Mink
American Mink (Neovison vison)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Superfamily:	Musteloidea
Family:	Mustelidae
Subfamily:	Mustelinae
Genus:	Neovison and Mustela
Species
Neovison vison †Neovison macrodon Mustela lutreola

There are two living species referred to as "mink": the European Mink and the American Mink. The extinct Sea Mink is related to the American Mink, but was much larger. All three species are dark-colored, semi-aquatic, carnivorous mammals of the family Mustelidae, which also includes the weasels and the otters and ferrets. The American Mink is larger and more adaptable than the European Mink. It is sometimes possible to distinguish between the European and American mink; a European Mink always has a large white patch on its upper lip, while the American species sometimes does not. Thus, any mink without such a patch can be identified with certainty as an American Mink, but an individual with a patch cannot be certainly identified without looking at the skeleton. Taxonomically, both American and European Minks used to be placed in the same genus Mustela ("Weasels"), but most recently the American Mink has been re-classified as belonging to its own genus Neovison.^[1]

The American Mink's fur has been highly prized for its use in clothing, with hunting giving way to farming. Its treatment has also been a focus of animal rights and animal welfare^[2] activism. American Mink have found their way into the wild in Europe (including Ireland and Great Britain) and South America, after being released from mink farms by animal rights activists or otherwise escaping from captivity.^[3]

American Mink are believed by some to have contributed to the decline of the less hardy European Mink through competition (though not through hybridization—native European mink are in fact closer to polecats than to their North American cousins).^[4] Trapping is used to control or eliminate feral American Mink populations.^[5]

Mink oil is used in some medical products and cosmetics, as well as to treat, preserve and waterproof leather.

Species[link]

• American Mink Neovison vison
• European Mink Mustela lutreola
• Sea Mink Neovison macrodon (extinct)

European Mink, Mustela lutreola.

Birgit Ridderstedt with a mink stole

References[link]

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Neovison

Wikispecies has information related to: Neovison

Eartha Kitt
Kitt in 2006
Born	Eartha May Keith (1927-01-17)January 17, 1927 North, South Carolina, U.S.
Died	December 25, 2008(2008-12-25) (aged 81) Weston, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation	Singer/Actress
Years active	1943–2008
Spouse	John "Bill" McDonald (1960–1965)

Eartha Mae Kitt (January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008^[1]) was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby". Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the world."^[2] She took over the role of Catwoman for the third and final season of the 1960s Batman television series, replacing Julie Newmar, who was unavailable due to other commitments.

Life and career[link]

Early years[link]

Kitt was born Eartha Mae Keith on a cotton plantation in North, a small town in Orangeburg County near Columbia, South Carolina. Kitt's mother was of Cherokee and African-American descent and her father of German or Dutch descent. Kitt was conceived by rape.^[3][4]

Kitt was raised by Anna Mae Riley, an African-American woman whom she believed to be her mother. Anna Mae went to live with a black man when Eartha was aged 8. He refused to accept Kitt because of her relatively pale complexion.^[3] Kitt lived with another family until Riley's death. She was then sent to live in New York City with Mamie Kitt, who she learned was her biological mother.^{[citation needed]} She had no knowledge of her father, except that his surname was Kitt and that he was supposedly a son of the owner of the farm where she had been born.^[3] Newspaper obituaries state that her white father was "a poor cotton farmer".^[5]

Career[link]

Photo of Kitt by Carl Van Vechten, October 1952

Kitt began her career as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company in 1943 and remained a member of the troupe until 1948. A talented singer with a distinctive voice, she recorded the hits "Let's Do It"; "Champagne Taste"; "C'est si bon" (which Stan Freberg famously burlesqued); "Just an Old Fashioned Girl"; "Monotonous"; "Je cherche un homme"; "Love for Sale"; "I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch"; "Uskudar'a Gideriken (aka Katibim)"; "Mink, Schmink"; "Under the Bridges of Paris"; and her most recognizable hit, "Santa Baby", which was released in 1953. Kitt's unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in the French language during her years performing in Europe. Her English-speaking performances always seemed to be enriched by a soft French feel. She spoke four languages and sang in seven, which she effortlessly demonstrated in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances

Career peaks[link]

In 1950, Orson Welles gave Kitt her first starring role, as Helen of Troy in his staging of Dr. Faustus. A few years later, she was cast in the revue New Faces of 1952, introducing "Monotonous" and "Bal, Petit Bal", two songs with which she is still identified. In 1954, 20th Century Fox filmed a version of the revue, titled New Faces, in which she performed "Monotonous", "Uska Dara", and "C'est si bon".^[6] Though it is often alleged that Welles and Kitt had an affair during her 1957 run in Shinbone Alley, Kitt categorically denied this in a June 2001 interview with George Wayne of Vanity Fair. "I never had sex with Orson Welles", Kitt told Vanity Fair: "It was a working situation and nothing else".^[7] Her other films in the 1950s included Mark of the Hawk (1957), St. Louis Blues (1958) and Anna Lucasta (1959).

Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt recorded; worked in film, television, and nightclubs; and returned to the Broadway stage, in Mrs. Patterson (during the 1954–1955 season), Shinbone Alley (in 1957), and the short-lived Jolly's Progress (in 1959).^[8] In 1964, Kitt helped open the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California. In the late 1960s, the television series Batman featured her as Catwoman after Julie Newmar left the role.

Anti-war controversy[link]

In 1968, during the administration of US President Lyndon B. Johnson, Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon.^[9][10] Kitt was invited to the White House luncheon and was asked by Lady Bird Johnson about the Vietnam War. She replied: "You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot."

During a question and answer session, Kitt stated:

The children of America are not rebelling for no reason. They are not hippies for no reason at all. We don’t have what we have on Sunset Blvd. for no reason. They are rebelling against something. There are so many things burning the people of this country, particularly mothers. They feel they are going to raise sons — and I know what it’s like, and you have children of your own, Mrs. Johnson — we raise children and send them to war.

Her remarks reportedly caused Mrs. Johnson to burst into tears and led to a derailment in Kitt's career.^[11] The public reaction to Kitt's statements was extreme, both pro and con. Publicly ostracized in the US, she devoted her energies to performances in Europe and Asia.

Broadway[link]

She returned to New York in a triumphant turn in the Broadway spectacle Timbuktu! (a version of the perennial Kismet set in Africa) in 1978. In the musical, one song gives a "recipe" for mahoun, a preparation of cannabis, in which her sultry purring rendition of the refrain "constantly stirring with a long wooden spoon" was distinctive.

Later years[link]

Eartha Kitt in concert, 2007

In 1978, Kitt did the voice-over in a TV commercial for the album Aja by the rock group Steely Dan. She wrote three autobiographies — Thursday's Child (1956), Alone with Me (1976) and I'm Still Here: Confessions of a Sex Kitten (1989).

In 1984, she returned to the music charts with a disco song, "Where Is My Man", the first certified gold record of her career. "Where Is My Man" reached the Top 40 on the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at #36;^[12] The song also made the Top 10 on the US Billboard dance chart, where it reached #7.^[13] The single was followed by the album I Love Men on the Record Shack label. Kitt found new audiences in nightclubs across the UK and the US, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS organizations. Kitt appeared with Jimmy James and George Burns at a fundraiser in 1990 produced by Scott Sherman, Agent from The Atlantic Entertainment Group. It was arranged that James would impersonate Kitt and then Kitt would walk out to take the microphone. This was met with a standing ovation. Her 1989 follow-up hit "Cha-Cha Heels" (featuring Bronski Beat), which was originally intended to be recorded by Divine, received a positive response from UK dance clubs and reached #32 in the charts in that country.

In 1991, Eartha returned to the screen in the Jim Varney children's Halloween movie Ernest Scared Stupid as Old Lady Hackmore. In 1992, Kitt had a supporting role as Lady Eloise in the film Boomerang starring Eddie Murphy. In the late 1990s, she appeared as the Wicked Witch of the West in the North American national touring company of The Wizard of Oz. 1995 saw Eartha Kitt appear as herself in an episode of 'The Nanny', where she performed a song in French and flirted with Mr Shefield. In November 1996, she appeared on an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy. In 2000, Kitt again returned to Broadway in the short-lived run of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party opposite Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. Beginning in late 2000, she starred as the Fairy Godmother in the US national tour of Cinderella alongside Deborah Gibson and then Jamie-Lynn Sigler. In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in Nine. She reprised her role as the Fairy Godmother at a special engagement of Cinderella, which took place at Lincoln Center during the holiday season of 2004.

One of her more unusual roles was as Kaa the python in a 1994 BBC Radio adaptation of The Jungle Book. Kitt lent her distinctive voice to the role of Yzma in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove, for which she won her first Annie Award, and returned to the role in the straight-to-video sequel Kronk's New Groove and the spin-off TV series The Emperor's New School, for which she won two Emmy Awards and two more Annie Awards (both in 2007–08) for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production. She had a voiceover as the voice of Queen Vexus on the animated TV series My Life as a Teenage Robot.

In her later years Kitt made annual appearances in the New York Manhattan cabaret scene at venues such as the Ballroom and the Café Carlyle.

She was also a guest star in The Simpsons episode "Once Upon a Time in Springfield", where she was depicted as one of Krusty's past marriages.

From October to early December, 2006, Kitt co-starred in the Off-Broadway musical Mimi le Duck. She also appeared in the 2007 independent film And Then Came Love opposite Vanessa Williams.

Kitt was the spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics' Smoke Signals collection in August 2007. She re-recorded "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" for the occasion, was showcased on the MAC website, and the song was played at all MAC locations carrying the collection for the month.

Personal life[link]

After romances with the cosmetics magnate Charles Revson and banking heir John Barry Ryan III, she married John William McDonald, an associate of a real estate investment company, on June 6, 1960.^[14] They had one child, a daughter named Kitt McDonald, born on November 26, 1961. After divorcing in 1965, Kitt went on to have other lovers.

A long-time Connecticut resident, Eartha Kitt lived in a converted barn on a sprawling farm in the Merryall section of New Milford for many years and was active in local charities and causes throughout Litchfield County. Subsequently moving to Pound Ridge, New York, then in 2002,^[15] Kitt moved to the southern Fairfield County, Connecticut town of Weston to be near her daughter Kitt and family. (Kitt McDonald married Charles Lawrence Shapiro in 1987^[16] and had two children, Jason and Rachel Shapiro.)

Activism[link]

Kitt became a vocal advocate for homosexual rights and publicly supported same-sex marriage, which she believed to be a civil right. She had been quoted as saying, "I support it [gay marriage] because we're asking for the same thing. If I have a partner and something happens to me, I want that partner to enjoy the benefits of what we have reaped together. It's a civil-rights thing, isn't it?" Kitt famously appeared at many LGBT fundraisers, including a mega event in Baltimore, Maryland, with George Burns and Jimmy James. Scott Sherman, an agent at Atlantic Entertainment Group, stated "Eartha Kitt is fantastic... appears at so many GLBT events in support of civil rights."^[17]

Death[link]

Kitt died from colon cancer on Christmas Day 2008 at her Weston, Connecticut home.^[1][18]

Awards and nominations[link]

Awards

• 1960 Hollywood Walk of Fame — 6656 Hollywood Boulevard.^[19]
• 2001 Annie Award for Best Voice Acting by a Female Performer in a Featured Film — The Emperor's New Groove
• 2007 Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production — The Emperor's New School
• 2007 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program — The Emperor's New School
• 2008 Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production — The Emperor's New School
• 2008 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program — The Emperor's New School
• 2010 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program — The Wonder Pets

Nominations

• 1966 Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama — I Spy
• 1978 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical — Timbuktu!
• 1996 Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series — Living Single
• 2000 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical — The Wild Party
• 2000 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical — The Wild Party

Filmography[link]

Features

• Casbah (1948)
• New Faces (1954)
• Mark of the Hawk (1957)
• St. Louis Blues (1958)
• Anna Lucasta (1959)
• Saint of Devil's Island (1961)
• Uncle Tom's Cabin (1965)
• Synanon (1965)
• Up the Chastity Belt (1971)
• Friday Foster (1975)
• All by Myself: The Eartha Kitt Story (1982) (documentary)
• The Serpent Warriors (1985)
• The Pink Chiquitas (1987)
• Dragonard (1987)
• Master of Dragonard Hill (1989)
• Erik the Viking (1989)
• Living Doll (1990)
• Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)
• Boomerang (1992)
• Fatal Instinct (1993)
• Unzipped (1995) (documentary)
• Harriet the Spy (1996)
• Ill Gotten Gains (1997)
• I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (1998)
• Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (1998) (direct-to-video)
• The Emperor's New Groove (2000) (voice) (Yzma)
• The Making and Meaning of We Are Family (2002) (documentary)
• The Sweatbox (2002) (documentary)
• Anything But Love (2002)
• Holes (2003)
• Preaching to the Choir (2005)
• Kronk's New Groove (2005) (voice) (direct-to-video) (Yzma)
• And Then Came Love (2007)

Short subjects

• All About People (1967) (narrator)

Television Work[link]

• I Spy - "Angel" (1965)
• Mission: Impossible (1967) (Tina Mara, Season 1, Episode 27)
• Batman (recurring cast member from 1967 - 1968)
• The Eartha Kitt Show (1969)
• Lieutenant Schuster's Wife (1972)
• The Protectors - Episode - A Pocketful of Posies (1973)
• To Kill a Cop (1978)
• A Night on the Town (1983)
• Living Single (1995)(As herself)
• New York Undercover (1996)
• The Nanny (1996)
• The Feast of All Saints (2001) (miniseries)
• Santa Baby! (2001) (voice)
• My Life as a Teenage Robot: Vexus (recurring from 2003 - 2007)
• The Emperor's New School: Yzma (2006 - 2008)
• Wonder Pets: Cool Cat (1 episode, 2009)
• The Simpsons (season 21, Once Upon a Time in Springfield) (2010) ^[20]
• Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child: The Snow Queen (voice)

Miami Vice "Whatever Works" 1985

Discography[link]

Stage work[link]

• Blue Holiday (May 21–26, 1945) (Broadway)
• Carib Song (September 27 - October 27, 1945) (Broadway)
• Bal Negre (November 7 - December 22, 1946) (Broadway and European tour)
• Time Runs (1950)
• Dr. Faustus (1951) (Paris and European tour)
• New Faces of 1952 (May 16, 1952 - March 28, 1953) (Broadway)
• Mrs. Patterson (December 1, 1954 - February 26, 1955) (Broadway)
• Shinbone Alley (April 13 - May 25, 1957) (Broadway)
• Jolly's Progress (December 5–12, 1959) (Broadway)
• The Owl and the Pussycat (1965 - 1966) (national tour)
• The High Bid (1970) (London)
• Bunny (1972) (London)
• A Musical Jubilee (1976) (national tour)
• Timbuktu! (March 1 - September 10, 1978) (Broadway and national tour from 1979 - 1980)
• New Faces of 1952 (Revival) (1982) (Off-Off-Broadway)
• Blues in the Night (1985) (national tour)
• Follies (1987) (London) (replacement for Dolores Gray)
• Eartha Kitt in Concert (1989) (London)
• Yes (1994) (One Woman Show) (Edinburgh)
• Sam's Song (1995) (Benefit Concert) (Unitarian Church of All Souls)
• Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (1996) (Chicago)
• The Wizard of Oz (1998) (national tour)
• The Wild Party (April 13 - June 11, 2000) (Broadway)
• Cinderella (2001) (Madison Square Garden)
• Nine (replacement for Chita Rivera from October 5 - December 14, 2003) (Broadway)
• Mimi le Duck (2006) (Off Broadway)
• All About Us (April 10–28, 2007) (Westport Country Playhouse)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eartha Kitt

Biography portal

• Eartha Kitt official website
• Eartha Kitt at the Internet Broadway Database
• Eartha Kitt at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Eartha Kitt at the Internet Movie Database
• Eartha Kitt at TV Guide
• Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards - 37th Annual Nominations Announcement
• "Eartha Kitt Talks About Her Early Childhood" on the WGBH-TV series Basic Black (formerly "Say Brother")
• EARTHA KITT AS CATWOMAN TRIBUTE
• Eartha Kitt: "The Real Catwoman" R&B Showcase News, April 2004
• Remembrance by NPR, with streaming audio of interview (Dec. 31, 2007)
• Harold Pinter and Eartha Kitt, artists and opponents of imperialist war
• Obituary in the New York Times
• Remembering Eartha Kitt on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz
• The History Makers
• Eartha Kitt's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
• Eartha Kitt: The Feline Femme Fatale life story from Marie Claire Magazine Australia

Doris Day
Day in a studio publicity portrait for 1960 film Midnight Lace
Born	Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff (1924-04-03) April 3, 1924 (age 88) Cincinnati, Ohio
Occupation	Actress, singer, animal rights activist
Years active	1939–1975 1985–1986 2011–present
Spouse	Al Jorden (1941–1943; divorced) George Weidler (1946–1949; divorced) Martin Melcher (1951–1968; his death) Barry Comden (1976–1981; divorced)
Children	Terry Melcher (deceased)
Website
dorisday.com (Official Site) ddaf.org (Doris Day Animal Foundation)

Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, April 3, 1924)^[1][2][3][4] is an American actress, singer, and animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording, "Sentimental Journey", in 1945. After leaving the Les Brown & His Band of Renown to try a solo career, she started her long-lasting partnership with Columbia Records, which would remain her only recording label. The contract lasted from 1947 to 1967, and included more than 650 recordings, making Day one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of the 20th century. In 1948, after being persuaded by Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne and her agent at the time, Al Levy, she auditioned for Michael Curtiz, which led to her being cast in the female lead role in Romance on the High Seas.^[5]

With a legendary Hollywood "girl next door" image, and capable of delivering comedy and romance as well as heavy drama, she appeared in 39 films, released 29 albums, spent 460 weeks in the Top 40 charts and eventually became one of America's most beloved entertainers.^[6] She received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Pillow Talk, won three Henrietta Awards (World Film Favorite), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Legend Award from the Society of Singers, Los Angeles Film Critics Association's Career Achievement Award and, in 1989, received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures.

Her strong commitment to animal welfare began in 1971, when she co-founded "Actors and Others for Animals". She started her own non-profit organization in the late 1970s, the Doris Day Animal Foundation and, later, the Doris Day Animal League.^[7] Establishing the annual observance Spay Day USA in 1994, The Doris Day Animal League now partners with the Humane Society of the United States and continues to be a leading advocacy organization. In 2004 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in recognition of her distinguished service to the country. President Bush recognized Miss Day's work on behalf of animals by saying, "It was a good day for our fellow creatures when she gave her good heart to the cause of animal welfare."^[8]

Day was ranked the biggest box-office star for four years (1960; 1962–1964) and ranked in the top 10 for 10 years (1951–1952; 1959–1966). She became the top-ranking female box-office star of all time and is currently ranked sixth among the top 10 box-office performers (male and female), as of 2012.^[9][10]

Early life[link]

Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff was born in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Evanston to Alma Sophia (née Welz, a housewife) and William Kappelhoff (a music teacher and choir master). All of her grandparents were German immigrants.^[11] In Doris Day: Her Own Story, Day asserts "I was named by my mother in honor of her favorite actress, Doris Kenyon, a silent screen star of that year 1924."

Jazz pianist Jim Martinez, who organized her birthday celebration at the Cypress Inn at Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, claims that according to Doris Day's current assistant, when Day was a teenager, she added two years to her age so she would be old enough to sing with big bands.^[12] The youngest of three siblings, she had two older brothers: Richard (who died before her birth) and Paul, several years older.^[13] Due to her father's alleged infidelity, her parents' marriage failed and they separated. She developed an early interest in dance, and in the mid-1930s formed a dance duo with Jerry Doherty that performed locally in Cincinnati. A car accident on October 13, 1937, damaged her legs and curtailed her prospects as a professional dancer.^[14]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

While recovering, Day started to sing along with the radio and discovered a talent that she didn't know she had. Day said: "During this long, boring period, I used to while away a lot of time listening to the radio, sometimes singing along with the likes of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller [...]. But the one radio voice I listened to above others belonged to Ella Fitzgerald. There was a quality to her voice that fascinated me, and I'd sing along with her, trying to catch the subtle ways she shaded her voice, the casual yet clean way she sang the words."^[15] Observing her daughter rekindled Alma's interest in show business, and she decided to give Doris singing lessons. She engaged a teacher, Grace Raine.^[16] After three lessons, Raine told Alma that Doris had "tremendous potential", which led Alma to give her daughter three lessons a week for the price of one. Years later, Day said that Raine had the biggest effect on her singing style and career.^[17] During the eight months of singing lessons, Day had her first professional jobs as a vocalist in the WLW radio program, Carlin's Carnival and in a local restaurant, the Charlie Yee's Shanghai Inn.^[18] It was during her performances in the carnival that Day first caught the attention of Barney Rapp, who sought a girl vocalist and asked if Day would like to audition for the job. According to Day, Rapp had auditioned two hundred vocalists when she got the job.^[19] It was while working for Rapp in 1939 that she adopted the stage name "Day" as an alternative to "Kappelhoff," at his suggestion. Rapp felt her surname was too long for marquees. The first song she had performed for him was "Day After Day", thus the origin of her stage name.^[20]

After working with Rapp, Day worked with a number of other band-leaders including Jimmy James,^[21] Bob Crosby, and Les Brown. It was while working with Brown that Day scored her first hit recording, "Sentimental Journey", released in early 1945. It soon became an anthem of the desire of World War II demobilizing troops to return home. This song is still associated with Day, and she re-recorded it on several occasions, including a version in her 1971 television special.^[22] Her recording of "Sentimental Journey" was the first song placed in the Grammy Hall of Fame. At one point in 1945–46, Doris (as vocalist with the Les Brown Band) had five Top Ten Hits on the Billboard Hall of Fame. These included: "My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time", "Till The End of Time", "Come To Baby Do", and "I Got the Sun in the Mornin'".

Film career[link]

With Gordon MacRae in Starlift

Doris Day and Howard Keel, Calamity Jane

While singing with the Les Brown band and briefly with Bob Hope, Day toured extensively across the United States. Her popularity as a radio performer and vocalist, which included a second hit record "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time", led directly to a career in films. Already in 1941 Day appeared as a singer with the Les Brown band in a soundie (a Cinemasters production). After her separation from her second husband, George Weidler, in 1948, Day reportedly intended to leave Los Angeles and return to her mother's home in Cincinnati. Her agent Al Levy convinced her to attend a party at the home of composer Jule Styne. Her performance of the song "Embraceable You" impressed Styne and his partner, Sammy Cahn and they recommended her for a role in Romance on the High Seas, which they were working on for Warner Brothers. The withdrawal of Betty Hutton due to pregnancy left the main role to be re-cast, and Day got the part. The film provided her with another hit recording "It's Magic".^{[citation needed]}

In 1950 U.S. servicemen in Korea voted her their favorite star. She continued to make minor and frequently nostalgic period musicals such as Starlift, The West Point Story, On Moonlight Bay, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, and Tea For Two for Warner Brothers. In 1953 Day appeared as Calamity Jane, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Secret Love" (her recording of which became her fourth U.S. No. 1 recording). After filming Young at Heart (1954) with Frank Sinatra, Day chose not to renew her contract with Warner Brothers. She elected to work under the advice and management of her third husband, Marty Melcher, whom she married in Burbank on April 3, 1951.

Love Me or Leave Me

Day subsequently took on more dramatic roles, including her 1954 portrayal of singer Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave Me. Day would later call it, in her autobiography, her best film. She starred in The Pajama Game in 1957 with John Raitt, Carol Haney & Eddie Foy Jr. She also starred alongside top actors Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Cary Grant, David Niven, and Clark Gable.

In Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Day sang "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song and became her signature song. According to Jay Livingston, who wrote the song with Ray Evans, Day preferred another song used briefly in the film, "We'll Love Again" and skipped the recording for "Que Sera, Sera". At the studio's insistence she relented. After recording the number, she reportedly told a friend of Livingston, "That's the last time you'll ever hear that song". However, the song appeared again in Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960), and reprised as a brief duet with Arthur Godfrey in The Glass Bottom Boat (1966). "Que Sera, Sera" was also the theme song for her CBS television show (1968–73). The Man Who Knew Too Much was her only film for Hitchcock and, as she admitted in her 1975 autobiography, initially his lack of direction concerned her. She finally asked if anything was wrong and Hitchcock said everything was fine — if she weren't doing what he wanted, he would have said something.^[23] She had one more Top Ten hit with "Everybody Loves a Lover" in 1958.

Box office success[link]

In 1959, Day entered her most successful phase as a film actress with a series of romantic comedies, starting with Pillow Talk, co-starring Rock Hudson, who became a lifelong friend. Day received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Day and Hudson made two more films together, Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964). In 1962, Day appeared with Cary Grant in "That Touch of Mink". Day also teamed up with James Garner, starting with 1963's The Thrill of It All, followed later that year by Move Over, Darling. Move Over, Darling was originally entitled Something's Got to Give, a 1962 comeback vehicle for Marilyn Monroe and featuring Dean Martin. Filming suspended following the firing of Monroe and her subsequent death. A year later, filming resumed, renamed and recast with Day as the lead character.In between these comedic roles Day co-starred with Rex Harrison in the movie thriller Midnight Lace, an updating of the classic stage thriller Gaslight.

By the late 1960s, the sexual revolution of the baby boomer generation had refocused public attitudes about sex. Times changed, but Day's films did not. Critics and comics dubbed Day "the world's oldest virgin",^[24] and audiences began to shy away from her films. As a result, she slipped from the list of top box office stars, last appearing in the Top 10 in 1966 with the hit film The Glass Bottom Boat. One of the roles she turned down was that "Mrs. Robinson" in The Graduate,^[25] a role that eventually went to Anne Bancroft. In her published memoirs, Day said that she had rejected the part on moral grounds. Her final feature film, With Six You Get Eggroll, was released in 1968.

Recording success[link]

Day's last major hit single came in the UK in 1964 with "Move Over, Darling", co-written by her son specifically for her. The recording was a notable departure for Day, with its distinctly contemporary-sounding arrangement. In 1967, Day recorded her album, The Love Album, essentially concluding her recording career, though not released until 1994.^[26] In September 2011, a new album called "My Heart" was released by Sony in the UK; the American release came out in December 2011 distributed through City Hall Records.

Bankruptcy and television career[link]

1960s[link]

When third husband Marty Melcher died April 20, 1968, a shocked Day discovered that her husband of 17 years and his business partner Jerome Bernard Rosenthal^[27] had squandered her earnings, leaving her deeply in debt. Rosenthal had been her attorney since 1949, when he represented her in her uncontested divorce action against her second husband, songwriter George W. Weidler. In February 1969, Day filed suit against Rosenthal and won the then-largest civil judgment (over $20 million) in the state of California.^[28]

1970s[link]

On September 18, 1974, courts awarded Day $22,835,646 for fraud and malpractice in an hour-long oral decision by Superior Judge Lester E. Olson, ending a 99-day trial that involved 18 consolidated lawsuits and countersuits filed by Day and Rosenthal that involved Rosenthal's handling of her finances after she terminated him in July 1968. The civil trial included 14,451 pages of transcript from 67 witnesses. Represented by attorney Robert Winslow and the law firm of Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp LLP, courts awarded Day $1 million punitive damages, $5.6 million plus $2 million interest for losses incurred in a sham oil venture; $3.4 million plus $1.2 million interest over a hotel venture; $2.2 million plus $793,800 interest for duplicate or unnecessary fees paid to Rosenthal; more than $2 million to recoup loans to Rosenthal; $3.9 million plus $1 million interest for fraud, and $850,000 attorney fees for Day. Olson also enjoined Rosenthal from prosecuting any more lawsuits against Day or her business operations. (Rosenthal had filed more than 20 suits from 1969 to 1974). Olson, an expert in complex financial marital settlements, read every page of 3,275 individual exhibits and 68 boxes of miscellaneous financial records. In October 1979, Rosenthal's liability insurer settled with Day for about $6 million payable in 23 annual installments. Rosenthal continued to file an appeal in the 2nd District Court of Appeal. He also filed another half-dozen suits related to the case. Two were libel suits, one against Day and her publishers over comments she made about Rosenthal in her book in which he sought damages. The other suits sought court determinations that insurance companies and individual lawyers failed to defend Rosenthal properly before Olson and in appellate stages. In April 1979, he filed a suit to set aside the $6 million settlement with Day and recover damages from everybody involved in agreeing to the payment supposedly without his permission.^{[citation needed]}

1980s[link]

In October 1985, the California Supreme Court rejected Rosenthal's appeal of the multimillion-dollar judgment against him for legal malpractice, and upheld conclusions of a trial court and a Court of Appeal that Rosenthal acted improperly. In April 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the lower court's judgment. In June 1987, Rosenthal filed a $30 million lawsuit against lawyers he claimed cheated him out of millions of dollars in real estate investments. He also named Day as a co-defendant, describing her as an "unwilling, involuntary plaintiff whose consent cannot be obtained". Rosenthal claimed that millions of dollars Day lost were in real estate sold after Melcher died in 1968, in which Rosenthal asserted that the attorneys gave Day bad advice, telling her to sell, at a loss, three hotels, in Palo Alto, Dallas and Atlanta and some oil leases in Kentucky and Ohio. Rosenthal claimed he had made the investments under a long-term plan, and did not intend to sell them until they appreciated in value. Two of the hotels sold in 1970 for about $7 million, and their estimated worth in 1986 was $50 million. In July 1984, after a hearing panel of the State Bar Court, after 80 days of testimony and consideration of documentary evidence, the panel accused Rosenthal of 13 separate acts of misconduct and urged his disbarment in a 34-page unsigned opinion. The State Bar Court's review department upheld the panel's findings, which asked the justices to order Rosenthal's disbarment. He continued representing clients in federal courts until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against him on March 21, 1988. Disbarment by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals followed on August 19, 1988. The Supreme Court of California, in affirming the disbarment, held that Rosenthal engaged in transactions involving undisclosed conflicts of interest, took positions adverse to his former clients, overstated expenses, double-billed for legal fees, failed to return client files, failed to provide access to records, failed to give adequate legal advice, failed to provide clients with an opportunity to obtain independent counsel, filed fraudulent claims, gave false testimony, engaged in conduct designed to harass his clients, delayed court proceedings, obstructed justice and abused legal process. Terry Melcher stated that it was only Martin Melcher's premature death that saved Day from financial ruin. It remains unresolved whether Martin Melcher was himself duped. Day stated publicly that she believed her husband innocent of any deliberate wrongdoing, stating that he "simply trusted the wrong person".^[29] According to Day's autobiography, as told to A. E. Hotchner, the usually athletic and healthy Martin Melcher had an enlarged heart. Most of the interviews on the subject given to Hotchner (and included in Day's autobiography) paint an unflattering portrait of Melcher. Author David Kaufman asserts that one of Day's costars, actor Louis Jourdan, maintained that Day herself disliked her husband,^[30] but Day's public statements regarding Melcher appear to contradict that assertion.^[31]

[edit] The Doris Day Show

Upon her husband's death on April 20, 1968, Day learned that he had committed her to a television series, which became The Doris Day Show.

"It was awful", Day told OK! Magazine in 1996. "I was really, really not very well when Marty [Melcher] passed away, and the thought of going into TV was overpowering. But he'd signed me up for a series. And then my son Terry [Melcher] took me walking in Beverly Hills and explained that it wasn't nearly the end of it. I had also been signed up for a bunch of TV specials, all without anyone ever asking me."

Day hated the idea of doing television, but felt obliged to it. "There was a contract. I didn't know about it. I never wanted to do TV, but I gave it 100 percent anyway. That's the only way I know how to do it." The first episode of The Doris Day Show aired on September 24, 1968, and, from 1968 to 1973, employed "Que Sera, Sera" as its theme song. Day grudgingly persevered (she needed the work to help pay off her debts), but only after CBS ceded creative control to her and her son. The successful show enjoyed a five-year run, and functioned as a curtain-raiser for The Carol Burnett Show, remembered today for its abrupt season-to-season changes in casting and premise. It was not widely syndicated as many of its contemporaries, and re-broadcast very little outside the United States and the United Kingdom.^[32] By the end of its run in 1973, public tastes had changed and her firmly established persona regarded as passé. She largely retired from acting after The Doris Day Show, but did complete two television specials, The Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff Special (1971) and Doris Day to Day (1975). She appeared in a John Denver TV special in 1974.^[26]

1990s and renewal of interest[link]

A Greatest Hits CD released in 1994 became another entry into the British charts.^[26] The song "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" was included in the soundtrack of the Australian film Strictly Ballroom, and became a theme song for the British TV show, Coupling, with Mari Wilson performing it for the title sequence. Day was supposed to be at the Academy Awards in 1994; however, she tripped on a sprinkler injuring herself, and had to withdraw from appearing. Since the 1990s, Day has not allowed recent photos to be displayed publicly, for personal reasons.

2000s[link]

In 2006, Day recorded a commentary for the DVD release of the fifth (and final) season of her TV show. Recently Day has participated in telephone interviews with a radio station that celebrates her birthday with an annual Doris Day music marathon. In July 2008 she appeared on the Southern California radio show of longtime friend, newscaster George Putnam, reported in the Los Angeles Times. While Day turned down a tribute offer from the American Film Institute, she received and accepted the Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in 1989. In 2004, Day received the Presidential Medal of Freedom but declined to attend the ceremony because of her fear of flying. Day did not accept an invitation to be a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors for the same reason.^[26]

Both columnist Liz Smith and film critic Rex Reed have mounted vigorous campaigns to gather support for an honorary Academy Award for Day to herald her film career and her status as the top female box-office star of all time. Day received a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in Music in 2008, albeit again in absentia.

2010s[link]

Day released My Heart in the United Kingdom on September 5, 2011, her first new album in nearly two decades, since the release of The Love Album, which, although recorded in 1967, was not released until 1994.^[33] The album is a compilation of previously unreleased recordings produced by Day's son, Terry Melcher, prior to his death in 2004. Tracks include the 1970s Joe Cocker hit "You Are So Beautiful", the Beach Boys' "Disney Girls" and jazz standards such as "My Buddy", which Day originally sang in her 1951 film I'll See You in My Dreams. Day dedicates this song to her son. The disc was released in the U.S. via City Hall Records on December 6, and within two weeks had climbed to #12 on Amazon's best-seller list in spite of being priced over 25% higher than most CDs in order to raise funds for the Doris Day Animal League. It debuted at 135 on the Billboard 200, Day's first entry on that chart since 1963's Love Him.^[34]

Day became the oldest artist to score a UK Top 10 with an album featuring new material, according to the Official Charts Company, entering at Number 9. (British singer Vera Lynn reached the top of the chart in August 2009 at age 92, but with the greatest hits album, We'll Meet Again – The Very Best of Vera Lynn.)^[35]

Personal life[link]

In 1975, Day released her autobiography, Doris Day: Her Own Story, an "as-told-to" work with A. E. Hotchner. The book detailed her first three marriages:

• To Al Jorden, a trombonist whom she first met when he was in Barney Rapp's Band, from March 1941 to 1943. Her only child, son Terry Melcher, resulted from this marriage. Jorden, who was reportedly physically abusive to Day, committed suicide in 1967 by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
• To George Weidler (a saxophonist), from March 30, 1946 to May 31, 1949. Weidler, the brother of actress Virginia Weidler, and Day met again several years later. During a brief reconciliation, he helped initiate her to Christian Science.
• To Martin Melcher, whom she married on April 3, 1951. This marriage lasted until Melcher's death in 1968. Melcher adopted Terry (thus renaming the boy Terry Melcher), and produced many of Day's movies. She and Melcher were both practicing Christian Scientists, resulting in her not seeing a doctor for some time after symptoms that suggested cancer. This distressing period ended when finally consulting a physician and, finding the lump was benign, she fully recovered. After publishing her autobiography, Day married one last time.
• Her fourth and last marriage was to Barry Comden (born 1935 – died 2009),^[36] who was roughly a decade younger, from April 14, 1976 until 1981. Comden was the maitre d' at one of Day's favorite restaurants. Knowing of her great love of dogs, Comden endeared himself to Day by giving her a bag of meat scraps and bones on her way out of the restaurant. When this marriage unraveled, Comden complained that Day cared more for her "animal friends" than she did for him.

While promoting the 1975 book, Day caused a stir by rejecting the 'girl next door' and 'virgin' labels so often attached to her. As she remarked in her book, "The succession of cheerful, period musicals I made, plus Oscar Levant's highly publicized comment about my virginity ("I knew Doris Day before she became a virgin.") contributed to what has been called my 'image', which is a word that baffles me. There never was any intent on my part either in my acting or in my private life to create any such thing as an image." Day said she believed people should live together prior to marriage, something that she would do if the opportunity arose. At the conclusion of this book tour, Day seemed content to focus on her charity and pet work and her business interests. (In 1985, she became part-owner with her son of the Cypress Inn in Carmel, California.)

In May 1983, she became a grandmother. In 1985 she briefly hosted her own talk show, Doris Day's Best Friends on CBN. The network canceled the show after 26 episodes, despite the worldwide publicity her show received. Terry Melcher first made a brief attempt to become a surf music singing star, then became a staff producer for Columbia Records in the 1960s, and was famous for producing some latter-day recordings by The Beach Boys and The Byrds. Day has been a committed Republican.^[37]

Animal welfare activism[link]

Day's interest in animal welfare and related issues apparently dates to her teen years. While recovering from an automobile accident, she took her dog Tiny for a walk without a leash. Tiny ran into the street and was killed by a passing car. Day later confessed guilt and loneliness. In 1971, she co-founded Actors and Others for Animals and appeared in a series of newspaper advertisements denouncing the wearing of fur, alongside Mary Tyler Moore, Angie Dickinson, and Jayne Meadows.^[38] Day's friend, Cleveland Amory, wrote about these events in Man Kind? Our Incredible War on Wildlife (1974).

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Day promoted the annual Spay Day USA, and on a number of occasions, actively lobbied the United States Congress in support of legislation designed to safeguard animal rights. She also founded The Doris Day Animal League, which merged into The Humane Society of the United States in 2006.^[39] Staff members of the Doris Day League took positions within The HSUS, and Day recorded public service announcements for the organization. The HSUS now manages Spay Day USA, the one-day spay/neuter event she originated.^[40]

A facility to help abused and neglected horses opened in 2011 and bears her name: the Doris Day Horse Rescue and Adoption Center, located in Murchison, Texas, on the grounds of an animal sanctuary started by her late friend, author Cleveland Amory. Day contributed $250,000 toward the founding of the center.^[41]

Recent years[link]

Day now lives near Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.^[42] where she prefers to be known as Clara Kappelhoff, combining an old nickname ("Clara", by friend Billy de Wolfe) and her maiden name. In 2011, Day released My Heart, her first album of new material since 1967's The Love Album. With its debut at No. 9, Day made history, becoming the oldest female artist to ever have had a top ten album on the Top 40 Official UK Album chart.^[43] In October 2011, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association announced that Day would be the recipient of the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Barothy, Mary Anne. Day at a Time: An Indiana Girl's Sentimental Journey to Doris Day's Hollywood and Beyond. Hawthorne Publishing, 2007
• Bret, David. Doris Day: Reluctant Star. JR Books, London. 2008
• Kaufman, David (2008). Doris Day: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door. New York: Virgin Books. ISBN 978-1-905264-30-8. 
• McGee, Garry. Doris Day: Sentimental Journey. McFarland & Company, Inc., 2005
• Patrick, Pierre and Garry McGee. Que Sera, Sera: The Magic of Doris Day Through Television. Bear Manor Media, 2005
• Patrick, Pierre and Garry McGee. The Doris Day Companion: A Beautiful Day (One on One with Doris and Friends). BearManor Media, 2009
• Braun, Eric. Doris Day Orion Books, 1994
• Santopietro, Tom. Considering Doris Day. Thomas Dunn Books, 2008