Happy birthday to Doris Day!

[skyvue]

Doris Day is 88 years old today. She's been out of the public eye for some time now and I wonder if today's average twenty-something even knows who she is. I suspect not. But Day had a lengthy, varied and incredibly successful career.

Day, born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff in Cincinnati, Ohio, was a big-band songbird before she became an actress, performing with, among others, Les Brown and His Band of Renown and scoring her first hit, "Sentimental Journey," at the ripe old age of 23. Her first film, Romance on the High Seas</a>, followed soon thereafter in 1948, and she would also go on to make her mark in television, starting in a very popular sitcom, The Doris Day Show (1968-1973).

All totaled, Day made 39 pictures, recorded 650+ songs, was nominated for an Oscar, won a Golden Globe and a Grammy, and was, in 1989, the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures.

As of 2009 (and I feel certain nothing's since changed), she still ranked as the top female box office star (sixth overall) of all time.

That's quite a career.

 

[dhermann1]

She started out as a dancer, but was in a car accident and broke her leg, when she was about 16, which derailed her dancing career. It was only after this that she bacame a singer. I have a couple of albums from her time with Les Brown. In the photos she looks like such a BABY! What a cutey she was!
When I was in my teens, in the 60's, we used to make fun of her goody two shoes image. But after I became more familiar with her big band career, I became a super fan.
After her husband died, she learned that he had robbed her of most of her fortune, and lost it in bad investments. But she started a whole new life dedicating herself to the cause of animal welfare. She was decades ahead of the rest of Hollywood in this.
Gotta love Doris Day!