Ms. Day, I will watch Teacher’s Pet tonight, the 3rd time.
26
"The v-word applied to Day signals the acceptance of an alibi that was never meant to be believed in the first place, the literal-minded gloss on a text that was only there to beckon us toward the subtext."
I only had to read that sentence about 5 times to understand the point, and the thesis of Scott's article.
For me, the most obviously sexy thing about Ms. Day was her voice. It was incredibly powerful and its lush, smoky rasp conveyed color and emotionality. Jazz standards like Sentimental Journey possess eternal palpable style. And if you examine the etymological origins of style it implies much rocking and rolling, as it were.
And A.O. is a movie dude, so maybe that isn't relevant.
45
"The v-word applied to Day signals the acceptance of an alibi that was never meant to be believed in the first place, the literal-minded gloss on a text that was only there to beckon us toward the subtext."
I only had to read that sentence about 5 times to understand the point, and the thesis of Scott's article.
For me, the most obviously sexy thing about Ms. Day was her voice. It was incredibly powerful and its lush, smoky rasp conveyed color and emotionality. Jazz standards like Sentimental Journey possess eternal palpable style. And if you examine the etymological origins of jazz, much rocking and rolling is implied.
And A.O. is a movie dude, so maybe that isn't relevant.
7
So deeply interesting to learn that Doris Day was the first choice for the Mrs. Robinson character in "The Graduate." Never mind what Hitchcock did with her. Just imagine what directorial genius Mike Nichols must have had in mind for this "walking semiotic riot" and for his project before she turned him down. He must have been so disappointed. And so are we.
67
I have to say that when "Jan Morrow" takes the Rock Hudson character to the nightclub with the black entertainers (the song "Roly Poly"), he was pretending to be "Rex Stetson," not "Brad Allen." He feigns a fake Texas accent to fool her - and succeeds - until she plays one of his songs which she has heard him croon to scads of other women as Brad ("You are my inspiration...(insert name here)...").
And the best line from "That Touch of Mink" with Cary Grant was Doris, stating, "You don't know the girls from Upper Sandusky!"
36
A big star in her era, but I think Mr. Potato Head has proven to be more influential in the long run.
7
Doris Day was a "virgin" in the Jungian sense. In her book "Women's Mysteries," Jung disciple Esther Harding describes the psychological virgin as one in herself, a woman who does what she does not to gain favor with anyone but because what she does is true.
In romantic comedy after romantic comedy, Day played working women who defended their integrity, their wholeness, their one in themselves-ness, more than any mores of the day. If the right man came along, so be it. But that wasn't the end in itself.
The endgame was to be herself. -- thegamesmenplay.com
155
A hip sex goddess? More like a clever woman disguised as an airhead, her roles almost always involved her outsmarting guys who underestimated her. Her personal life was less successful. She was betrayed by a string of men but she rose again, and used her success to become an advocate for dogs.
89
Jeanne Moreau, Maureen O'Hara, Madeline Kahn, Audrey Hapburn, and now Doris Day. All of my favorites are gone. All were beautiful and sexy and classy and never took their clothes off in their movies.
103
As my father referred to her as the "professional virgin" and my mother as the "world's oldest virgin" in the 60's, I never saw her movies until recently on TCM when I was bored one snowy day. I was shocked by how sexy she was. Seriously!
She knew what she was doing and the just out of reach aspect combined with the maybe not as far as you think is pretty powerful. Plus, the I don't need you at all, bud.
And I seriously doubt Hitchcock went anywhere near her during the making of "The Man Who Knew Too Much". Have the feeling he would have been dusting off the seat of his pants in a hurry!
64
Film Studies meets Womens Studies meets Intersectionality.
How can the writer keep a straight face while typing this stuff?
66
The snide brilliance of Oscar Levant was to say -- as I heard and watched him -- that he knew Doris "before" she became a virgin.
20
There is nothing more attractive than a person who sexy or sensual who does not broadcast it. Doris Day had this in spades; and certainly not from a lack of self-awareness. She knew she was doing. Very sexy. A woman in full.
God rest her soul.
111
Oh please. Throughout my lifetime, Doris Day was always the most sexless woman in the movies, and pairing her with Rock Hudson (who was gay) always emphasized that. Even though she was lovely, even in scenes where she bared some skin as in the photo above, one couldn't help but feel that you were staring at your mother or sister on the beach. Which doesn't in any way detract from her beautiful voice, sweet personality, and lovely appearance. Let alone her amazing and caring work for animals. RIP Doris, and let's not have the rest of us turn you into something you weren't.
53
@Mark I thought Shirley Booth was the most sexless woman in the movies.
31
I agree with @Elliott that Doris Day did not generally give off heat in her films -- mostly because that was not the image the studios used to sell her.
But I think that the single sexiest duet in any movie musical is the "There Once Was a Man" number from "Pajama Game", which she performed with the fabulous John Raitt. (Yes, he was Bonnie's father.) If you've never seen it, give yourself a treat and watch it on YouTube.
That film is another one in which she played a woman who both worked and took her work seriously, something almost never seen in the movies of the 50's and 60's. And although the plot follows the classic boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl-boy-gets-girl story line, the rift in the relationship is not the result of the usual frivolous nonsense. It's not because he forgot her birthday or she thought he was cheating on her after seeing him hug his cousin. Raitt is the manager at a pajama factory and Doris Day is the union rep who leads the workers out on strike, after their demand for a 7-and-a-half cent per hour wage increase is rejected. They have grown-up arguments, and Doris refuses to sacrifice her professional obligations to her romantic interests.
56
@cds333
I agree with you. She was great. I grew up with my mother taking me to all the Doris Day films, and she had so much talent. I believe one of the reasons my mother liked her movies was because the DD character was often a career person.
She could act she could sing, and she was an excellet dancer, too.
34
"She could sing" is an understatement. She was a singer.
60
It sure would have been interesting if she had played Mrs. Robinson. As someone slightly younger than Hoffman's character, I can say that it wouldn't have been hard for Day to seduce me. The interesting thing though would be seeing her handle Robinson's anger. It's hard to imagine Day being so ferocious, but if she'd pulled it off, she'd have been a lock for an Oscar nom, with pretty good odds of bringing the statue home.
32
Well put!
3
as for scrambling codes, don't forget "romancing a gay man" (rock hudson).
7
Reading the numerous articles about Doris Day since he death shows me that one had to have lived during her time in films, be raised and part of the culture at the time to fully appreciate her and those movies. As a young girl it was precisely "her" big city career woman I wanted to be, including the sexiness I recognized even then. Looking back, that persona was to me what Mary Tyler Moore's persona was to those right behind me. Yet Mary's nonsexual persona is still lauded as the groundbreaking inspiration of a generation, while the focus on Doris's is for the most part misunderstood and one of ridicule.
As far as 'sexy' goes, there were millions of men and women who thought she was sexy as hell, while thinking the same of Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren. There is no one kind of sexy.
201
I recall a Doris Day anecdote which conveys some of what her virginal image left out. While shooting a movie in Hollywood, Ms. Day arrived very early one morning to be made up for the days shooting. Her makeup man took one look at her fatigued, sleepy face and said, "Little Day, you've had a busy man".
27
1953, aged 6, [suburban Son of Madman] I drew a picture of a skunk and a heart, and I asked my mother to mail it to Doris Day as a Valentine Day card. I must have been onto that something funny. I wonder what Mom did with that card....
15
What are you saying here? That Doris Day exemplified a time in the last century when “sex” was considered by some as a naughty dirty thing and was therefore concealed under a veneer of pretense and niceness?
If that’s what you mean, that’s true, both in life as it was lived and, perhaps to an exaggerated extent, in movie fare from Hollywood.
But in your oblique way of writing, Mr. Scott, aren’t you being as coy as the movie portrayals? Also, are you insinuating that “coy” was hypocritical or false?
I lived through that era and while maintaining the niceness veneer was in fact sexually frustrating to many young people, when I look at today’s hook-up culture, I think there’s something positive to be said about niceness.
Nonetheless, Hollywood movies of that time were shallow baloney anyway. So-called “foreign films” coming out of France and England and Italy were welcome fresh air.
32
Sexual allure works differently for different people. When someone claims that Madonna's side-show sexuality frightens some men, I only hear a confusion between fear and distaste. Same with the louche, boozy, just-back-from-an-overdose-attempt contemporaries of Day: one-note glamour pusses who snatched Oscars by daring to "go without makeup" in a picture or by taking a supposedly scandalous role. Doris Day was only boring to people who rubberneck at train wrecks and think neuroticism lends something importance. Day's athleticism, intelligence, and dulcet voice were plenty hot for plenty of people. She was the blonde Venus the '50s required, and she had more talent than the actresses of the Lon Chaney school of prosthetics and gimmickry.
43
Watch it, hey, I'm Doris Day. I was not brought up that way! (Even Rock Hudson lost his heart to Doris Day.)
9
Funny how someone has to die in order for some perspective to be given to her true place in the scheme of things. She was women's lib before there was such a thing, and made those who came after look clumsy in their attempts to assert themselves and their gender.
24
Having grown up in the Sixties, Doris Day was indeed the icon of perky 50's out-of-touch corniness, albeit in a relentlessly nice way.
That changed drastically for me when Rock Hudson, former matinee idol, made his AIDS illness known. At the time, 1985, AIDS was synonymous with homosexuality and was untreatable. Hudson had stayed out of the public eye but agreed to appear on a show, on the Christian Broadcasting Network no less, that Day was hosting.
Neither Day nor the public knew of his illness but when he showed up at a press conference before the show was shot it was clear that he was very sick. Day didn't hesitate - she put her arms around him and gave him a big kiss. She also invited him to stay in her home during his illness and shielded him as much as she could from reporters, to whom he eventually had to admit that he had AIDS.
In a time when AIDS was little understood, relentlessly stigmatized and widely feared, particularly by the religious right, Doris Day defied her sponsors and her fans' preconceptions and offered nurturing and love to her old friend when he needed it most.
Bravo, Ms. Day. Thanks for helping us all to overcome stigma with compassion.
265
@Shar Thank you for posting that. As I always tell people who are surprised that I am such a die-hard Day fan, she was SO much more than what we saw on screen. The world needs more women like her!
69
Doris Day had a smile in her voice. Her movies made us feel good. We knew her role in Pillow Talk was silly, but we went to the movies for fantasy not reality.
47
Thank you Mr. Scott for this insightful appreciation. It's always strange when someone at the center of the culture of a past century dies, in somewhat obscurity, and few in this century know their importance. It happened with Mickey Rooney, who was repeatedly eulogized as Andy. In Doris Day's case, like Mickey, she was an astonishing entertainer, the likes of which we don't have now (actually, John Travolta, if he could get out of there) -- a stellar singer and actor, and coincidentally, a stunning beauty. In Day's case, you summed it up best: "She is a walking semiotic riot with a pert nose and a winning smile, keeper and scrambler of a whole book of social norms and cultural codes." You hit it right on. Day was in some ways such a self-assured, confident and decent person, the force of her personality came through the roles and in her singing. In the 1950s of course she knew Rock Hudson (her friend Roy) was gay, and she loved and adored him regardless. Many of the producers of those glossy, bubbly Technicolor-fests were gay too, and everyone knew it, and subverted the studio-mandated codes to winkingly express it to the audience, which if you were savvy enough, you picked up. It's sad there was a production code that made such subterfuge necessary, but it also stoked creative ingenuity and produced the skillful, outrageous camp these films are; and we can enjoy the knowledge that Day and Hudson were in on the joke and extending it to us.
48
Doris packed a lot of delightful movies in her 20 year film career, retiring from the screen at just the right moment--tho her Mrs. Robinson would've been a great swan song. But my favorite is her union-shop steward in "The Pajama Game"--a role so perfect for her she is the sole replacement of the terrific Bway cast. (Ironically, she replaced Janis Paige--whom she first supported in her very first movie). I took a punkette lesbian friend to a screening in the 1980s, and she was over the moon with Dot's duck-tail hairdo and no-nonsense manner.
25
Doris Day was a wonderful human being. Not only was she stunning in appearance, but had incredible talent and a kind heart. She never gave up, despite a difficult personal life, including losing her only son to melanoma. I recall seeing her once in Carmel-by-the-Sea. She was driving an SUV type car with a dog or two in it.. stopped at a 4-way stop, and I was waiting for her to drive through before I walked across the road..we made eye-contact, she smiled, laughed, and let me walk across the road. Rest in Peace, Doris.
81
If I recall correctly, Roger Ebert wrote that Doris Day was one of the best actresses because she could do it all--singing, dancing, comedy, drama, and thriller.
78
The single most important thing to say about Doris Day - and it is not said enough - is that she was a great, great jazz singer. She massaged the lyrics, the notes and the meanings of songs as well as anybody. Imagine if she had recorded Doris Day, "The Gershwin Songbook." Or Rogers and Hart and Jerome Kern and Duke Ellington. Ah...
121
@David Berner: I couldn't agree more. Her voice was exquisitely pure, with not a hint of affectation. And her timing and phrasing were on par with Sinatra.
She was also remarkably able to transcend genres, from pop to jazz to the blues.
She was one of a kind, delightfully so.
88
Doris Day was a great talent. Her movies are classics of the times they were made.
21
She's gone. It is not the time to evaluate her just now, make of her more than she was. There's a lot to be said for silence, and letting the images of the past rest in peace.
3
@Leo
Actually, Leo, people have always made LESS of Doris Day than she was. Some of us noticed just how great and savvy she was. RIP, Doris.
51
@Leo I think it is time to sing her praises, and acknowledge her indelible place in the culture.
29
One only has to listen to Latin for Lovers or her duets album with Andre Previn to realize she was a top tier vocalist when given good material.
48
To echo Nan Jorgensen, the tribute I too was looking for. Doris Day, to a girl growing up in Iowa in the 1960's, was a strange and wonderful muse. She played so devilishly within the constraints of a "good girl", the girl my mother was trying to raise. I knew how hot that heart was really beating under those crisp three quarter sleeve dress jackets.
47
This essay makes me not particularly miss being in the academic humanities, as I once was.
37
@Jack Klompus
Couldn’t agree more. As we say in the U.K. What a lot of cobblers!
5
@Jack Klompus It doesn't do justice to Doris Day. Sex and cultural appropriation, contemporary taboos applied retroactively. Had he really wanted to explore race and Doris Day it might have been better to look at I am Not Your Negro, which made me see her movies in a totally different light. As a Black American, I still like her and have at least two of her albums. She was a great singer.
And she was a great actress in the Man Who Knew Too Much, albeit a hysterical crier during most of the film; but she did it like a pro.
28
Doris Day was a big-band singer starting ca. 1940. Among the bands she played with was Les Brown and his Band of Renown, and over the past few years I've been able to hear her development as a singer as her own style evolved.
While everyone thinks of "Sentimental Journey," my memory returns to "We'll Be Together Again," a 1944 ballad by Carl Fisher (music) and Frankie Laine (lyrics). Day, backing Les Brown's band, sings it with a simplicity and sincerity that is unbeatable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV74nzxJceY
Marlene Dietrich, a font of performance wisdom if ever there were, knew that simplicity is the hardest thing to get right. She nailed it when she entertained our troops during the War, and Doris Day always had it.
36
Enjoy Doris Day characters for what they were at that time. And don't spoil that joyful entertainment by looking behind the curtain.
26
While she might have been playing innocent she had a pretty face and a knockout figure to rival any sex-goddess or glamour girl of her era.
Longevity of a career is a rare thing these days but she persevered through decades and remained a major presence until she decided to step away from the spotlight.
When people like Doris Day pass, we realize we are never going to see others of such breadth and durability.
82
This is the tribute I was looking for. A.O.Scott, you got it right.
I grew up on Doris Day and she was a role model — because of that ambiguity. Who wants to be obvious?
Then she moved to the area I grew up in ( The Monterey Peninsula — Carmel/ CarmelValley) and I encountered her by circumstances which have nothing to do with show business, or dogs, though I, too, did go to the Cypress Inn, a dog-rich locale and her hotel, for drinks, and the full afternoon tea. She may have preferred to be happy, and have seemed to embody cheer, but she was complex and thought deeply.
Doris Day was sunny, surprising, lovely, original, powerfully lyrically voiced —truly enchanting. Doris Day deserves to be acknowledged as one of America’s best. Also freckles!
178
@Nan Jorgensen
This is the comment I was hoping to find.
30
Oh the inevitable revisionist appreciation! Sometimes what is most obvious is the truth: Doris Day was a boring actress who did not make a single significant movie (other than as examples of pop kitsch). I grew up in the 1960's and I cannot express what a delight and relief it was when Doris Day and other dreary, sanitized products of the studio system were replaced by more earthy actresses like Candice Bergen, Ali McGraw, Katherine Ross, and Jane Fonda (although I will always have a soft spot for Shirley Jones who really was as sexy as this writer thinks Doris Day was). Doris should have accepted Mike Nichols' offer to cast her as Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate" (it's true!). It would have saved her career from an unremitting sequence of trite films.
20
@Bill Van Dyk
Have another look at PAJAMA GAME and THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. In the latter, the scene where doctor/husband James Stewart tranquilizes her before telling about their son's kidnapping remains a discomforting astonishment.
17
@Bill Van Dyk - Have you actually seen any of her movies? If she was good enough for Hitchcock, she was good enough.
34
@MAKSQUIBS I will check it out.
5
Such a thoughtful and astute piece. Makes me want to watch all of her movies and from a different lens. Thanks.
33
I think you're missing the point entirely about dating in the 1950s and early 1960s. Of course, flirting existed then. Otherwise, we, our parents, our grandparents, etc. never would have been born. BUT . . . It was more refined; that is, it was kept behind closed doors. Of course, in movies, it peeks from behind that nicely tailored ensemble to tell the story; otherwise, there would be no story to tell.
26
I've seen the Oscar Levant quip attributed to Milton Berle, which probably makes more sense. Either way, she was a remarkable person of a sort we seldom see anymore. I hope the mold wasn't broken.
15
@Dave in Texas
Actually Oscar Levant was well known for his dry sense of humor and for making those kinds of cynical quips. He also co-starred in Day's first film. So it's more likely that he was the first to make some version of this remark.
13
Such a tremendous talent, period. She could act, dance, and sing. The voice. Some of the songs were sure hokey, but her delivery was always flawless. Same thing with her comedic timing. I think it just came naturally to her, a gift she was born with and, lucky for us, shared.
60
i was too young for her movies but on her television show,
when tony bennett guest starred for a duet of “ i left my heart in san francisco”,
artistic quality was defined for the first time for me.
finest kind and farewell.
19
One small correction. In "Teacher's Pet," Day did not play an "uptight" professor loosened up by Clark Gable. They play people on two sides of the debate over making journalism a profession (she teaches it, he is a crusty city-room pro and the more old-fashioned character). That is one movie that passes the Bechdel test. And Day, with that radiant fun-loving smile, is very sexy and strong in the movie, as in she is in a different way in Young at Heart with Sinatra.
75
@Kate Glad you mentioned that (& Young at Heart). A “Career Woman” always = “uptight”, an adjective I’ve never seen applied to men who are serious about their work.
27
Doris Day could do it all-acting in dramas and comedies and convey deeper messages doing it as the article conveys. She was also a fine dancer and one of the greatest singers- up there with Sinatra and Crosby. Sadly, her personal life was not good but in the end she triumphed. Should have gotten an honorary Oscar. I heard she didn't get the Kennedy Center Honors because you have to appear in person and she did not like to fly. With video hookups, she should have gotten it anyway. You will be greatly missed.
54
Great piece - she deserves whatever belated attention we give her.
What is touching about her movies is that she lived entirely in an adult world that we have now put behind us. Ours is the adolescent age of comic books and superheroes and it is painful to watch Doris Day or anything by Ernst Lubitsch and realize how far things have gone.
147
@Plennie Wingo
Well put. The ongoing infantilization of our entertainment industry as well as the culture, is so completely debilitating. The Kardashian, Marvel Universe, Disney take over of the world is akin to a flesh eating bacteria feeding on our lives.
65
@J Barrymoreso well put! Save me from the so-called reality shows and no-talents.
26
I loved Doris so much in "Midnight Lace". She was also a big animal advocate which made me respect her so much! Rest in Peace, sweet Doris!
42
Its a good story but misses so much about the woman. Fans should read her autobiography. I have always been a fan of biographies and her's may be the most interesting. Its a tale of both tragedy and ultimate triumph. She was mistreated, defrauded, and railed against that wholesome image on screen. She was also the most talented person of her era. Try it - I think you will like it.
99
Two months ago a restaurant customer of mine highly complimented me and said I remind her of Doris Day in my appearance and the manner in which I treat my customers with smiles and warmth.
She now calls me Doris when she sees me. I cried my eyes out last night as am a huge fan borm in 1954 and movie buff from early on, watching NBC Saturday Night at the Movies with my grandmother every Saturday and loved Doris and Rock and James Garner. Hope Grandma Melcic meets Doris in Heaven...they will share some laughs and fond memories. Keep smiling Doris...With Love, Linda C aka Doris
88
Linda, I too was born in 1954. I can ditto much of what you said. I also remember Million Dollar Movie. The local channel, I think it was 9, would play the same movie all week long. Counting double showings on weekends it total about 9 showings a week. Man, that was a gift from the gods when it was a movie I liked. Keep on watching!
18
I was never a huge fan; however, I have tremendous respect for her authenticity and talent. She survived a long time, as well. RIP.
21
@Easy Goer
Also, I can't believe she didn't know Rock Hudson was gay. Seriously; that, my friends, I find much too hard to believe.
Rock Hudson's character in Pillow Talk was not a classical composer. He wrote songs for musical theater. In the movie he is working on the songs for a show that the Tony Randall character is producing.
32
@cds333 - Not to mention Rock's character's hit songs: "You are my inspiration - Marie," "You are my inspiration - Yvette," "You are my inspiration - Eileen, " etc.
9
Maybe she did not give off steam, but she promised warmth. In the long run, warmth is so much better. I'm glad she had such a long run herself. Rest In Peace.
118
I thought Doris Day was married four times.
12
Often, during our marriage, I’ve said that Doris Day was my favorite singer, my favorite girl. Of course my wife was never jealous, but she should have been.
37
I never thought of Doris Day as virginal, just "nice."
Her niceness and her voice were used to great effect by Alfred Hitchcock in "The Man Who Knew Too Much." [Spoiler alert.] In the film, her son is kidnapped and won't be freed if Doris warns a visiting diplomat about an assassination attempt planned at a concert. Doris goes to the concert, and she tries desperately to keep quiet. But, in the end, she is too nice, and warns the diplomat by screaming, saving his life. Then, in a parallel scene, the diplomat invites them to the embassy. Doris then gives a concert, that is heard by the woman holding the son hostage upstairs in the embassy. The woman has also been threatened, but in the end, she is also too nice, and tell she son to whistle the song Doris is singing. This allows Jimmy Stewart to find the son and rescue him. The story in the movie hinges on music and niceness in a way that made Doris Day the only person to play the role.
93
Subtlety, nuance & fun can entertain & yet say more than "in your face" supposed reality. Aaah Doris Day, I'll remember you well.
103