America's Favorite Virgin

Author: Jeff Little

Milton Berle allegedly said, "I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin." And as funny as this statement may sound, it turns out to make total sense when you look into the career of Doris Day.

With a public image so pure that it made Ivory Snow look like soot by comparison, Doris Day spent most of her professional life purveying the image of a pristine, virginal "girl you'd like to take home to mother". But there was in fact much more to the woman.

More down to earth was the fact that her parents, although Catholic, had divorced and Day later embraced Christian Science as her belief system. Not exactly the typical stereotype of a protestant, comes from a stable home, had a bland childhood American female. But Doris Day was far from typical.

Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff (not exactly a name that rolls right off your tongue) would later change her name to Doris Day (the "Day" taken from the song Day After Day which was a favorite in the then young singer's repertoire). She was born April 3, 1924 in Evanston, Ohio and would first step into show business as a dancer. But after sustaining injuries in an automobile accident she would switch to singing as her primary profession.

Never liking her stage name (she once said she thought it sounded like the name of a stripper), she continued with it all the same and eventually made "Doris Day" famous with a string of lilting ballads that would become chart hits (several going to #1). And the success she achieved singing with some of the most popular bands of the 1940's (Les Brown, Barney Rapp, etc.) would be just the beginning for the girl from Evanston.

Following her career's natural progression, Day went on to perform in a myriad of movie musicals until 1956 when she delivered what was probably her most famous performance. In Alfred Hitchcock's remake of his own film The Man Who Knew Too Much she starred opposite film favorite James Stewart and also sang the memorable song Que Sera Sera (which would win an Academy Award in 1957 and eventually became her trademark tune).

Several films (musical and otherwise) later she would embark on the most memorable segment of her career co-starring with screen idol Rock Hudson. In 1959's Pillow Talk, the first of three films that would pair the two, Doris Day cemented her on-screen persona as "America's Favorite Virgin".

A number of feature films later she would begin coming into homes nationwide on a regular basis. As Doris Martin in CBS's The Doris Day Show she would play the stereotype the public had come to love from 1968-1973.

Coming out of semi-retirement in 1985, she hosted a short-lived talk show. Doris Day's Best Friends focused on her concern for animal welfare and featured show business guests who shared her interest, the first being Rock Hudson (who appeared in an emaciated state due to the effects of AIDS).

Discovering his condition shortly thereafter, Day rallied to support Hudson (bucking her image as a woman who couldn't possibly know a homosexual) and stayed openly supportive of her close friend until the time of his death.

Perhaps "America's Favorite Virgin" is no longer suitable for Doris Day. Maybe it should be changed to "America's Favorite Class Act".
 

Doris Day

One of many record album covers

Movie poster for The Man Who Knew Too Much