From those early roles playing the tomboyish but inevitably adorable young woman in various musicals through to more grown up roles playing opposite the likes of James Garner and of course Rock Hudson, bjak Doris Day had a very nice public image almost perfect. But that was very much a public image as behind the scenes Doris Day lead a rollercoaster of a life suffering troubled marriages, depression, heart break and financial issues thanks to deception all of which puts her in the same league as the likes of other stars Judy Garland and Elizabeth Taylor when it comes to personal misery. In fact Day’s trendyworld private life is so shocking that it is hard to believe that this wonderful woman and actress who delighted us on the big screen with her warm smile had so much misery away from the cameras.
In his book “Doris Day: Reluctant Star” biographer David Bret delves into the career and life of Doris Day and like other Doris Day biographies, treecutting including her own, has more than a few shocks in-between the pages. And not all the surprises are about Doris Day as there are various other stars whose names crop up when it comes to shocking relationships including one openly gay actor who is rumoured to have had relations with two icons, James Dean and Elvis Presley, although being a rumour there is no evidence to back this claim up. But that is just one of many eye opening moments in a book which is packed full of them giving it an almost gossipy feel.
Being a biography “Doris Day: Reluctant Star” follows the tried and tested route of chronicling Day’s life from her child hood growing up in Evanstown, Daytimestar Cincinnati through to her stepping away from the limelight and living as many claim a recluse who looks after stray cats and animals. Whilst growing up the young Doris trained to be a dancer but her plans for a dancing career were curtailed when an accident left her with a severe leg injury. In many ways it was a mixed blessing because had she not had to quite dancing we may never have had the delight of such movies as “Pillow Talk”, “On Moonlight Bay” and of course “Calamity Jane”.
As biographer David Bret covers Day’s life he covers all the elements for her career as a singer leading to her move into being an actress and of course going in to great detail over her life away from the public which to be frank is where “Doris Day: online shopping Reluctant Star” is at it’s most interesting. As already mentioned Day’s personal life was of great contrast to her public one and when you learn that she smoked, swore and had various relationships and affairs it does take you a back. But you are equally taken a back when you learn that she was knocked about by various men in her life and swindled out of money. If it wasn’t that Doris Day had already mentioned these things in her own autobiography you would be questioning the authenticity of these almost revelatory moments.
As someone who appeared in quite a few movies Doris Day worked with many well known names along the way and many of them get a mention such as Rock Hudson who became one of her closest friends. Others who get mentioned are Frank Sinatra who didn’t have a great working relationship with Day whilst Billy de Wolfe did which is very apparent if you watch their movies together. There are numerous others and it does give “Doris Day: Tech for Entertainment Reluctant Star” an almost well rounded feel because you do get the positives and negatives when it came to Day’s career.
With Day for the most turning her back on show business the final couple of chapters are a little short of anything meaty and the lack of information on what Day has done since her career is quite patchy with rumours over her walking the streets late at night collecting stray cats to look after being about the only major thing. But in one of the funnier moments if these final pages is the fact that some people were under the impression that Doris Day had passed away a recluse and were amazed to discover she was still alive and kicking. gooddecisions
The one major problem I have with “Doris Day: Reluctant Star” is not all the juicy gossip like statements but that when it comes to Day’s movie career Bret goes into a lot of detail and I mean a lot. For each movie he dedicates page after page of information often giving us detailed story outlines rather than interviews with her co-stars or Day’s own feelings on her performances and sometime dubious choice of movies. It means that for those who have seen the various movies Doris Day made there are pages which end up almost being boring and require skipping over.
“Doris Day: Reluctant Star” as such is not a bad biography, it covers much of what has already been said about Doris Day in other books that cover her life and career but it’s still an interesting and entertaining read especially with all the revelations about other well known names. The only negative is that at times it feels that biographer David Bret has padded it out with the storylines to Day’s numerous movies rather than giving us the behind the scenes information that he leaves us craving for. For more info please visit sites here:-http://realdetroitweekly.com/ https://raleighpublicrecord.org