Hey everybody, I’m here to wish you all a Happy New Year! And with the new year, I am starting off with my celebrations of various stars and genres for every month. And, as I’ve announced previously, my star for the month of January 2021 is singer and actress Doris Day!
Table Of Contents
- Film Career Bio
- My Own Feelings
- Filmography
- Entries For This Month
- Upcoming Schedule
- Roster For Next Two Months
Quick Film Career Bio
Birth: April 3, 1922
Death: May 13, 2019
The Hollywood discovery of actress and singer Doris Day (born Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff) seems like one of those old types of tales you would hear about people getting into the movies. As a singer who had worked with various orchestras, she wanted to get into the movies, but her efforts weren’t really getting her anywhere. Then, one fateful night when she was singing at a party, she was heard by songwriters Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, who brought her to the attention of director Michael Curtiz. After her audition, he decided to cast her in the film Romance On The High Seas (1948), and the rest was history! She started out under contract to Warner Brothers studios, where she quickly rose through the ranks, becoming the top-billed star in her fifth film, Tea For Two (1950). She worked consistently at Warners in the early part of her career, doing a number of period musicals, plus a few other non-period musicals (and at least one drama). When her contract with Warners came up for renewal in 1954, she decided not to renew it.
Moving on from Warner, she did a more dramatic turn in MGM’s Love Me Or Leave Me (1955), which gave her room to do more than just musicals, with a role in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) coming shortly after. She did a mixture of dramas, musicals and comedies before hitting paydirt on the classic film Pillow Talk in 1959, the first of three films she did with co-star Rock Hudson (and her only Oscar nomination for Best Actress). For a few years after, she was number one at the box office (even a flop like 1962’s Billy Rose’s Jumbo couldn’t pull her off the top), but, eventually, audience tastes changed yet again, and her star started to wane. Her last film would be the 1968 movie With Six You Get Eggroll. After that, her husband Martin Melcher died, and it came out that he had squandered all her money, and also signed her up for a five year stint on a network sitcom (without her knowledge). Since she had no money, she did the sitcom both for the income and to fulfill the contract. After her five years were up, she retired from Hollywood completely, only coming back for a few TV specials and later a TV talk show that lasted one season.
My Own Feelings On Doris Day
My first exposure to actress Doris Day was in her classic musical Calamity Jane (1953) with Howard Keel almost two decades ago. While it took me a little while to like her (as Howard Keel was originally the attraction of that movie for me), I’ve been enjoying seeing any number of her films ever since. At this point, I’ve still only seen a small fraction of her filmography, but so far I prefer her early films at Warner Brothers. I’m still working on trying to see all of her films from that era/studio, but I have enjoyed everything I’ve seen. After Love Me Or Leave Me at MGM, her films are kind of hit or miss for me. I’m not really interested in most of her dramas, and her later comedies aren’t quite as fun for me. But, this blogathon obviously isn’t just about my feelings here, so I look forward to hearing some other opinions!
Filmography
This is a list of all the films that I personally have reviewed from her filmography so far. Obviously, I will be adding to it throughout the month of January, and it is my plan to add to it as I review more and more of her films even beyond this month’s celebration.
Romance On The High Seas (1948)
Entries For This Month
Here’s where I’ll be keeping a list of all the entries for the month. Whether or not you’ve signed up previously, I look forward to seeing what you have to say! Oh, and don’t feel like you need to have as many entries as I do. I was already planning this a while ago, and by the time this is posted, I will have most (if not all) of my entries written and scheduled (and not only for this month, but most of the next few as well). Ultimately, I just want everyone to have some fun with this!
Thoughts From The Music(al) Man –
Upcoming Schedule For 2021:
February – star: Clark Gable
March – star: Gene Kelly
April – nothing
May – star: Cary Grant
June – star: Claudette Colbert
July – star: James Cagney
August – star: Barbara Stanwyck
September – genre: Musicals
October – nothing
November – star: Humphrey Bogart
December (1-24) – genre: Christmas films
December (25-31) – nothing
Roster For The Upcoming 2 Months (Clark Gable and Gene Kelly)
As you saw from the schedule above, I’ve got Clark Gable and Gene Kelly featured for the next two months (February and March). When I first announced my big plans, I was limiting the months to sign up to just January and February. Well, now I’m moving the roster for February here, and adding the ability to sign up for March as well. The rules bear repeating, so here goes:
- At this point, I am not putting any restrictions on topics related to the various stars, whether it be any of their films, or biographies, lists of favorites, etc.
- These celebrations are intended as tributes to these stars (even if they aren’t being done in months with birthdays, although Clark Gable, the winner of the February poll, is at least scheduled for the month of his birthday), so I would ask that any participating posts be respectful of the stars themselves. Obviously, if you don’t care for that specific star, that would probably not be a good month to join in.
- I’m requesting that all posts be new material, and not any previously published ones.
- As previously indicated, these celebrations of the stars and genres will last a whole month each, so you will have that whole month to work with. I myself will be publishing about four or five posts per month (depending on the number of Sundays and whether there are any recent disc releases that would fit the bill), so you can decide how many you want to do (within reason).
- If you are interested in joining, I would certainly suggest you either comment on this post, email me at astairefan7@gmail.com, or, for the Facebook savvy, contact me at my FB page. And feel free to use the banners I have put together (I’m still unsure of how much space I will have to work with over time on pictures, so for now I am doing one each).
Thoughts From The Music(al) Man
- Clark Gable: No Man Of Her Own (1932), Dancing Lady (1933), Mogambo (1953), The King And Four Queens (1956) and Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)
- Gene Kelly: Singin’ In The Rain (1952), Brigadoon (1954), Invitation To The Dance (1956) and Marjorie Morningstar (1958)
Thoughts From The Music(al) Man 