Doris Day, 87, and Duffy in a new photo to be used by Sony Music to promote Day’s upcoming record “My Heart,” the legendary actress-singer’s 29th album and her first after a seventeen-year hiatus. “My Heart” is to be released in the United Kingdom on Sept. 5. It’ll be available on CD and digital-download formats.
“It was brought to my attention that the recordings were in storage and Sony was interested in releasing them,” Day explained. “So I listened to them and at first had some misgivings, but after they were re-mastered, I liked them and hoped my fans would too.” Day added that “these are the tunes that reflect my love of animals and my love for my son.” The album features the track “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries,” produced by Day’s son Terry Melcher, who died of cancer in 2004.
Doris Day, who began her film career in 1948 and went on to become the biggest female box office attraction in the United States throughout most of the 1950s and 1960s, has never won an Academy Award. She was, however, nominated for Best Actress for the fluffy 1959 comedy Pillow Talk, her first pairing with Rock Hudson.
Personally, I think Day did much more interesting work in Charles Vidor’s 1955 drama Love Me or Leave Me, in which she gets slapped around by James Cagney, and in Delbert Mann’s witty 1962 comedy A Touch of Mink, smartly playing her latter-day virginal character opposite old fox Cary Grant.
Among Doris Day’s other movies are Roy Del Ruth’s slice of nostalgia On Moonlight Bay, with Gordon MacRae; David Butler’s highly enjoyable musical Western Calamity Jane (1953), with Day in the title role opposite Howard Keel; Gordon Douglas’ Young at Heart (1954), a sentimental remake of Michael Curtiz’s Four Daughters, co-starring Frank Sinatra; Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), married to James Stewart and singing “Que Sera, Sera”; and David Miller’s murder thriller Midnight Lace (1960), in which she is threatened by a mysterious killer. Rex Harrison, John Gavin, and Myrna Loy were her co-stars.
The fact that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors has year after year bypassed Day for an Honorary Award is not only puzzling, but shameful as well. I’ve been told by an Academy “insider” that Day would get the Honorary Oscar statuette if she consented to appear at the ceremony; this source added that unlike eventual no-show Jean-Luc Godard – who might/might not show up – Day has made it clear she would not be in attendance.
Doris Day photo via Discovering Doris Day; quote via contactmusic.com. And make sure to check out the Doris Day Animal Foundation.
7 comments
I’M 80 years old and have been a fan of this wonderful women since her begining in show business. Where can I get a autograph picture and last album?
Fred
Bob should remember that Sinatra became a sorry and drunken performer who was pitied. He was not “up there” at all.
Sinatra became a drunk with a WIG and performed drunken for the whole world to see. What a shame. He didn’t know when to quit.
There are very few talents that have succeeded across the range of media: music, film and television. Doris Day is one of the very few that can claim that triple achievement. Too bad that she didn’t do Broadway or the concert tour. She would have conquered these venues as well, no doubt.
Actually, the Honorary Oscars are not longer given on Oscar night, but at a special ceremony months before that is not televised. So I would think it wouldn’t matter if she showed up or not. I have read that she was asked if she would attend the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C. to recieve its award and she refused. They do require the recipient to be in attendance. It’s unfortunate she wasn’t Oscar nominated for Love Me Or Leave Me and also for The Man Who Knew Too Much. Being a fan, I will definitely buy the new CD.
I’m aware that the Honorary Oscars are now handed out at the Governors Awards. Even so, the Academy could still want winners to be in attendance — though Jean-Luc Godard turned out to be a no-show after all.
That’s her film career. Her recording career - especially in the early 40s — is amazing. Had she focused on that, she might be up there with Sinatra.