Doris Day Icon

Is a prayer Doris Day must have wished she had made when she was young.  Being a movie star, current ( Brad and Angelina), or past one (Doris), makes you a target for people snooping into your life, whether they are ardent fans, paparazzi or authors. In the past few years Doris Day has been the subject of various books, with some touching upon her career and others seriously intruding into her private life. Doris is a very private person and for her to actually make a statement means that some of those books are distressing her. She posted a statement on both Bryan James and Stephen Munns’forums saying, in effect, that those books were not authorized by her and she has no intention of reading them. She encourages her fans to focus on things that are important to her, and that is her animal work.
I was quite surprised that she made the statement figuring that all this was passing under her radar, but, we should never underestimate Doris’ ability to be well informed. Army Archerd also posted Doris’ statement on his Blog.

I’m happy to say that a week and a half ago , I received a lovely letter from Doris thanking me for the gifts I sent her for her Birthday. As she was dictating the letter to me, she was eating and enjoying the chocolate candy I sent her.
She also received the CD of the film music I composed for the Modern Romance movie. She hadn’t listened to it yet, but I hope she likes it. It is, after all, dedicated to her. She signed the letter “your friend Doris”. That touched me. I always felt a special connection to Doris, having been a fan for over forty years, but, for her to consider me a friend makes me realize even more that we have a certain responsibility to friends and that is to treat them respectfully and lovingly.

Since April 3rd at the Cypress Inn where we celebrated Doris’ Birthday, all kinds of Doris Day related news have been popping up. That day Magic 63 broadcast a live Tribute to Doris Day for her Birthday. Dozens of fans from all over the world phoned in to give their Birthday greetings to Doris. Twice that day, at 11:30 AM and 3:30 PM, Doris called in. She sounded great, but also emotional due to the outpouring of love she was receiving from her fans and for the loss of some of her animal companions.

She was touched by the gifts her fans sent her , and ,especially, the quilt stitched together by Barb MacFadden which fans all over the world got the opportunity to participate in. I’m happy to have been one of the people who put my message on that quilt. Thanks Barb. The quilt arrived at the Cypress Inn the night before, but unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to see it as I was still flying to San Francisco at that time. The people who saw the quilt live said it was spectacular.

The quilt also made it on a documentary that was being shot at the Cypress Inn. This is a German documentary about Doris Day and will be shown on the ARTE network in Germany and presented at the Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival. I spoke to the director and hoped that the documentary was going to be positive about Doris. He said that it will be very positive. He said they will refrain from using tired old cliches about Doris and will also talk about her place in the woman’s movement of the time. The director also said he was nervous and excited about having spoken to Doris on the air  Some of the fans were interviewed for the documentary. 

 About 21 ,or so,  of us had supper in the little dining area in the back of Terry’s Lounge. We ate well, laughed, watched Please Don’t Eat The Daisies and got invaded by the film crew. LLoyd and Roberta and Dee gave lovely presents to the DD fans. I gave my CD of recorded songs that will be in my movie “Modern Romance” . I also sent this CD to Doris to whom it is also dedicated. There is an Animal Song which I hope she will enjoy.

 This was the second annual gathering at the Cypress Inn of Doris Day Fans in order to celebrate her Birthday. In 2007  was the first gathering. This idea came to some of us , Ant, Ro, Dee and me at the Pierre Patrick book launch in 2006, in LA.

Ant, LLoyd, Rennie, Roberta, Dee, Tanja, Kim, David, Zora, Monserrat, Katie, Wanda, Karen, Michael, Mike, Dave, Mark, Sheila , Mary, April, Mark, Danny and me, Velda. Later that evening we were joined by Jeanne Marie, a DD fan who does a Doris tribute. We all went to the salon and did a sing along with her. The film crew followed us. Fun was had by all.

The next morning, April 4, Doris, through her manager Nancy, thanked the fans at the Cypress Inn and treated us to a bottle of champagne. We drank to her good health and to many more get togethers for her Birthday. 

That afternoon, we went to Stravaganza one of Doris’ favorite places to eat. We had an opportunity to talk to the friendly owner, Harry, who told us about Doris’ favourite food. I learnt one new thing about Doris. She’s no vegetarian. One of these days I’ll write down her favourite foods. We told Harry that Doris praised his food twice on the radio show. He was beaming. He got great publicity from Doris Day. You can’t pay for that kind of publicity!

And so our happy time came to an end and everybody went back to their everyday lives, filled with great memories of friendships renewed and made, and doggies petted in Doris land.

I was going to write more: the Vanity Fair article, which, by the way, had great pictures of Doris, David Kaufmann’s book etc, but its time tio say goodnight and we’ll leave the controversial stuff for next time.

Sweet dreams.

For the longest time,Doris Day fans, me included, have complained that Doris Day was not given her due, that she was being ignored by the media, authors, award shows etc. And, mostly, the complaints were warranted since this was the case. Tons of books were written about Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor, all contemporaries of Ms. Day, but, none about Doris Day. For varied reasons, some already written about here, Doris Day was given the cold shoulder by Hollywood, the media and the Entertainment industry as a whole. This trend slowly started changing as DVD’s of Ms. Day’s old movies  came out and they were quite popular with the fans.

One of the biggest moneymakers of the past was again seen as interesting commercially. I guess, money talks.

Recently , it was announced that Ms.Day will be honoured with a life time achievement Grammy. What took them so long, and why is the Academy still holding out with honouring Ms. Day?

Suddenly,Doris Day is interesting again, and not just to her loyal following. This reminds me of the Chinese curse where you wish your enemy an interesting life. And another one: ‘watch what you wish for, for it might come true’.

In the past two years,a series of books poured out, one about her TV career, another one about her film and music career,and, the most recent one, about her private life. Debate ensued about the merits, or lack of. of those books.

In June a new book is coming out. It is written by David Kaufman and it promises to be controversial. Hopefully, it will be respectful of Ms. Day. But, respectful doesn’t usually sell books, unless, you are writing about Audrey Hepburn, who is treated as a saint by the media.

One consolation is that whatever Kaufmann might say about Ms. Day it will be in today’s blase climate where no one is shocked about anything anymore. With the Hollywood crowd pushing the envelope about what is scandalous , nothing is scandalous anymore ,except,an untimely death of a young celebrity, Anna Noicole Smith, or ,just the other day, of Heath Ledger.

Looking into my crystal ball,I predict that Doris Day will be given much more media attention in the next few years and Carmel will be a busier place as people look for Doris Day.

Hopefully, all this will pass under her radar, and, if not, she is wise enough to know that this, too, will pass.

As a longtime fan of Ms Day I don’t wish her an ‘interesting’ time , but a healthy and good time with her human and animal friends.  

I will keep on dreaming that a very good and respected author will write the definitive book about Ms, Day’s career ,as well as, her contribution to the the American and world culture. In short, explain the Doris Day phenomenon.

Dear readers you are welcome to share about your “dream book” about Ms. Day.

Happy New Year 2008 to all!

Since I started this Website/Blog in 2006 many wonderful Doris Day moments have transpired. I met and corresponded with many wonderful fans of the divine Ms. Day and I also took a couple of memorable trips to LA and Carmel.

As I have stated in my previous posts, Doris Day inspires many of us to create, whether it be creating Websites like Bryan J. and Stephen M. ( Doris Day Web Forum and PILLOW TALK - The Doris Day Forum , respectively), writing books, magazines, calenders and even a quilt dedicated to Doris and her animal causes.

One person who has been inspired by Doris is Sue Gökgör. I had the pleasure of meeting this dear lady. She heads the F.O.D.D. club. I asked her to present her club:

The Friends of Doris Day (F.O.D.D.) is a not-for-profit club endorsed
by Doris Day, MOF, (Medal of Freedom, the highest honour given to
citizens of the USA in recognition of their work). Started in 1997, The Friends of Doris Day, (F.O.D.D.), is an International Doris Day appreciation club, based in Oxford, UK - and the only Doris Day fan club in the UK. The club publishes three magazines a year, packed full of articles and information you won’t find anywhere else, including memorabilia signed by Doris herself for auction or sale.

Miss Day herself is the President of F.O.D.D.

In addition to well-researched and presented articles, news, reviews of the latest releases and what’s in the pipeline, the magazine contains many sale items, fun quizzes with prizes, letters from members, and many photos. Also included is a special Christmas message by Doris herself. The magazine is printed on quality paper averaging 36 A4 sized pages. Two of the three issues each year have covers printed in colour
- front and back - and sometimes inside covers as well.

F.O.D.D. celebrates Doris’ birthday each year with a dinner party, an
annual get-together in Oxford in the summer and meet up for a film show
wherever/whenever possible. The club keep in regular touch with Doris,
and she with the club so becoming a member of this unique friendly club
will bring you closer to Doris.

I get a thrill everytime I receive Sue’s magazine. Thanks Sue for your dedication.

To become a memeber of F.O.D.D.you can write to Dr Sue Gökgör, 71 East Avenue, OXFORD OX4 1XR, UK. eMail: suegokgor@aol.com (Check Bryan’s website for more info http://www.dorisday.net/Friends-of-Doris-Day.htm)

I can’t cover the sheer creative activity of Doris’ fans but there are those that make really nice Doris videos on YouTube. Bryan, Tanja and Peter are some of those creative souls.

Other fans, like Roberta, from California, are the great collectors of Doris Day memorabillia. She has a whole room dedicated to Doris’ stuff, but not just any stuff, we’re talking about the creme de la creme stuff, things that could be a start of a Doris Day Museum. I can’t wait to one day visit and see her wonderful collection.

Then there are those people who do wonderful things for Doris , but ,like to remain behind the scenes.

If anybody has been inspired by Doris and her causes and would like to share your project, you’re welcome to present it.

This brings me to the initial purpose of this Website, hence the title of my post. If you read the Introduction , you will remember that my goal was to film a romantic comedy inspired by Doris Day.

Well, the filming which began in March of 2007 is now over and the exciting project of editing is in front of me and my editors. I was also inspired to write 5 songs. One song, which is called Modern Romance, is also the name of the film and references Doris. Another song , which is called the Animal Song, is dedicated to her. This evening we finished recording the songs. It’s a great feeling!

A brief synopsis:

Modern Romance is the story of a Doris Day loving florist who meets a wannabe gangsta rapper on the Internet. She wants to turn him into a romantic leading man. He just wants to bed her. Can these two disparate characters find true love? Find out in this funny, romantic and song-filled film. ( I hope, LOL)

Yes, I read ‘that’ book, Mary Anne’s book. This is not a review of the book, of it’s literary merits or historical value. It’s how the book made me feel and my feelings about the book. This book actually made me somewhat uneasy, the feeling you get when you are in the presence of knowledge that was supposed to and should have have stayed private. It’s not earth shattering revelations, but it touches upon something that is fast eroding in our society and that is privacy.

This book was touted as a loving tribute to a great star by a former personal assisstant and friend. And ,yes, there is mention how nice and kind Doris Day is , but then, in the next breath, details that are very private are revealed. It didn’t feel like a loving tribute, but a blatant invasion of Ms. Day’s privacy.
Health workers, lawyers and other professionals  are guided by their code of ethics when dealing with patients or  clients, and if they breech these laws they are liable to be sanctioned. Just recently when George Clooney sustained injuries from his motorcycle accident ,several health professionals were suspended for a month for reading his chart. In reality, they invaded his privacy and broke their professional code of ethics.
Priests are expected to keep the revelations in the confessional a secret and private secretaries are also expected to keep their employer’s secrets. The word secret is firmly embedded in the word secretary.

Friends ,also, have the responsibility not to reveal the secrets they have been entrusted with , and , when your friend is a world beloved star, guarding her privacy is even more essential.

A person’s home is their sanctuary from the pressures of life. It’s a place where we should have reasonable expectations of privacy. In essence, it’s a place  where we can be ourselves, with all the ups and downs that entails. Doris Day, despite being famous, also has the right to her sanctuary, to her private sphere. This is the only place she can truly be herself. But, ironically the most private of stars lost her privacy in her own home. In writing some of the details in her book, Ms Barothy betrayed a trust that was placed upon her.
Do I recommend the book? No.
End of sermon.

This is one of my favourite Doris Day songs and she sung it beautifully. This is also an appropriate title for today’s tread. Who’s the fool? I’m one of them ,cause I should have asked more questions when it was still the time to ask them, and I should run away from hot potatoe topics, cause one is liable to get burnt.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about Mary Anne Barothy’s book that I endorsed in my last blog. For 2 weeks now the Doris Day websites have been buzzing with heated debate about this book. I haven’t participated in the debate since the whole topic makes me heart sick. It makes me sad and upset that many people, myself included , had some doubts that Doris approved this book yet nobody asked the right questions when it was still potentially possible to discourage Mary Anne from writing this book.

We all know what a private person Doris Day is, yet no one said anything until the horse was out of the barn and then it was too late.

To her credit Mary Anne has, for many months posted on the forums. said that she was Doris’ private secretary and that she intended to write about her experiences as Doris’ secretary. She was whole heartedly accepted and encouraged in her endeavours.

Maybe Mary Anne was testing the waters at the forums. But, we all aided and abetted her, and should take some responsibility for this book coming out.
I should commend the Webmasters, Bryan and Stephen, for masterfully dealing with this controversy, being fair to all parties concerned, being true to the purpose of the Forums, respecting Doris’ dignity and at the same time not allowing the Forums to disintegrate into an acrimonious free for all.

I have spoken to Mary Anne in the past and I have communicated with her by e-mail. She was always full of love and respect for Doris Day , whose private secretary she was. Under what circumstance they parted I don’t know.  but they haven’t communicated for over 30 years. Maybe this is Mary Anne’s Valentine to Doris, maybe it is her way to explain certain things. I don’t know. I can’t judge something I haven’t read.

I hope this book will be as respectful and loving as I have been lead to believe. I hope it will not delve into themes that are personal and painful to Doris. She has suffered enough, and I ,as a fan, don’t need to know such things. She has revealed what she wanted us to know in her autobiography.

I will remove the contact adress for ordering the book, but not my blog. I wrote what I wrote when I wrote it, and ,as such, it remains a historic document.

It seems that the wonderful Doris Day is an inspiration for a lot of people to write books about her, do tribute shows and albums, film romantic comedies, have websites , etc.

In 2006/2007 two books about Doris were published. First there was “Que Sera, Sera: The magic of Doris Day”, written by Pierre Patrick and Garry McGee.

This year Tom Santopietro came out with “Considering Doris Day”.

I’m glad to say I’ve been to the book signings of both books, one on the East Coast and the other on the West Coast. Thanks to all these books, I’m getting to see parts of the US I never visited before. I also got to meet the authors and great Doris Day fans.

Now, to the delight of DD fans everywhere, a personal and loving tribute written by Mary Anne, who knew Doris well , will be out this October. It will surely be a fascinating read.

Nellie McKay’s review of Tom Santopietro”s book Considering Doris Day was an enjoyable read for a number of reasons. First, I was glad that his book got exposure in a major American newspaper. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Santopietro recently, at his book signing, in Connecticut. He definitely has a sincere admiration for Doris Day as an artist of great talent, having done an extensive research of her career. He also admires her as an exemplary human being and animal activist.

Secondly, it’s high time that the great talent of Doris Day gets more respect. She has for too long, especially in the media, been ignored or maligned.
And finally, Nellie McKay raises some interesting points about the Doris Day persona. She definitely did her homework regarding the scholarly evaluation of Doris Day as an actress, singer and popular icon.

Where I have to object is the pseudo-intellectual cleverness that Ms McKay tends to employ in such statements as “Did she embody McCarthyism or transcend it?”

This makes as much sense as someone asking fifty years from now whether Nellie McKay embodied Bush-ism or transcended it?

I also disagree with the statement that Doris Day was “generally underserved by her motion pictures”.

Sure, Ms Day had some duds, and all great stars did. But, mostly, she had wonderful movies, many of which are considered classics today: Calamity Jane, Love Me Or Leave Me, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Teacher’s Pet and Pillow Talk, to name a few. She was not number one star for many years just because of her great personality, but, also because the acting, singing, the scripts and the co-stars were of the highest quality.

Nellie McKay wears her politics on her sleeve with statements such as “In the later comedies there are sequences so offensive — to women, blacks, the obese, gays, the aged — they make one gasp”

Films of that era were products of the time when sexism and racism were rampant and where homosexuals were still deep in the closet. We can’t look at these films with contemporary sensibilities. The films of today have not evolved all that much, there is still prejudice against all the groups mentioned by Mc Kay, only in more subtle ways.
There are other comments I could quibble with, but, I choose to praise Ms McKay instead, for honoring Doris Day’s humanity:
“In a time when cynicism rules, her eager humanity is ever more precious.”

In the cynical post- fifties world, Doris Day was derided for being too wholesome, optimistic and pollyannaish. It’s interesting how we venerate wholesome food, yet, a wholesome person is considered ‘uncool’. Artists who destroyed themselves with drugs or alcohol, or committed suicide gain cult status, while stars who are resilient and pull themselves up by their bootstraps, after major setbacks, are trashed. Paradoxically, at the same time, we have self-help gurus such as Wayne Dyer and Oprah who encourage people to lead healthier, more wholesome lifestyles.

In the Seventies there was a great backlash against Doris Day, lead by film critics such as Pauline Keel and various types of scholars . Doris Day, by being the biggest star of an era, became a battlefield on which feminists, baby boomers and film scholars defended their ideologies. They blamed her for all they deemed was wrong with the Fifties: oppression of women, conformity, sexual repression, the ‘white-bread’ music and so on. Surely there was no other star that was so maligned. It is no wonder she chose to close the door to her career and orient herself towards helping animals.

All this unrelenting criticism lead to the undermining of one of the most talented entertainers, ever. If it were not for the efforts of admirers such as Molly Haskell, Liz Smith, John Updike and the million of fans around the world, Doris Day’s star might have dimmed.

It is heartening that there is a great upsurge of interest in Doris Day’s career. In addition to Tom Santopietro’s timely book, more books about Doris Day are on the way. It’s about time.

I have a lot of catching up to do. I certainly won’t win the blogger of the year award with my procrastinating.

First things first: Somewhere I promised to give my opinion on Robert Harris’ comments about Doris Day on his tribute show entitled:- Doris Day: I Hear Music, CBC Radio 2 . December 30, 2006.

Many things he said were very true. He had the highest regard for Doris Day as a vocalist, even calling her a genius. He expressed great regret about her choice of material; too many novelty tunes in the 50’s.

He also considers her career a tragedy, feeling that under different circumstances she would be regarded as  a vocalist in the same circle as Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. As a fan, I regard Doris Day to be part of that exalted circle.

It is true that Doris Day is neglected by the contemporary music scholars, who, at best,  minimize her contribution to the music world. She is not categorized under jazz, to them big band is a category apart. Neither is she placed under rock and roll or pop. If we find her CD’s in the music store she’s always under a different category. Doris fares much better on the Internet.

If Doris Day recorded more than 600 different songs and if half of them were novelty and the other half were from the Great American Song Book, then that ,in itself, is a great accomplishment. Many of the songs Doris made her own, like Bewitched, Perhaps x3, It’s Magic, Sentimental Journey, Secret Love, April in Paris and others. In my opinion Doris has the best versions of such siongs as Fly Me To the Moon, Again, I Love Paris, My Romance. And there are others, I’m sure.

Doris Day has left us enough masterpieces to secure her place amongst the top vocalists of all times. It’s now up to the music scholars and critics to acknowledge her genius.

Luckily, one such person is Tom Santopietro in his book Considering Doris Day . On the whole I enjoyed the book. One can see that he truly loves and admires  Doris Day, the singer, actress and animal activist. And mostly I agreed with his assessment of Doris’ career. I don’t agree with his critique of Pillow Talk and Calamity Jane. I find both movies to be true classics where Doris gave an Oscar worthy performance. Nevertheless, I find this to be an important book since it deals seriously with Doris Day’s career. Hopefully more such books will be written. 

In the next few days I will write more: the Carmel trip for DD’s B-Day, and the filming of my short film with a big Doris Day theme. 

Today, my wonderful dog Murphy passed away. Peacefully, surrounded by friends and family. Murphy was a gentleman dog: kind, thoughtful and forgiving. He was loved by many. He came to my life 5 years ago to keep me company, to be my friend and to teach me patience.

We had great times together. We took many wonderful road trips. Murphy loved travelling. He would rest his head on the back seat and watch the world through the rear window.  People in the cars behind would smile broadly and wave to him. We visited friends on horse farms, on lakes and in the country. Murphy, being a city slicker, was kind of scared of horses, but he loved jumping into lakes and running in the woods.

One of my fantasies was to take a road trip with Murphy to Carmel, Calif. and stay at Doris Day’s Cypress Inn. Murphy would have loved the animal-friendly inn.

Part of my fantasy will be fulfilled when I go to Carmel and stay at the Cypress Inn in the beginning of April to celebrate Doris’ Birthday with other fans. Murphy will be there in spirit.

The above picture was taken in Youngstown, Ohio which is not far from Doris Day’s birth place, Cinnciannatti .

Dear Murphy, dear friend, have a great trip to doggy heaven and thanks for everything.

Velda.