Althouse: "She had a heart of gold and was a very funny lady who I shared many laughs with."

May 14, 2019

"She had a heart of gold and was a very funny lady who I shared many laughs with."

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Paul remembers Doris Day: 'So sad to hear of Doris Day passing away. She was a true star in more ways than one. I had the privilege of hanging out with her on a few occasions. Visiting her in her Californian home was like going to an animal sanctuary where her many dogs were taken care of in splendid style. She had a heart of gold and was a very funny lady who I shared many laughs with. Her films like 'Calamity Jane', 'Move Over, Darling' and many others were all incredible and her acting and singing always hit the mark. I will miss her but will always remember her twinkling smile and infectious laugh as well as the many great songs and movies she gave us. God bless Doris.’ #DorisDay #PaulMcCartney
A post shared by Paul McCartney (@paulmccartney) on May 13, 2019 at 8:44am PDT

56 comments:

iowan2 said...: Number two. Tim Conway has passed. I wonder who will be #3; 5/14/19, 3:34 PM
Big Mike said...: And don't forget that her acting skills helped make Rock Hudson appear to be a heterosexual.; 5/14/19, 3:36 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Liked her, sorry that she has passed, but not a big fan of her movies. She was a goody-two shoes version of Marilyn Monroe, and it didn't quite work cinematically. But, rest in peace. She had a great long life.; 5/14/19, 3:46 PM
Seeing Red said...: Peggy Lipton, Doris Day, Tim Conway.; 5/14/19, 3:49 PM
William said...: Her voice, looks, and the songs she sang were all in sync. Her private life probably wasn't that much in sync with her persona. Four marriages, one of them to a super heel who bankrupted her. Her married life was not so wholesome and cheery. Is it any wonder that she turned to bestiality in her later years.; 5/14/19, 3:51 PM
Seeing Red said...: I still like Pillow Talk, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies and The Glass Bottom Boat. Sue me.; 5/14/19, 3:52 PM
Heartless Aztec said...: Of all the things she did her birthing her son Terry (Melcher) meant the most for my generation of musicians. He produced the first two Byrds albums and was instrumental in defining the California sound in pop music in the mid 1960's. You can have your torch songs sung to Harry's trumpet or Pillow Talk with Rock. I'll take the way Turn, Turn, Turn sounded pressed on vinyl and give Doris a big kiss for that great son of hers.; 5/14/19, 3:54 PM
Earnest Prole said...: So virginal she turned Rock Hudson gay.; 5/14/19, 3:56 PM
tcrosse said...: In Love Me Or Leave Me (1955) she played '20s torch singer Ruth Etting with Jimmy Cagney as a bad-tempered gangster. She played it against type, and was quite good. But it's not the feel-good movie of the season.; 5/14/19, 4:02 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: Terry Melcher was also half of "Bruce & Terry" with Bruce Johnston. When Johnston joined The Beach Boys, Melcher kept in touch and did a good bit of writing for them much later. In particular, what once seemed like it would be the last great Beach Boys song:

Somewhere Near Japan

not to mention the often dissed, but still great:

Kokomo.; 5/14/19, 4:03 PM
Michael K said...: that great son of hers.

Who Charlie Manson was after when he sent his band to Terry's home which had been rented to Roman Polanski. His wife, Sharon Tate, was home with friends when they arrived.; 5/14/19, 4:03 PM
rehajm said...: Kinda before my time- I managed to catch reruns of her show on channel 5 long after. I spent some time in Carmel Valley and managed to see her out and about a couple of times. As may have been mentioned the local radio station played her music on her birthday and she would call in to thank them. Her devotion to animals was both admirable and understandable...; 5/14/19, 4:06 PM
Wince said...: I always thought of Doris Day when I heard this.

"'I Dig a Pygmy', by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids...

Phase One, in which Doris gets her oats!"; 5/14/19, 4:10 PM
Heartless Aztec said...: @Michael K - I have a demo or two that Charlie cut with, I presume, Terry. One of them "Look at Your Game Girl" wasn't a half bad song and performed well enough by Charlie. But Terry was correct. There wasn't enough there to carry an album - or even a single. Professionally he made the right call to tell Charlie no. Socially he also made the right call to move and ditch Charlie and his Malibu Canyon trippers at the Ranch. Saved his life that one; 5/14/19, 4:14 PM
pacwest said...: My childhood crush.; 5/14/19, 4:15 PM
Tank said...: When I was getting into music (early Beatles, Rascals, etc) her music was "not cool." Never did go back to listen. But, listening now, she had a very listenable voice, and a good voice, and good, interesting technique and phrasing, and is quite enjoyable to listen to.; 5/14/19, 4:19 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: Manson also latched onto Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson (who later feared for his life) and contributed the song "Cease to Exist" which Wilson re-worked (taking the writing credit) as Never Learn Not To Love. It's a pretty good song.; 5/14/19, 4:21 PM
Shouting Thomas said...: A cliche among Big Band musicians: “I knew Doris Day before she became a virgin!”

She was a great Big Band singer and she liked to have a good time.; 5/14/19, 4:23 PM
Darrell said...: Peggy Lipton?

Don't know if my odds of marrying her increased or decreased.; 5/14/19, 4:25 PM
Lydia said...: John Updike had a very big crush -- even wrote a poem about it:

Her Coy Lover Sings Out

Doris, ever since 1945,
when I was all of thirteen and you a mere twenty-one,
and “Sentimental Journey” came winging
out of the juke box at the sweet shop,
your voice peircing me like a silver arrow,
I knew you were sexy.

And in 1962, when you
were thirty-eight and I all of thirty
and having a first affair, while you
were co-starring with Cary Grant in That Touch of Mink
and enjoying, according to the Globe,
Doris’ Red-Hot Romp with Mickey Mantle,
I wasn’t surprised.

Now in 2008 (did you ever
think you’d live into such a weird year?)
when you are eighty-four and I am seventy-six,
I still know you’re sexy,
and not just in reruns or on old 45 rpms.
Your four inadequate husbands weren’t the half of it.

Bob Hope called you Jut-Butt, and your breasts
(Molly Haskell reported)
were as big as Monroe’s but swaddled.
Hollywood protected us from you,
they consumed you, what the Globe tastefully terms
the “shocking secret life of America’s Sweetheart.”

Still, I’m not quite ready
for you to breathe the air that I breathe.
I huff going upstairs as it is.
Give me space to get over the idea of you -
the thrilling silver voice,
the gigantic silver screen. Go
easy on me, Clara, let’s take our time.; 5/14/19, 4:45 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: They don't know we're out here, as far as we can tell
So jamming all our senses with advertising hell and late-night movie heaven is accidental, well, details at eleven
But Doris Day the earth stood still, the hippest chick on Thurth
Let's live always the dream they beam from planet Earth
All our tentacles entwined, snow-blind and without sound

Doris Day the earth stood still, you make my world go round
You grow a new antenna
The signals multiply with ads for soap and henna
The products we can't buy
And all across the asteroid
Everyone will die unless we send the gas droid

--Future Bible Heroes; 5/14/19, 5:01 PM
rcocean said...: Loved Doris Day, I'm glad she lived a long life. It amazing that she was just 4 years older then Marilyn Monroe. I liked her singing too, even though I didn't find out she was a big recording artist until I got to College and got interested in old music and classic film

Before that, I just thought Doris Day was just a TV star who, for some reason, would sing now an then. Same thing, with Shirley Jones. I thought she'd be hired because she was David Cassidy's Mom.; 5/14/19, 5:15 PM
rcocean said...: One of the Beatles knew Doris Day? Now, that's funny. And sad that Tim Conway is gone. Very funny guy, like Don Knotts.; 5/14/19, 5:17 PM
tpceltus said...: Interesting comment by McCartney. Andre Previn did a jazz album with her.; 5/14/19, 5:25 PM
Yancey Ward said...: I didn't hear about Lipton until I saw the comment above. I had seen her before, of course, but I fell in love with her from Twin Peaks. I hadn't seen her in anything until the Twin Peaks revival on Showtime a couple of years ago, though her role was basically just one scene out of 18 episodes. I am big fan of her daughter, Rashida Jones.; 5/14/19, 5:31 PM
Wilbur said...: Doris Day had better diction, for want of a better word, than any singer I ever heard.; 5/14/19, 5:32 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Basically, my introduction to comedy was The Carol Burnett Show, and Conway was the most talented of the troupe.; 5/14/19, 5:32 PM
Gilbert Pinfold said...: Oscar Levant was the person who coined the line “I knew her before she was a virgin”. Underestimated wit, and a good movie actor and pianist.; 5/14/19, 5:39 PM
Heartless Aztec said...: I'm guessing here - Terry Melcher was hanging with the Byrds and Beatles in LA. The Fabs would be very aware if Terry's producing work with the Byrds, Beach Boys, etc. He was an insider with as much right to hang with them as anybody in the business. They were all friends. It's a short question to Terry- "Oh your mum is Doris Day?"; 5/14/19, 5:43 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: Always sad when a child predeceases a parent.; 5/14/19, 5:45 PM
rcocean said...: "Underestimated wit, and a good movie actor and pianist."

If you're talking about Doris Day, yes. If talking about Oscar Levent, you got the "Good actor" part wrong. Very, very, wrong.; 5/14/19, 5:46 PM
rcocean said...: Terry Melcher was a great guy - unlike his dad. Sad Doris outlived him, but he did live to be 63. Its not like he died at 18.; 5/14/19, 5:47 PM
Michael K said...: Socially he also made the right call to move and ditch Charlie and his Malibu Canyon trippers at the Ranch. Saved his life that one

Harold True also made a good decision when he was not home when Charlie came calling.

According to trial testimony, Manson and other Family members had been to True’s rented home at least three times and once attended an “LSD” party at the home which was located in the Los Feliz section of Los Ageles at 3267 Waverly Drive (about a year before the murders), which happened to be the house next door to 3301 Waverly Drive Los Angeles, California, where the Manson family committed the Labianca murders in 1969. Also in trial testimony True stated that he lived at the address from the early part of 1967 until September of’1968.

The house between those two houses was owned by Dr Howard House, a famous ENT physician, and a friend who was also not home that night.; 5/14/19, 6:05 PM
William said...: Al Jolson was perhaps the biggest singing star of the twenties and thirties. He has not aged well. Not much demand for a blackface version of Mamie or Swanee River. I wonder if Doris will suffer a similar fate. Will future generations look upon her pretend chastity the way we look upon Jolson's blackface? Was it pretense of artifice?......I don't know what were the virtues of Doris Day in her private life, but she certainly seemed cheery and wholesome and that quality carried over to her singing voice. She could sing Dylan's Desolation Row and make it sound like a wonderful place to live.; 5/14/19, 6:10 PM
rhhardin said...: She closed out a lot of celebrity death pools, is the report.; 5/14/19, 6:16 PM
rcocean said...: I wonder if Doris will suffer a similar fate. Will future generations look upon her pretend chastity the way we look upon Jolson's blackface?

Bizarre. Al Jolson has been forgotten because he was -frankly - a mediocre singer. Once guys like Como, Sinatra, Martin, and Crosby came along, no one wanted to listen to Jolson.

Doris Day, OTOH, was a great singer. And people still think she's a great singer. Her movies were funny, because she was a great light comedic actor, not because she "Played a chaste virgin". You sound like you either never saw "Pillow talk" or her other comedies, or you're just plain dumb.; 5/14/19, 6:20 PM
rcocean said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/14/19, 6:25 PM
rcocean said...: Here's the thing about Doris Day. When She was incredibly popular in the 50's and 60's then liberals critics sneered at her, and bad-mouthed her. Then, when she became forgotten in the 80s and 90s, SOME of the "Sophisticates" starting liking her.

You see the pattern today. If all the average Joe's like X, then all the "sophisticates" sneer and hate it. That's what being a SWPL is all about. It's really boring.; 5/14/19, 6:25 PM
Rory said...: Linda McCartney was also very interested in animal issues.; 5/14/19, 6:56 PM
CaroWalk said...: A class act. A unicorn, that is to say, in contemporary Hollyweird.; 5/14/19, 7:08 PM
madAsHell said...: Doris Day was great, but could she do dead-pan humor like Tim Conway!?!?!?

Goodbye, Ensign Parker!!; 5/14/19, 7:16 PM
Hugh said...: Surprised that no one has mentioned The Man Who Knew Too Much, the 1950’s remake by Hitchcock of his 1930’s British film. Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day starred. SPOILER ALERT The end when she is singing Que Sera Sera, a reprise of earlier in the film and now belting it out as loud as she can in the embassy in the hope that her abducted son, who the kidnappers have decided that they must kill, will hear her. That along with the ending of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (also starring Jimmy Stewart along with John Wayne and Lee Marvin), should be in the dictionary or encyclopedia (both on line of course) as illustrations of irony.; 5/14/19, 7:24 PM
S. said...: My mom (70) loved Doris Day and so did I. I was raised on Doris Day movies. My mom always said she knew she'd "arrived" when she had a coat to cover every situation much like Doris did in many of her movies. Whenever "Pillow Talk" is on TCM we call each other and to comment on the number of matching coats. My mom texted me when Doris Day died and said "I feel like I should go out and buy a coat in her memory." Doris Day will always be aces in my book.; 5/14/19, 8:53 PM
Quaestor said...: Who Charlie Manson was after when he sent his band to Terry's home which had been rented to Roman Polanski.

Didn't know that. Thank you, Michael.; 5/14/19, 9:29 PM
JML said...: I have a friend who is married to a long retired producer. They left Hollywood years ago, with one reason being they could not stand the pretentious and shallow bastards who lived and worked there. She has nothing bad to say regarding Doris Day.; 5/14/19, 9:40 PM
Jay Vogt said...: I think in his autobiography, Jim Garner said she "had the best tush in Hollywood". I think he was a gentleman, but I bet that quote isn't quite accurate.; 5/14/19, 10:14 PM
William said...: Count me as a fan of Doris Day, but I'm not posterity. I can assure you that contemporaries of Al Jolson thought he was the bee's knees and felt the world had suffered a great loss when he passed. I like to think the optimistic inflections in Doris Day's voice caught not just the mood of her moment in time but of all subsequent generations. How will posterity great her? Que sera, sera.......Louis Armstrong's star now shines brighter than that of Bing Crosby.; 5/14/19, 10:56 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: Of course sometimes their stars shone together..; 5/14/19, 10:59 PM
Kathryn51 said...: Hugh said...Surprised that no one has mentioned The Man Who Knew Too Much

My favorite Doris Day pic as well - partly because another fave (Jimmy Stewart) was also in it. And Hitchcock. All around great movie.

I loved the "chastity" movies - Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, The Thrill of it All. And now Allyssa Millano is attempting a 360 degree return to chastity - ship has sailed, sweetheart.; 5/14/19, 11:12 PM
Joe said...: Who Charlie Manson was after when he sent his band to Terry's home which had been rented to Roman Polanski.

Except it's likely not true. Terry didn't own the home,he'd been renting it, and Manson had been to the home since Terry and his girlfriend, Candace Bergen, left and was told they didn't live there anymore. Mason, or one of his minions, even left a note on Terry's porch in Malibu.; 5/15/19, 12:17 AM
Joe said...: What I found most interesting about Doris Day is that she got much more attractive as she aged. Even when younger, I found her more attractive in her 30s and 40s than she was in her early 20s.

(Scarlett Johansson is doing the same.); 5/15/19, 12:27 AM
Fran Waxman said...: She loved animals of all kinds. Her kindness to animals is the main thing I'll remember about her.; 5/15/19, 7:15 AM
Craig Howard said...: Is it any wonder that she turned to bestiality in her later years.

At least she never lectured us on whom we should vote for.; 5/15/19, 7:39 AM
MacMacConnell said...: Joe said...
"What I found most interesting about Doris Day is that she got much more attractive as she aged. Even when younger, I found her more attractive in her 30s and 40s than she was in her early 20s."

Studies have shown women's looks are at their peak at 37.

Day had a great voice and was a serious actress. If you don't believe she had a great body you haven't seen enough of her movies. God bless Doris Day.; 5/15/19, 9:25 AM
EAB said...: Doris Day was underrated as a dramatic actress (see “Young at Heart”), and she was a brilliant comedian. Not just in her timing, but in her physicality. I’ve never understood the “virginal” moniker. In Pillow Talk, her clothes were designed to highlight her amazing figure, and there is the suggestion the weekend away with Rock won’t be chaste. She is sexy as hell in it. It’s ridiculous but very funny. She and Rock were a great pair.; 5/15/19, 9:35 AM
rcocean said...: Yes, Doris Day was really a good actress. Nobody did "neurotic" or "terrified" better. She's great in "Love Me or Leave Me", "Man who Knew too much" and "Juila".

Unfortunately, she didn't like doing dramas. She wanted to do comedies and fun movies.; 5/15/19, 6:29 PM