Happy Birthday Doris Day!!

If you’re under 50, the name Doris Day may mean absolutely nothing to you. Sure, you may have a vague recollection of her name being part of the lyrics to the popular 1980’s Wham tune, “Wake Me up before you go” or some years earlier, in the stage and film versions of “Grease”.

Of course if you’re a fan of Turner Classic Movies, she’s one of those names that pop up with regularity and her name will be forever linked with the late Rock Hudson with whom she co-starred in a hugely popular series of romantic comedies.

As hard to believe as it might be, today is Doris Day’s 89^th birthday.

The former big-screen “Girl next door” has resided, quite happily, in Carmel, California for the past 30 years or more. Her beautiful residence, high on a hill, has a stunning view that stretches for miles and miles. She also runs a pet-friendly hotel, The Cypress Inn, in Carmel and has advocated for many years for our four-leggers - dogs and cats, through her Foundation.

Her dozens of Gold Records and reminders of her years as a major star are nowhere in sight at her comfy home. She’s no Norma Desmond, desperately clinging to a career long gone.  Doris Day lives in the “now”, although the thousands of fan letters she still receives monthly, remind her of the impact and influence she had during her long reign.

Doris Day began her career as one of the most popular Big Band Singers of the day. With Les Brown she scored such huge successes as “Sentimental Journey”, before going to Hollywood in 1947 and starring in nearly 40 films during the next two plus decades.

To this date she remains the number one, most popular female box-office star in motion picture history according to the Motion Picture Herald’s Quigley Polling which has charted the top box-office attractions for over 80 years.

In comedies like “Pillow Talk”, in drama’s like Hitchcock’s well-remembered “The Man Who Knew Too Much”, musicals such as “Calamity Jane” and biographical films like “Love Me or Leave Me”, she sang, danced and acted with a skill shown by few and at the same time becoming the top selling female recording artist at Columbia, with more than 1,000 recordings.

Although naysayers would have us believe she played a “virgin” in dozens of films, a revisit to the films shows that instead she often played a modern career woman who refused to be duped by a man solely interested in adding a notch to his belt.

When she switched to television in the late 60’s and early 70’s, her weekly comedy series on CBS was watched by an average of 30 million viewers.

After writing a number-one best-selling autobiography in 1976, she chose to walk away from the fame and fortune, returning briefly to host a pet-related series in 1985/86 before moving to Carmel and continuing her work on behalf of animals.

If you’ve never seen a Doris Day movie, check one out and if you’ve not seen one in years, you might be surprised at how well they’ve held up.

For me, she’s been a friend and confidante ever since, as a 9 year old in the early 60’s, I wrote a fan letter to her and started a friendship that has endured.

Doris Day’s philosophy of life is well summed up in the title of her biggest recording success, the Oscar winning, “Que Sera, Sera”……”whatever will be, will be….”

Happy Birthday Doris Day.