Doris Day’s name is legendary as a film and TV star and recording artist. The name has always been synonymous with a wholesomeness from my perspective – one that admittedly hasn’t seen her perform in all that many roles – but above all else appreciates her as a Hitchcock actress. She portrayed Jo McKenna in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 version of The Man Who New Too Much, in which she sang the Academy Award winning song Que Sera Sera. This was what prompted me to write for an autograph request in the Fall months of 1997.
I since learned that Doris Day had quite a lucrative career. Even if that was stating the obvious, she also had some connections to things that I hold near and dear. For starters, she sang the lead vocals for Les Brown on the song My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time in 1945, which became an early Billboard #1 single. She had another one as well: Secret Love, a 1953 track from the film Calamity Jane.
Doris Day even has a bit of a Presidential connection, having starred in two films with Ronald Reagan (seen at left): Storm Warning (1951) and The Winning Team (1952). And ironically, it was her song Hooray For Hollywood that was playing on the ABC radio network, when the broadcast broke in reporting that John F. Kennedy had been shot.
Her career was capped off with four seasons of The Doris Day Show in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s – a sitcom that she had been contracted to do by her late husband, much by her dismay. It was an inauspicious ending to a film career that had included an Academy Award nominated performance for Best Actress in Pillow Talk in 1959.
So it was for all of the above reasons that I am now happy to be the proud owner of the signed photo below from Doris Day, the legendary – and I might add, Cincinnati-born – actress. She signed the photo I sent, as well as two notecards, and sent along a flyer for The Doris Day Animal Foundation, the animal rights organization that she founded.
Parenthetically, I almost had the opportunity to meet Doris Day in 1997. When I attended the Edgar Kennedy Centennial celebration in Monterey, the host of the affair and friend of mine Bill Cassara, had invited her to stop by the main banquet. In fact, Doris’ son Terry Melcher was in attendance that evening. We were hoping that she would stop by for a visit with her son and the fans in attendance. Unfortunately, our table single-handedly drove Terry Melcher out the door, so there was obviously no chance at that point that his Mom was going to show up. Yes, as always, there’s much more to the story. But that, I’m afraid, is a tale for another day. Oh well…que sera sera.
Autographs of 1997 will continue…
You are a tease. Between your previous posting – leaving us baited and hungry as to the contents of the ABR bag – and now this one, hinting at a wildly exciting incident that drove Terry Melcher from the Edgar Kennedy celebration – well, you’re worse than girls I knew in high school!
Please Brad, I beg you: stop teasing your loyal readers and bring both of these stories to their rightful conclusions soon!
Peter
February 6th, 2009
I, too, want to know: what happened that “drove Terry Melcher out the door”? Please, please, please tell us very soon. I’m at the age where I can’t take much suspense!
Bill
February 6th, 2009
Can you tell I’ve been watching “Lost” lately?
Brad
February 6th, 2009
I was sitting next to Terry Melcher that evening. (No, t’wasn’t I who made him leave the banquet.) I was sorry that he left so soon, as I wanted to ask him about the surf records he produced in the ’60s.
Randy Skretvedt
February 6th, 2009
Come on Brad…we’re not on the island. I’m not an “other” nor a “hostile” nor one of the “Oceanic Six.” I’m just a loyal reader and follower of The Terrible Catsafterme. Please don’t tease me like girls in high school did and bring the stories to their proper conclusions!
Peter
February 6th, 2009