher, was briefly associated with the Charles Manson situation in the 60’s, then he later died of melanoma.
It sounds like she had to deal with a lot of heart-breaking history!
Have a good weekend everyone!
I love those B & W pictures from the 40s and 50s of small children who were best friends.
Doris Day – Robert I think within a few months we are the same age.
Growing up in the 50s I think Doris was one of those rare stars who also had a big musical presence on the radio. Bing Crosby, Barbara Streisand, Doris Day – can you think of any others?
I’ll always think of her and and this song. .
Whenever I drove up Hwy 1 I wondered where she lived in Carmel. Wherever it was – it was big – 14 acres. I think it was off Carmel Valley Road, which is a great 37 mile driving road from Carmel to US 101.
How could she think she had a rotten life?
She had so much talent, and incredible success, but she made some bad choices with men, in a time and a place where that could be disastrous. Unusually, though, Day seemed very level-headed and mentally strong, so she weathered it better than most, and even seemed to thrive when she effectively left the entertainment industry in the ’70s.