Doris Day (1922-2019)

You don't always know, especially as a teenager, what you're discovering for the first time and when you're falling headfirst into a cliche.  This was the case for me when it came to Doris Day and my first moments in her filmography.  I started watching Doris Day's films when I was very, very young...before, in fact, I'd really say I was "into movies."  Like all of the "classic" films that I watched regularly at the time, this was due to my mother, who would play Calamity Jane regularly in our house, to the point where I had it memorized despite not owning a cast recording or really a song from it...except for "Secret Love," which I eventually got a copy of on CD.  Not knowing that it is has famously been appropriated by the gay community as an anthem ("my secret love's no secret anymore") I used to dance dreamily around my bedroom, earphones in of course, thinking of whatever boy I had a crush on at the time with Day's flawless vocals ringing in my ears.

Day as a movie star was a strange supernova, the complete antithesis of Marilyn Monroe.  She was blonde, funny, and beautiful, but while Monroe oozed sex, Day was the girl-next-door who could never dream of going to bed with a man without a ring on her finger (Oscar Levant supposedly made a crack that he "knew Day before she was a virgin," a quote you desperately hope was real).  Her filmography reflected this.  Even the sauciest films that she came out with, like Pillow Talk or That Touch of Mink, were wholesome compared to what Elizabeth Taylor or Gina Lollobrigida were doing at the same time.  As a result of making movies that some would call dated now, she was an icon, but one that never gained the critical reputation of a Sophia Loren or Audrey Hepburn.

But Day was a brilliant movie star.  Her films were always charming, her onscreen persona effortless. She had some twenty years of stardom between film and television before quietly disappearing into the background of celebrity, using her platform to protect animals, but she left behind a long legacy of truly wonderful movies to enjoy on a cozy Friday night.  From Calamity Jane to Pillow Talk to Please Don't Eat the Daisies, she was no secret love...film fans proclaimed her a star so even the golden daffodils could here, and thanks to her work as an actress, Doris Day will continue to live on at the movies.