Doris Day: A Sentimental Journey

There's not a year goes past when I don't listen to these all over again.

And yet the first year I was a movie critic

was the last year that Doris Day made a movie,

and I scored all kinds of cheap shots at her expense,

all those one-liners about how she was Hollywood's perennial virgin.

Took me a while to get back in touch

with the fact that Doris Day had always been my favourite movie star,

the one I admired the most and the one I liked the most.

Maybe her talent was so big she just made it all look too easy,

but she could sing, she could dance,

she could make us laugh and she could make us cry.

Join us now for A Sentimental Journey With Doris Day.

-NEWSREEL:

-A gala turnout in filmland for the Hollywood premiere of Midnight Lace.

Doris Day, star of the new film, arrives.

She just kinda glowed, for me.

Not the only star in the sky, but certainly one of the brightest.

The Village Theater in Westwood

is the scene of the California premiere of The Thrill Of It All.

The picture stars Doris Day, who is escorted by her husband,

-Marty Melcher, to the glittering affair.

-Those eyes, the light,

the intelligence, the intensity, the emotion, the humour, all those.

She didn't know how good she was!

And another luminary to receive the award is lovely Doris Day.

I think that Doris Day

is probably the most underrated, underappreciated actress

that's ever come out of Hollywood.

The organisation's Star of the Year award is presented to Doris Day

by TOA president Albert M Pickus with a special citation to Miss Day.

She could do anything.

It was that up spirit, thumbs up as opposed to thumbs down.

And her life was not that happy.

The evening ends on a beautiful note as Doris Day receives the accolade from Film paper.

It's Miss Day's night!

I'm still Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff!

From Cincinnati, Ohio.

And, uh...

from a lovely family, and all I ever wanted was to get married,

have a nice husband and have maybe two or three children

and keep house and cook, keep the house nice and clean

and live happily ever after.

And I ended up in Hollywood.

And if I can do it, you can do it!

Anybody can!

MUSIC: "Sentimental Journey" by Doris Day

# I gotta take that sentimental journey

# Sentimental journey home

# Sentimental journey. #

Doris Day was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1924,

the only daughter of William and Alma Kappelhoff.

Until her father abandoned the family when she was five years old,

little Doris lived in a perfect world.

I loved playing house.

And I pretended that I was married, and I always had babies,

and I would cook and I would say, "Oh, Daddy's coming home at 5:30,

"and I'm going to tell him what a good girl you were all day today."

I would go all day long like that.

Her father was a "professor" - in quotes - of music,

so she comes from a family in which

the piano and the organ and music was part of the life of their family,

because her father earned his living that way.

She took lessons and became an accomplished dancer.

Well, I started dancing when I was five.

I think I went to dancing school almost every day of the week.

My poor little grandmother would trundle me off and take me.

And I studied acrobatics, ballet and toe,

tap-dancing, personality class,

and I thought maybe one day I might be a ballerina.

At age 13, Doris won an amateur dance contest

with her partner, Jerry Doherty.

Their prize money was set aside

for lessons at a famous dance academy in Hollywood,

and friends and neighbours gathered for a farewell party.

They went for a milkshake or something after the party.

They were in a car driven by one of her friends.

She was sitting in the back seat

with this young man who was in the dance with her,

and he made a mad dash for the railroad crossing,

hoping to beat the train. And he didn't.

Oh, this train wreck! The great train wreck.

Anyway, my leg was broken in many places,

and I didn't walk for a long time...

much less dance!

And that's when I started singing.

So every break is a good one.

During a long recovery, Doris passed the time

singing along with big bands on the radio -

the Dorsey brothers, Duke Ellington,

and her favourite vocalist, Ella Fitzgerald.

Impressed by her daughter's natural talent,

Doris's mother suggested she take voice lessons.

And don't you know that she took me to a classical voice teacher.

And it was the worst. It was just the worst! I hated it.

But then we found out about a woman named Grace Raine

from WLW in Cincinnati.

She couldn't sing a note, but she was a great coach. She was the best.

Anyway, we'd go over to her place on crutches.

She was on the second floor,

and I'd have to scoot up this long flight of stairs.

And we didn't have much money at the time,

and voice lessons are expensive,

but she thought that I had some talent and she said to my mother,

"I'm going to give her three lessons for the price of one."

Eventually, 16-year-old Doris was featured

in a weekly broadcast on WLW,

and a local band leader, Barney Rapp, was listening.

I sang a song called Day After Day.

And Barney Rapp heard me sing that song.

So when I came to him for my interview, he said,

"What's your name again? Doris Kapps?"

He made this awful face.

And he said, "That has to go. I hope you don't mind."

And he said,

"Y'know, I loved the way you sang that song Day After Day."

And he said, "I think maybe your name should be Day."

So you see, my first band was Barney Rapp and his New Englanders

in Cincinnati.

And my darling, precious mother would have to drive me

to and from work. And I was just a kid!

And I had beautiful gowns,

but she wouldn't let me put my gown on at home.

She said, "Your gown's going to get wrinkled in the car.

"You cannot wear it in the car. You have to dress there."

I said, "There's no dressing room!"

She said, "You dress in the ladies' room."

So there I would be, in the john,

and she would be saying, "Do you have your bra?"

Oh, I was so embarrassed!

# Big noise blew in from Winnetka... #

After a stint with Barney Rapp, Doris auditioned for Bob Crosby,

who was playing at the Blackhawk in Chicago.

I was so green and young, from Cincinnati, Ohio, and I didn't know very much,

and there I was, singing in front of that band,

with all these fabulous musicians behind me,

Jess Stacy at the piano and Nappy Lamare on guitar

and Eddie Miller on saxophone

and Bobby Haggart on bass - and I had a crush on him -

Ray Bauduc on drums and Billy Butterfield on trumpet.

And I was just...

I was just flabbergasted, singing in front of this band.

And I got the job!

Doris earned 75 a week travelling with Bob Crosby and the Bob-Cats.

The tour ended at the Strand Theater in New York,

where Les Brown heard Doris for the first time

and insisted that she join his band.

I think every man in the band was in love with her, in a sisterly way,

and she was a pal to everybody in the band.

We were very lucky to find a girl that didn't, uh, give trouble.

I can mention a lot of bands that had trouble with the girl singers

because they were troublesome!

# When we met

# I smelt love so lightly

# You can bet

# I responded brightly

# I said, "Dig me, Joe From top to toe

# "But so politely"

# When we danced

# And you held me tightly

# We romance

# Then I wake it slightly

# You said, "Solid jazz

# "Please scratch my back"

BOTH: # Well, so politely... #

'Les Brown is just the greatest guy in the whole world,

'as were all the boys in the band. They were all like brothers to me.

'We rode buses all day, and I lived out of a suitcase.

'It was just a hard routine,'

although I loved it.

But I always thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to work in the daytime

"and have your nights?"

# Is it love or is it conscription?

# Is this marriage epidemic fact or fiction?

# I see guys who used to falter

# Dashing madly to the altar

# Is it love or is it conscription? #

'It was the happiest time that I could ever have.

'But that's when I stopped my career,

'right at a fabulous time in my life,

'and said to Les,

'"I'm going to go home to Cincinnati and get married."'

He said, "You're going to do what? You're just starting!"

I said, "Well, I'm in love. I think."

She was with us only for about a year before she left to get married

to Al Jorden, who was a trombone player with Jim Dorsey's band.

They both went back to Cincinnati.

She had a child, and, uh...

So young. Not dry behind the ears.

My mother was furious. Everybody was angry with me.

And I married him. And I had my baby.

And then I left him.

He turned out to be quite a psychopathic, erm, individual,

with pathologic jealousy,

and mistreated and maltreated Doris in an outrageous way.

But one beautiful thing came out of that marriage,

my very first marriage, and that was my son.

And if I hadn't married this bird, I wouldn't have my terrific son Terry.

And so you see,

out of these awful experiences comes something wonderful.

# You're like a distant lost horizon, my love

# You're unattainable to me... #

'I started singing at WLW right away,

'and I was doing a show called Moon River'

that was on at midnight, from 12:00 to 12:30,

and it went all over the middle west.

Les Brown was travelling with the band,

and he was listening to the radio.

They were driving from one city to another.

And he said, "That's Dodo!

"That's Dodo, I know it's Dodo!"

#..you see? That sails across the sea... #

'And he called, and he said to my mother,'

"You've got to get her back with my band. You've got to talk her into it."

She said, "I don't think she'll go, because of Terry.

"If I know Doris, I don't think she'll go."

But I did.

And back with Les, and then all the good things happened.

# Gonna take a sentimental journey

# Gonna set my heart at ease... #

Sentimental Journey was incredible.

This was right after the war, and I remember when, at rehearsal,

after the dance job that night,

he passed out this music, gave me the sheet music.

I said, "That's a lovely title."

And he said, "Wait till you hear it."

We went right in the studio and recorded it.

It was released in January of '45,

and at that time, the war in Europe was pretty well finished,

and it looked like victory was just around the corner. And it was.

It makes me cry, almost, because all the...

..the servicemen, y'know, there they were, overseas,

and they were about to come home, and...

..the letters started coming in.

That song said so much, y'know?

-# Sentimental journey.

-#

And of course, it made Doris. Don't you think?

It brought her to the attention of the moguls out here in Hollywood.

And when she left the band - uh, I think it was in '47 -

she took a screen test and did her first picture

and was a big hit. She was a big hit.

And now it's history.

Well, there's so much in between there, y'know?

The big thing was that I was married.

Seems like I was always married.

But I was married.

This particular time, I was married, and we had broken up.

And I was singing at the Little Club in New York,

and that's when we broke up, on the phone.

I mean, you just don't do that.

And so I wanted to go to California

to talk with him and see if, y'know, we could maybe work things out.

Her second marriage, to musician George Weidler, couldn't be reconciled,

and Doris was devastated.

Her agent suggested that maybe a big Hollywood party might cheer her up.

At Hollywood parties, everybody has to get up and do something,

which I hate.

Maybe they don't do that now.

I don't know what they do in Hollywood.

But at that time, everybody was up performing all the time.

And they dragged me up to the piano, and they had me sing.

And Sammy Cahn was there, and Jule Styne,

and they said, "We're writing the score

"for a new movie for Michael Curtiz,

"and he's looking for an unknown.

"And she has to test."

The movie was called Romance on the High Seas,

and director Michael Curtiz discovered a star.

I didn't know anything about acting, and I told him that!

Y'know, I said, "You're taking a singer

"and putting her into a top spot in your film, the leading lady,

"and I haven't studied. And I would like to study."

And he said no.

He said, "I don't want you to study. No, no, no, no, no, dahlink."

And... And I didn't,

because he was the boss, and he said no.

Sometimes I think I should have.

Doris, paired with veteran actor Jack Carson, was a natural,

and in scene after scene she stole the show.

# When we walk hand in hand

# The world becomes a wonderland

# It's magic

# How else can I explain

# Those rainbows when there is no rain?

# It's magic... #

'The most important thing which Grace Raine told me

'was that when you sing, don't think of a big audience out there.

'Sing into someone's ear, a person. You're acting!

'She was right.'

# ..the magic is my love for you. #

Everyone knew that Doris Day could sing.

The surprise was her special gift for comedy.

-My dear young lady?

-Yes?

-I advise you to go to your cabin

-and get out of your clothes.

-I beg your pardon?

-Well, don't go in there. You'll be embarrassed.

-Embarrassed? Why?

-Well, nobody dresses first night out.

-They don't?

Even if it's chilly?

This I got to see.

'Jack Carson taught me so much.'

He taught me where to stand, how to move,

don't turn your head that way, it's not good, be careful,

always see where the camera is,

and all these little things, you know? He didn't have to do that.

# You sigh, the song begins

# You speak and I hear violins

# It's magic... #

Anybody who heard Doris sing never forgot her.

But when she did It's Magic,

I got involved with more weird people because of her It's Magic.

I mean, somebody that you were out with

that you didn't think was that swell,

you'd listen to Doris for a little while and they looked wonderful!

So I've got to get even with her for that someday.

# When in my heart I know

# The magic

# is my love for you. #

In her very first film, she, in effect, became a star overnight,

because she did have this dazzling personality, she had confidence,

an intensity and a freshness.

There was something quite unlike anybody else about her.

After that first picture, the public took her to their hearts,

and they just didn't want to let her go.

She just kept going and going, because she had that something.

Don't stop me now! I'm tickin'!

# I don't care what I did last night

# And the night before that And the night before that too... #

# I'll see you in my dreams... #

You haven't even said that you love me.

Well, gosh, what do you want? Moon, June, love, dove, that's my business all day!

-Mr Kahn.

-Yeah?

-Let's get down to business!

Warner Brothers signed Doris Day to a seven-year contract,

and she made two or three movies a year, most of them musicals.

Sparkling in every role, she became an accomplished actress

and a box-office hit.

God sure must think a lot of me for giving me you.

I loved every minute, but I never thought of going into the movies,

and becoming a movie star.

Then, when I had the opportunity, what was great to me

was the fact that I could have my son, and my mother,

and a nice little house.

So when I signed at Warner Brothers, I was thrilled

that I could be living like other people.

She felt that now she was a movie star,

she had to give a movie star's performance in everything she did,

and that meant coming to the set on time, being the last one to leave,

learning your lines, showing up.

It never occurred to Doris to say, "I'm a movie star, I'm having a week off,"

or, "I'll do that when I feel like it."

Not Doris. Doris did it.

# 10,000

# 400

# 36 sheep

# And one sheep that got away. #

He took it on the Lam!

'There were times when I didn't like scripts that I had to do.

'But a deal was a deal.'

# Oh what a fool I am. #

'I felt that it was wrong to go on suspension.'

My working in a film and being good in a film didn't depend on Jack Warner.

Someone much higher.

And I just put my trust where it was supposed to be.

And I just said, "I know that nothing is going to hurt me. I will give 100%."

# You get a mental kiss with every sheep I count

# Add them all together, that's a large amount

# Cos I've counted a trillion sheep

# How many?

# I've counted a billion sheep

# How many?

# Well, at least a million sheep

-# I know

-..how the numbers grow

# And I got about a million more to go

# 10,000, 9,000, 8,000

# 7,000, 6,000, 5,000

# 4,000, 3,000. #

Sheep.

Her agent and third husband Marty Melcher strongly reinforced Doris's dedication

to hard work, and her loyalty to the studio.

Marty was a very well-connected Hollywood agent,

and was the agent for Doris on all of her films.

He saw to it that Doris went from one film to another without drawing a deep breath.

But Marty Melcher, to all intents and purposes,

was a man devoted to Doris, devoting his life to her,

making the best possible deals for her and so forth.

During these happy times, Doris made two of her best Warner Brothers musicals,

and both of them turned out to be perennial favourites.

Moonlight Bay and Silvery Moon were filmed early on at Warner Brothers,

and they just...

..bring back such nostalgia for me when I think about them,

because we made the two films back-to-back.

And became a real family. We really did.

We just loved all being together.

I had a darling funny brother, we had a housekeeper who was a riot.

And a precious mother and father, and a handsome beau

'named Gordon MacRae. And I adored him.'

-Oh, William, I had a wonderful time.

-So did I, Marjorie.

And think, we might never have met if you hadn't taken a shot at me!

Oh, don't joke about that, I might have killed you!

What's one life, more or less, when all of Europe is bathed in blood?

Won't you come in and have a nice cold glass of buttermilk?

Remember when he sang Just One Girl? That lovely, lovely ballad.

And it was snowing, and he was coming over to my house for our date, to pick me up.

I think he was one of THE best singers ever, ever, ever.

# Just one girl

# Only just one girl

# There are others, I know

# But they're not my pearl. #

'Ah, when I see those movies, I laugh all the way through, remembering.

'They were sweet movies.'

# I'll be happy for ever

# With just one girl

# One girl

# One girl. #

Well!

My girl.

Doris was creating the image of the girls next door.

And every girl next door wanted to be like Doris.

She was wonderfully funny, and sympathetic and warm,

and she was tender, and she had everything that they wanted to be.

She was part of that whole '50s sense of optimism, and going forward,

and cheerfulness, cheerleader cheerfulness, and she was a tomboy.

Wait till I get out from under!

Here, I'll help you. There we go.

She was also resisting mightily feminine passivity

and all the various burdens that the '50s culture imposed on her,

so to me, she was a radical, somewhat revolutionary figure.

We're OK now. I got her going.

Yeah(!)

-Here, let me help you.

-It's getting cold.

Gee, Margie, you ruined your favourite dress!

Uh-uh. My favourite dress is the one you saw me in this afternoon!

Now, Marjorie, I thought we settled all that.

-You even said you'd be happy to wait till I got a job!

-I'm only teasing.

But you know something. I was just thinking.

We'd only have to wait half as long if I had a job and was saving along with you.

The business world's a man's world, and women have no right forsaking their sacred heritage.

Now they're even meddling in politics!

'To me, Doris Day is a symbol of female energy,'

trying to tell us always with the image,

what we can do - don't get downhearted,

don't let difficulties bog you, but bounce on.

# We'll be home tonight by the light of the silvery moon

# And my heart's a-thumpin' like a mandolin pluckin' a tune... #

Calamity Jane was an adventurous departure for Doris and a rousing success.

Calamity Jane is probably my favourite movie,

because that's the real me.

When I was a little girl, I was a tomboy, I loved climbing trees and skating,

and doing all the things that the boys did, yet I loved dolls.

So I'm a half and half mixture.

Yeah, there is something there, a crisp androgynous something

that is nice, really nice.

She has backbone,

and spunk, which I think give her a kind of stiffness in the mind.

Hey, wait a minute! You no-good...

You talk too much.

# In the summer, you're the winter

# In the finger, you're the splinter

# In the banquet, you're the stew

# Say, I could do without you

# In the garden, you're the gopher

# In the Levi's, you're the loafer

# Like an overturned canoe

# Well, I can do without you

# You can go to Philadelphia

# Take a hack to Hackensack

# Hey, I'll never ring a bell fer yer

# Or yell fer yer to come back

# In the question, you're the why

# In the ointment, you're the fly

# So I know some things are indispensable, like a buck or two

# If there is one thing I can do without, I can do without you! #

I'm always looking for insights into the real Doris Day,

because I'm stuck with this infatuation,

and need to explain it to myself.

I do think she is a terrific singer,

you feel this is a kind of ideal woman, singing these words.

# Now I shout it

# From the highest hill

# Even told the golden daffodils

# At last

# My heart's an open door

# And my secret love's no secret

# Any more. #

When I was a little kid I knew that she was a good singer,

but when I was in the business ten years or so

and I had the opportunity to work with so many different singers,

that's when I really appreciated how great she was as a vocalist.

And at this point, I really think that she and Ella Fitzgerald

were all by themselves in their ability to bring magic to a lyric.

Her instincts were so correct, her intonation is flawless,

she had a way of being very personal with a song,

so that she was absolutely perfect for the recording industry,

everything that she sang was absolutely to one person.

Her singing career was as successful as her movies,

and in between films, she lived in recording studios,

creating one gold record after another.

I think that Doris is a great singer.

I think she has got the most incredible phrasing,

and she can really...

She can make a lyric sound like it's smiling.

She can make a record sound like there's a smile,

or there's some kind of a tear behind it,

she can really create a visual effect, I think, with an audio art.

I think the idea of internalising love songs,

so it almost has a dreamy quality, is something that carried over to another generation entirely.

Love Me or Leave Me was Doris's first movie away from Warner Brothers,

and her husband Marty Melcher's first success in his new role as her personal manager.

Her co-star was the great James Cagney,

who played Marty Snyder, a two-bit Chicago gangster

obsessed with the career of Ruth Etting,

a singer who had clawed her way from cheap dance halls to centre stage.

I had made many musicals at Warner Brothers,

but this was an extravaganza, this was going to be a biggie.

And it was thrilling to me.

But I wondered if I would be right for that particular part.

Because I was always considered the girl next door.

You made us a nice little scandal tonight.

Fred Taylor's in hospital with a broken jaw!

He's lucky he's alive, so what?

-So Zigfield doesn't want me in the show, not if you're around!

-That don't hurt my feelings!

-He's a bigger jerk than I figured if he lets you go for free!

-Only I'm not going.

I was a hit tonight. A big hit. It's a chance to be somebody.

It's the Follies, it's Broadway!

It's a chance to meet decent people and to make friends.

It's what I've wanted and worked for, why should I leave it? What sense does it make?

-It doesn't have to make sense, it's the way it's going to be!

-You can't tell me what to do!

-I can!

-Marty!

-You think you own me?

-That's exactly right!

'You watched her grow up in that movie, and the depth,'

I think that's the first time we saw real depth in this lady,

she went much beyond that top-level or even the one underneath, she went all the way down.

-I'm right where I want to be.

-And I ain't good enough.

-I didn't say that!

-Well, say it! Have some guts, say it!

-All right! You don't belong here!

I can't help it, it's the way you act!

The way I've always acted, I never heard you holler!

It's rotten, dirty, and I hate it!

'There aren't enough words and accolades for Jimmy Cagney,'

as far as I'm concerned.

And we had a great time working together,

he's the most professional actor I've ever met.

Jimmy Cagney returned the compliment.

He once said "Doris Day perfectly illustrates my definition of good acting.

"Just plant yourself, look the other actor in the eye and tell them the truth."

You got to give her credit. The girl can sing.

About that, I never was wrong.

# I want your love but I don't want to borrow

# To have it today and to give back tomorrow... #

I think the same thing applies to Doris's acting as her singing,

it was seamless. I don't think she was given the credit she deserved.

# ..no love for nobody else... #

Love Me or Leave Me was both a critical and popular hit,

which firmly established Marty Melcher as the guiding force of Doris's career.

We worked very well together. But I wasn't with anyone but Marty.

I said, "I would like to be with so and so agency, or at that agency,

"they have so many great writers, producers and directors,

"and I'd like to be able to go with that,

"and be a part of one of those great projects."

"No, no, no. You're with me, and that's it."

I really felt that I should have had another agent.

Not my husband.

It really is not good for a relationship.

The romance goes out the window

when you suddenly feel you're married to your father.

But thanks to the persistence of Marty, Doris travelled to Morocco

to star in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. It was to become a classic.

I didn't want to go to North Africa. I love London,

but I do not like North Africa.

But we went, and of course I kept saying to Marty,

"Why doesn't Mr Hitchcock call Grace Kelly?"

And Marty was ready to clobber me, because he said,

"The script is so wonderful, you should be so grateful to be doing it," you know...

Anyway, we get to North Africa, and the first day of shooting,

I look around, and I see this mistreatment of the animals, and I couldn't bear it.

And they worked it out.

And all of the horses and their birds and the animals we used,

they were fat as toads by the time we left!

Doris plays a doctor's wife in this tale of espionage, murder and a kidnapped child.

Something like Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much,

which is one of her great films, this neurotic underpinning, this edge of hysteria,

and there's one scene,

they've just found out about the disappearance of a child.

You see the whole picture of this very traumatic marriage.

You know what happens when you get excited and nervous. Do me a favour.

Six months ago you told me I took too many pills.

Six months ago you weren't a witness to a murder. Now, come on. Sit down.

SHE WAILS

-Sit down.

-Why didn't you tell me?

-I wasn't sure until now!

-You did it!

-Let go of me!

-Sit down.

Lie down.

Oh, dear God.

I want my boy!

Please, please stop it.

Where has he been?

Forgive me. Forgive me.

'It was difficult.'

But, you see, the way I really think, that when you need something,

when you have to draw on whatever,

it's there. What you need is there.

And I know that. I'm very positive about that.

And it just happened.

SHE SCREAMS

I think that Doris Day is probably the most underrated, underappreciated actress

to ever come out of Hollywood, because she can sing,

she has a presence, she has personality, she can be sexy,

in a way that is almost too much to deal with,

you almost have the sense she had to be narrowed down in some way to make her more acceptable.

She's a many-faceted lady, she has terribly deep feelings,

the roots go all the way down to the centre of the planet. And she has...

there's a vulnerability. When you've been that kind of a superstar,

if you can maintain a vulnerability to the rest of the world, that says something about you.

In The Man Who Knew Too Much, Doris gave the world an Oscar-winning song.

I thought that it would make a good record, you know, for children, but I wouldn't buy it.

And, oh, I ate those words! Everybody bought it.

# Que sera, sera

# Whatever will be, will be... #

I don't see my films.

I see all the wrong things and I turn it off.

But sometimes a song will come on the radio that I've done,

a long time ago, you know, and I think, "Ah..."

And I'll listen, really listen.

And I'll feel so good inside, you know.

I'll say, "I did it, that was good."

# Teacher's pet

# I want to be teacher's pet... #

Teacher's Pet was a new kind of role for Doris Day.

The pretty girl next door had become a serious journalism teacher,

surprised by the romantic manoeuvring of a crusty newspaper editor.

-Oh!

-Oh, sorry.

-Come in!

Mr Gallagher, I'm so excited about this piece.

-Well, thanks.

-It's a brilliant job.

But, Mr Gallagher, you do think that someday you might consider

-giving up what you've been doing?

-Someday?

I'm giving it up right now.

I can see I've been wasting my time.

Mr Gallagher, I'm delighted!

We'll shake on it.

Mr Gallagher!

Oh!

So long, Professor.

The change that came in Doris's career

was happily coincidental, career-wise,

to what was happening to all of us.

We were all going through changes.

We were going from the '50s, where everything was Gloriosky Zero,

to the '60s, where...I mean, all kinds of changes

took place that are still taking place.

We're still feeling the residuals of that.

I didn't want to hurt you any more than I already had.

What you did to me is unimportant,

but what you did to the other students is inexcusable.

They pay their tuition, which they can ill-afford,

and after working hard at other jobs all day long,

they study or they come to class, because they'll sacrifice anything to gain a little more knowledge.

-Oh, now wait...

-Oh, I don't expect you to understand, Mr Gannon.

You're stupid...and I think you're proud of it.

And this makes you cruel.

Now, may I leave if you're finished?

Are you finished now?

I knew that Doris had something more than what she was doing,

and when the script of Pillow Talk was presented to me, the idea,

that is, there was nobody but Doris.

Doris... Who else could play what she could play?

Who else could be chic and sophisticated and stunning and lovely and funny and all that?

And that was Doris Day, and I decided to change her image completely.

This career girl had everything but love.

This bachelor had nothing else but.

They had absolutely nothing in common, except a party line.

Would you please get off this line?

And then the wooing got frantic.

If I may be so bold, I said, "Doris, you have the wildest ass in Hollywood, and you got to show it!

"Guys want to see it, and girls want to be like you, and if you change your image, maybe they will."

-INTERNAL MONOLOGUE:

-So that's the other end of your party line.

And so I called Jean Louis, who did her clothes,

and Larry Germain, who did wonderful hairdos,

and Bud Westmore, the make-up man, and I said, "Look, we got to change this gal.

"She is gorgeous, stunning, something very special, and the audience doesn't know about it yet!"

We wanted Rock Hudson for it, and he was afraid to do it, because he said,

"I can't do comedy, I don't know anything about comedy, I've never done it."

And...I said to him, you know, "The script is funny, you don't have to worry.

"When you have funny lines, you're funny."

Hello, hello, hello! Is anybody on this line?

Yes, I am on the line, would you please get off it?

All right, but you're on my half-hour.

Urr!

Rex? Rex, are you there?

Er, yes, ma'am, who was that?

Oh, my party line, a horrible little man.

He sure isn't very well-mannered.

Mannered? He isn't even worth talking about!

Now...what were you saying?

Uh, I'll be stopping by about 7:30.

All right. That'll be fine.

-Uh, Miss Morrow?

-Uh-huh?

I've never been much on making fancy speeches,

but I get a nice warm feeling being near you, ma'am.

It's like...like being around a pot-bellied stove on a frosty morning.

Oh, Rex!

What a lovely thing to say.

Doris and Rock had a wonderful chemistry,

and she helped Rock, she made him feel easy.

In fact, I think she was the pivot of why the entire picture worked,

because we all watched what she was doing,

and what she was doing was a language to all of us.

She didn't know how good she was!

She just knew she could do it.

And if it was that easy, it couldn't be much, I guess she figured. It...

It isn't that easy for the rest of us!

She was a natural.

SHE SOBS

'You know, we had a scene where she was crying.

'We're in the car and she's crying, then she's crying some more,

'crying in a different way and so forth.'

Now, everything you see on the screen they shot seven or eight times to get the one take they want,

and so all told there must have been 50 takes of her crying.

Jan...you've been crying for 60 miles now.

I-I know, but...

'And I was there when she was doing it.'

The director, Mike Gordon, would say, "Now, cry all out, you're just sobbing!"

SHE CRIES

'She would do it.'

That's all right, come on.

'He'd say, "Now you've calmed down, you're not crying any more,'

"but every now and again like a little baby, one sob comes."

She could do it! Real tears just came, she was remarkable.

SHE CRIES

I think that for every generation...

you...idolise people and you emulate and you are inspired by,

and that's what makes you want to be what you are,

that's what makes you want to be an actress or, you know,

an airplane pilot or an astronaut.

You have these idols, and she was my first, and I wanted to be Doris Day.

In all beehives, there are workers and there are drones.

This is a worker.

-Thank you.

-'The point about Doris Day is she was a working girl.'

She would have come to New York on her own, without any connections,

gotten herself a job through her own brains and ambition,

and had risen in the ranks of whatever advertising agency or whatever.

And she was there not to get a man.

She was there because she loved working, she was good at it.

And this to me was very exciting.

This was my image of the possibilities for women

suddenly opening up, of being able to come to New York and get a job,

and that's what people were doing in the '60s, and she really, in a sense, led the way.

I wanted to be her in every movie she was ever in.

I think that's the sign of a successful actress and a successful movie,

that you want to be that person, you want to live that life,

and that's the biggest...validation I can give her

is that she always made me feel like I wanted to be that person.

I consider her one of the greatest reactresses in the business.

No-one reacts to a line the way she does.

Nobody gets angrier better than Doris Day.

SHE YELLS FRUSTRATEDLY

You listen to me! No alcoholic beverage, no drug known to science,

no torture yet devised could induce me to stay married to you!

-That's it, let's discuss it.

-Uh!

-I have a job interview, and I have to go looking like this.

-He doesn't care.

Oh...

Please...

-Oh!

-Julie, please...

-I was right!

You are having an affair!

-Yes, and I'm a rat.

-Oh, you are!

-Julie, please!

SHE SCREAMS Shhh!

Oh, my darling. Oh, my darling, are you having another nightmare?

You'll go to jail for this.

-Now, Carol...

-Don't you touch me!

SHE SCREAMS Will you listen to reason?!

Let me tell you something, Mr Webster.

I wish I were a man right now.

Keep trying, I think you'll make it.

SHE SCREAMS

Whatever happened to my rights as a woman?!

But, Judy, what's wrong?

Ask Linda Bullard!

What are you doing?!

-I am filling this suitcase with my clothes!

-Oh, really?

And I'm going to continue to do it until you give up this asinine career and go back to being a wife!

-Go back to being a wife?!

-Yes!

-That's mine, give me that!

Gloria! Ooh!

Ooh!

Ooh! Ooh!

Oh, what?!

Ooh! Oh!

Oh!

There's a rhythm to comedy, and if you put one extra syllable or extra word in, you kill the laugh.

And Doris had a kind of an innate sense of that.

What are you doing?

I'm kissing you. Do you mind?

Not if you don't.

Well, relax. I'll keep you informed of my every move.

You have a beautiful back.

My mother always made me sit up straight.

I'm grateful to your mother.

And such attractive shoulders.

Swimming was compulsory at high school.

I'm grateful to the public school system.

There's so much to be grateful for

and so little time to be grateful.

There was a kind of laughter at Doris Day,

at the image of the perennial virgin, but it was a nervous laughter.

She was testing her men, putting them through their paces to see if they were worthy of her.

She was their...their shining star,

she was something that they could reach for.

Thousands and thousands of people all over the world

took Doris Day to their hearts.

And it was Doris Day who did it, she did it herself, believe me.

What do stars mean to us after all,

but they're kind of an indication of what people can be,

that we're...yes, lost and poor and in this small town

and our socks don't match, but nevertheless there are people up there

who are enacting humanity in this dazzling way,

and she was one of them,

so even to me she was a kind of directive image!

Not that I want to be exactly like Doris Day, but I'd like to be that good.

There's a man in Mommy's bed!

After a string a successful comedies in the '60s, Doris Day made what was to be her final film in 1968.

# Hallelujah! #

I made a film called With Six You Get Eggroll

that I really liked very much.

It was Marty's last film.

And I enjoyed that so much, and I really enjoyed working with Brian Keith, and...

That was sort of me, in that I felt strongly about that.

-Well?

-Nothing, I'm just trying to picture you running that lumber yard.

Well, I'm a whizz on a bandsaw if that interests you.

Can you run a home, too, take care of those kids and everything?

Now, that's difficult. Oh!

You ever find any time for yourself?

I manage. I have a housekeeper, Mrs Benson by name.

-Oh, yeah, I met her!

-And it all works.

'Marty became ill on that film.'

And, uh... I went through a terrible year, you know, when he passed away.

I didn't think I'd ever get over it.

It was after that death, when there had to be an accounting,

that it was discovered that all of her funds were gone,

that she was 500,000 in debt.

It was unreal, what happened to her.

To be number one in the world for ten years

and then suddenly find out that you didn't have anything?

She really thought she had 20 million when her husband died.

She didn't have anything.

Marty Melcher had entrusted most of Doris's earnings with an attorney and business partner who,

she charged, squandered the funds in reckless and self-serving investments.

Doris insisted on a lawsuit against him, persevered,

and in the end won a tremendous judgment against the lawyer.

I just knew that justice would prevail, I've known it all along,

and I was assured of that this morning.

Do you think almost 23 million is enough?

Oh, my goodness, it's... Re-living all of it just destroyed me.

'We went through hell for seven years in court.

'But I don't think Marty meant to do it.'

I think...

I think that he just trusted the wrong person...completely,

and found himself really in trouble.

At one point, she was spending 40,000 a month for legal fees

to try to get back some of the money that was hers.

She decided she'd do television,

so she plunged into The Doris Day Show, worked 18 hours a day,

did about five, six years of those, restored all of her finances,

and she's not only a survivor but she is a happy survivor.

# Que sera, sera

# Whatever will be, will be...

'Thank God I had that series, because that paid the lawyers,'

and we went seven years with that, and...

So that was a blessing, that was a real godsend.

She may look delicate, but she's a strong, self-sufficient,

intelligent lady.

She is a great actress, she's a great singer and a...a humanitarian.

Doris now lives in the tranquillity of the Carmel Valley in California,

close to her son Terry, her daughter-in-law Jacqueline and her grandson Ryan.

And it's here that Doris dedicates her time to her favourite cause,

the rights and protection of animals.

I just hope that I can really make it better for the animals.

I know I have, so far,

with my pet foundation.

And we've placed so many doggies and cats

in wonderful homes with terrific people,

and that is just thrilling to me.

And the Animal League, you know, if we can just...

get the animals out of the laboratories, I'll be very happy about that.

And we're trying to change the laws and make it better for the animals, make it a better world for them.

I don't think she has ever really thought of herself as, quote, "superstar."

She has chosen her way of life up in Carmel with all her animals,

that's been a personal choice,

but she doesn't go with an entourage wherever she goes,

she doesn't have to be in a clump of people to be impressing.

She's impressive without doing any of that.

Doris is my neighbour these days. She lives in Carmel Valley,

I live down in Carmel, and I see her frequently.

She comes to the fabulous Mission Ranch,

and I see her at her office, which is Safeway.

I just love going to the market.

I never had a chance to do that, you have to remember that, you see?

I was always working, and everything was brought to the house, delivered,

and so I didn't have that chance, and I really love it.

# I know I don't know you very well... #

'I'm very grateful,

'because I've had so many blessings.'

And I've had a lot of trauma in my life,

and I've lost so many loved ones, two-leggers and four-leggers.

And, uh...sometimes I feel like I can't go through it again, you know, but you do,

and then you say, "Well, I don't know...if there is a heaven."

I suppose this is heaven.

When everything is going well, it's heaven, isn't it?

It's heaven right here.

# As long as I am living

# That's how long I'll go on giving you my heart

# My heart

# If we ever get together

# My heart will have a head start on fate

# As long as I am living

# That's how long I'll go on giving you my heart

# I'm giving you my heart. #

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