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Journalism of Courage
Not true, says a new biography of blonde, bouncy actress Doris Day
Her life on screen played like an American fairy tale. Blonde, bouncy and beautiful, Doris Day captivated mid-20th century moviegoers in a series of rollicking romantic comedies with her favorite leading man, Rock Hudson, including Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back, the musical Calamity Jane, Alfred Hitchcock8217;s The Man Who Knew Too Much and many more. Day also was a best-selling recording artist whose trademark song, the Oscar-winning Que Sera, Sera, seemed to epitomise her upbeat spirit.
Now 86, Day lives in Carmel, California, and spends her time rescuing wounded animals and overseeing the Doris Day Foundation for Animals. She wouldn8217;t talk with Kaufman. 8220;The only way she could put some adversity behind her was by leaving the past and devoting all of her energies to pets,8221; he said. Kaufman believes the reason the actress won8217;t talk about her life 8220;is because she feels so completely disassociated from who 8216;Doris Day8221;was.8221; That8217;s why her friends call her Clara8212;a nickname bestowed upon her by a co-star, Billy DeWolfe, years ago. Kaufman says, 8220;She answers the phone as Clara.8221;
Doris Day was born Doris Kappelhoff in Cincinnati in 1922. Unlike the brassy blondes of the 1930s and 8217;40s, Day was the girl-next-door8212;tomboyish and sexy. She fit perfectly into the zeitgeist of the 1950s 8212;a decade of prosperity, hope and wholesomeness. Kaufman says that Day8217;s reputation as a movie star suffered in the mid- to late 1960s because Melcher made her act in romantic comedies in which the 40-something actress was playing the same type of bouncy8212;and often virginal8212;heroine she did early in her career. 8220;The last handful of movies were schlock,8221; says Kaufman.
Kaufman says Day8217;s choice of husbands, the musician Al Jorden and the bombastic Melcherare, was connected to her horrible relationship with her father, William, who abandoned the family when Day was young. 8220;She was constantly looking for people who reminded her of her father.8221; Kaufman believes that Day and Hudson, who was gay, became fast friends because, 8220;they realised they were the opposite of who they really were8221;. He adds, 8220;I don8217;t think she8217;s ever had a truly confidential, candid conversation with anybody on this earth.8221;
-Susan King LATWP
