 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
May 13, 2019 - 11:30 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Gus Kahn was born in Germany in 1886 and at the age of five moved to the United States with his parents. At various times he was a songwriting partner of composers Egbert Van Alstyne, Isham Jones, and Walter Donaldson. He died in 1941. Although Kahn is now generally recognized as one of the leading lyricists of the golden age of musicals, this recognition took its time coming. He wasn't inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame until 1970, some 29 years after his death.
Warner Bros. purchased the rights to many of Gus Kahn's songs, which were frequently performed or heard as background music in Warner Bros. films of the 1930s and 1940s. In 1951, before their rights to Kahn’s catalog expired, the studio decided to produce a biopic of his life. That film was I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS. Danny Thomas co-starred as Gus Kahn, and since the film was told from his wife’s point of view, Doris Day starred as Grace LeBoy Kahn. Grace was still alive at the time of filming. She did not die until 1983 at the age of 92, 42 years after the death of her husband.
Danny Thomas and Doris Day in I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS
One of Kahn’s best known songs is “Love Me or Leave Me.” Ruth Etting performed the song in the 1928 Broadway musical Whoopee!. But in this film, the song is sung by the fictional character "Gloria Knight", who is portrayed as the star of Whoopee!. “Gloria Knight” is played by Patrice Wymore (and dubbed by Bonnie Lou Williams). In 1955, Doris Day would sing the song when she played Ruth Etting in MGM's film LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME.
I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS was directed by Michael Curtiz, his fifth and last time directing Day. The film did heathy business, grossing $7 million at the box office. Day and Danny Thomas recorded a Columbia 10-inch LP featuring eight film songs which climbed to number one on the Billboard pop albums chart. The LP was re-issued on CD by Collectables in 2001.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In their third starring film, Doris Day and Gordon MacRae played themselves, as did more than a dozen other stars, in another of Warners’ wartime morale-building films, 1951's STARLIFT. This time, it was for the Korean War, although Korea was never mentioned in the film.
An actual “Starlift” program was inspired by Ruth Roman, who spoke to the press about the need for entertainment for the troops after she visited the San Francisco area on a publicity tour. When the Hollywood Coordinating Committee set up a program, Louella Parsons, motion picture editor for International News Service and Hearst newspapers, gave the program national publicity in her columns.
Although most of the film was fictional, some footage of actual “Starlift” performances was used in the film, including Phil Harris, who appears intentionally losing a poker game to boost the morale of his opponents, hospitalized soldiers. Portions of the film were shot at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, CA, and Birmingham Veterans’ Hospital grounds and Metropolitan Airport in the San Fernando Valley.
Roy Del Ruth directed the film, his third with Day. The picture grossed $4.8 million at the box office.
Doris Day and Gordon MacRae in STARLIFT
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 13, 2019 - 11:57 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
THE WINNING TEAM was based on the life of Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander (1887--1950), who suffered head injury, epilepsy and alcoholism, yet made one of the greatest comebacks in sports and is still considered one of the most successful pitchers in Major League history. Ronald Reagan was Alexander, and Doris Day played his girlfriend and later his wife, Aimee Arrants Alexander. Although the major facts of Alexander's life depicted in the film are true, some are presented out of order.
This was Day’s second film with Reagan, after STORM WARNING. Before making this film together, Day and Reagan had dated in real life. When he hesitated about asking for her hand in marriage, Day instead accepted a proposal from her manager at the time, Martin Melcher, to whom she remained married until his death in 1968.
Because Day's most popular movies were usually musicals, Warner Bros. wanted her to sing in this film. The result has Day singing "Old Saint Nicholas" when her family celebrates Christmas while Grover is recuperating from his head wound.
Lewis Seiler directed the 1952 drama, which has an unreleased score by David Buttolph. The film grossed $4.0 million at the domestic box office.
Ronald Reagan and Doris Day in THE WINNING TEAM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 14, 2019 - 12:17 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
In the musical comedy APRIL IN PARIS, a series of misunderstandings leads to a chorus girl (Doris Day) traveling to Paris to represent the American theater, where she falls in love with a befuddled bureaucrat (Ray Bolger).
Day wrote in her autobiography that she only encountered trouble or tension on two of her Warner Bros. movies: APRIL IN PARIS and YOUNG AT HEART (1954). Regarding this film, she claimed that leading man Ray Bolger and director David Butler clashed early on, with Butler accusing Bolger of trying to steal scenes away from Day. Day also mentioned that, being a relative newcomer to movies, she was unaware of Bolger's tricks and managed to stay out of the line of fire.
This was David Butler’s fourth time directing Day. Columbia Records released a 45rpm EP with four songs from the film. The film's title song, "April in Paris," was actually written in 1932 for the Broadway musical comedy, Walk a Little Faster. The 1952 film was a big hit, pulling in $7.6 million at the box office.
Doris Day in APRIL IN PARIS
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 14, 2019 - 1:28 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
The fourth and final film starring Doris Day and Gordon MacRae, BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON was suggested by Booth Tarkington's Penrod stories, but the New York Times reviewer noted that the film bore little resemblance in plot and mood to the short stories, and also mentioned anachronisms in the dialogue and songs.
Most of the cast of the film also appeared in the 1951 Warner Bros. production ON MOONLIGHT BAY, which was directed by Roy Del Ruth, and also was based on Tarkington's novels and featured the same central characters.
Doris Day was 30 when she played 18-year-old “Marjorie Winfield”. Gordon MacRae was 31 when he played 20-year-old “Bill Sherman”. Among contract players at Warner Bros. in the early 1950s, Gordon MacRae had a reputation for being belligerent, egotistical and unreliable. By the time this film was going into production, the situation had gotten to the point where big band singer Merv Griffin was signed by the studio specifically as a potential replacement for MacRae. But, given the box office grosses of the several previous on-screen pairings of MacRae and Doris Day, the studio was loathe to break up a winning combination, and thus cast MacRae to reprise his role as Day's love interest in this successful sequel. Griffin appeared in the film in the role of the announcer at the town's ice-skating rink, and only spoke one line: "Everybody grab your girl and start skating!"
David Butler directed the film, his fifth with Day. Musical selections from the film were featured on a Doris Day 10-inch LP for Columbia which peaked in third place on the Billboard popular albums chart. It was re-issued on CD by Collectables in 2001. The film grossed $5.7 million.
Doris Day and Gordon MacRae in BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 14, 2019 - 11:41 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Warner Bros. studio head Jack Warner decided to make CALAMITY JANE after he tried - and failed - to buy the movie rights to "Annie Get Your Gun" as a vehicle for Doris Day. Reviewers were quick to point out the similarities in the two films. Both have a sharpshooting tomboy heroine, and both co-star Howard Keel as the male romantic lead. The Daily Variety review noted that the song, "I Can Do Without You," which is sung by competitors Calamity and Hickok during a battle of the sexes, is reminiscent of the song "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better" from ANNIE GET YOUR GUN.
Doris Day starred as Calamity Jane. The real-life "Calamity Jane," Martha Jane Canary Burke (ca. 1850--1903), was a hard-drinking, sharpshooting frontierswoman known for wearing men's clothing and telling exaggerated stories about her life. As depicted in the film, she reportedly was a scout for Gen. George Armstrong Custer and carried mail through dangerous terrain between the towns of Custer and Deadwood in Dakota Territory.
Howard Keel co-starred as Wild Bill Hickok. James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok (1837--1876) was a gunfighter, Union Army scout and Kansas marshal, who was killed by Jack McCall in a Deadwood saloon. Reportedly, Hickok was shot during a poker game in which he held the so-called "Dead Man's Hand" of aces and eights. Both Calamity and Hickok appeared in Wild West shows in their later years. According to some sources, Calamity boasted that she and Hickok were married, but there is no evidence that the two were ever romantically involved. However, at her request they were buried next to each other in a Deadwood cemetery.
Doris Day in CALAMITY JANE
Doris Day had to lower the sound of her natural voice, in order to sound more gruff to play the rough and ready Calamity. David Butler directed the film, his sixth with Day. Although Ray Heindorf was nominated for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture, he lost to Alfred Newman's CALL ME MADAM. CALAMITY JANE grossed $7.6 million at the box office.
Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster composed the song score and received an Academy Award for their song "Secret Love," which Day recorded in one take. During early 1954, music from this film reigned supreme in the Billboard charts. Number one among the singles was "Secret Love", and the Day-Howard Keel 10-inch LP of songs from the score, issued by Columbia Records, zoomed to second place among the popular albums.
The Columbia album was comprised of four songs directly from the soundtrack (supervised by Ray Heindorf), and four tunes commercially rerecorded by Doris Day alone (arranged and conducted by Paul Weston). The original 10-inch LP was re-issued on CD by Collectables in 2001.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 14, 2019 - 5:03 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
LUCKY ME was Warner Bros.’ first musical and Doris Day’s first film to be shot in CinemaScope. Day plays “Candy Williams,” an optimistic but superstitious young woman. Just starting her show business career, she is the fourth-billed player of four in Hap Synder’s (Phil Silvers) comedy/musical revue troupe currently performing in a second-rate theater in Miami Beach. When the show is canceled, the four are forced to work in an upscale hotel to pay off a debt they incurred. Staying at the hotel is successful Broadway composer “Brad Carson” (Robert Cummings), who is for the first time self-producing his latest show. The father of “Lorraine Thayer” (Martha Hyer), Dick's casual girlfriend, is the only potential financier. When Candy meets Dick, he believes she is a hotel employee and she believes he's a blue collar mechanic. They soon fall in love.
Day was suffering from exhaustion following the strenuous production schedule for CALAMITY JANE and did not feel sturdy enough to begin work on LUCKY ME. When her husband-manager Martin Melcher and Warner Bros. strong-armed her into moving forward by citing her contractual obligations, Day suffered what she termed a “nervous breakdown” during filming.
Phil Silvers and Doris Day in LUCKY ME
When it came to publicity and promotion, LUCKY ME had the disadvantage of competing with Warner Bros.' other 1954 musical, the $6 million Judy Garland/James Mason remake of A STAR IS BORN. While that film earned $13.1 million at the box office, LUCKY ME was Doris Day’s lowest grossing Warner musical, managing to pull in only $4.5 million.
Though Day recorded several singles from the Sammy Fain-Paul Webster score, the movie's commercial failure resulted in this being one of the very few Day musical films that did not spawn a soundtrack LP.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 14, 2019 - 5:36 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
In anticipation of the ending of her seven-year contract with Warner Bros., Doris Day and her manager/husband Martin Melcher formed Arwin Productions. Arwin and Warner Bros. co-produced Day’s final film under her Warner contract, YOUNG AT HEART, which co-starred Frank Sinatra.
This was Sinatra's first major release following his Academy Award-winning comeback in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953). Along with a renewed confidence in his acting, Sinatra looks noticeably gaunt and grizzled in this film, following four years of cumulative professional and personal losses, including a tumultuous marriage to Ava Gardner. A quick comparison with Sinatra's appearance in ON THE TOWN (1949), made just five years earlier, shows the stark change in his appearance.
Doris Day was under contract to Warner Bros. at the time of this film's production, while Sinatra was a freelance artist. This naturally resulted in Day receiving first billing, but it is Sinatra's voice heard singing the title song over the credits. The film was untitled until Sinatra's "Young at Heart" became a smash hit and was tagged onto the opening credits.
As the film opens in Connecticut, widowed music professor "Gregory Tuttle" (Robert Keith) has three daughters, who share his love of chamber music. "Fran" (Dorothy Malone), his oldest, becomes engaged after only seven dates to the chubby but successful "Robert Neary" (Alan Hale Jr.). "Amy" (Elisabeth Fraser), who is ambivalent about her admirer, the soft-spoken "Ernest Nichols" (Lonny Chapman), is not expecting to marry soon. The youngest daughter "Laurie" (Doris Day) has no suitor and muses that the trouble with most marriages is that there are “not enough laughs.” She, of course, becomes involved with "Barney Sloan" (Sinatra), a music arranger.
Frank Sinatra took an almost immediate dislike to Doris Day's husband, Martin Melcher, thought that Melcher was "using" her to get ahead in the movie business, and tried to convince Day of that fact. Sinatra threatened to walk off the film unless Melcher was banned from the Warner Bros. lot during production. Jack L. Warner issued this order to all studio security guards so that production would not be shut down.
YOUNG AT HEART started with Charles Lang as Director of Photography. Sinatra did not like to rehearse and was accustomed to doing scenes in one take, and he complained that the meticulous Lang was taking far too long to set up camera shots and wanted to do repeated takes. Sinatra walked off the film and threatened to quit unless Lang was fired. Lang was replaced by Ted D. McCord.
Doris Day and Frank Sinatra in YOUNG AT HEART
Gordon Douglas directed the film. This may be the only Hollywood musical that bears no music credits. Musical director Ray Heindorf had his name removed because of a new ruling that the term "musical director" was to be replaced with the credit "Music supervised and conducted by..."
There was no soundtrack album released for the film because Doris Day and Frank Sinatra were under contract to different record labels in 1954. Columbia issued a 10-inch LP featuring six new recordings by Miss Day and reissues of two Sinatra cuts from the previous decade (when Sinatra recorded for Columbia): "Someone to Watch Over Me", recorded in 1945, and "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)", recorded in 1947. The Columbia compilation found its way to #15 on the Billboard pop albums chart. On a Capitol 45 extended-play release, Sinatra sang renditions of four songs from the movie. Sinatra's single of the title tune already had been a second-place finisher in Billboard by the time of the picture's opening, and this Sinatra trademark song became a million seller. The Day LP was re-issued by Columbia on CD in Great Britain in 2004.
Doris Day closed out her Warner Bros. contract with a hit, with YOUNG AT HEART grossing $7.1 million.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 14, 2019 - 10:58 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Doris Day’s first film away from Warner Bros. found her working again with James Cagney, with whom she had appeared in THE WEST POINT STORY (1950). This time, the film was MGM’s dramatic musical LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME.
The film was the story of singer Ruth Etting (Day), who had married Moe "The Gimp" Snyder (Cagney) in 1920. She starred in the Ziegfeld Follies from 1927-31, performed on Broadway in shows such as the popular 1928 musical comedy Whoopee, in which she introduced the song "Love Me or Leave Me," and appeared in the MGM films ROMAN SCANDALS and A GIFT OF GAB. Etting was also a popular radio performer in the 1930s and a highly successful recording artist. She later married her pianist, Myrl Alderman (called “Johnny Alderman” in the film and played by Cameron Mitchell), in 1938, after Snyder shot him in a fit of jealousy. Etting and Alderman remained married until his death in 1966. Etting, Snyder, and Alderman were still alive when the film was made, and all three received undisclosed payments from MGM for the rights to portray them onscreen.
Ava Gardner was originally cast as Etting in April 1954, and was placed on suspension when she refused the role. In her autobiography, Gardner wrote that she turned down the assignment because she was "afraid it would be just another fairly standard biography." She also didn't want her singing to be dubbed again as it had been in SHOW BOAT (1951).
Doris Day hesitated before accepting the lead in the film. Ruth Etting was a kept woman who clawed her way up from seamy Chicago nightclubs to the Ziegfeld Follies. It would require her to drink, wear scant, sexy costumes and to string along a man she didn't love in order to further her career. There was also a certain vulgarity about Etting that she didn't want to play. Producer Joe Pasternak convinced Day to accept the role because she would give the part some dignity that would play away from the vulgarity.
Nevertheless, after the film was released, Day was deluged with mail from fans attacking her, a Christian Scientist, for playing a lewd woman who smoked, drank, and wore scant costumes in the nightclub scenes. Day cared about everyone who was disturbed by her characterization, and she answered every piece of mail, explaining the necessity for realism, and that it was essential to separate actress Doris Day from character Ruth Etting. She felt that as a performer, she had the same responsibility to the public that a politician has to the electorate.
Doris Day and James Cagney in LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME
It was James Cagney who suggested to producer Joe Pasternak that he cast Doris Day in the role of Ruth Etting. The film marked the first and only time Cagney was not given top billing since A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM in 1935. He thought that Doris Day's character was more central to the film's plot, and so ceded top billing to her. Of the sixty-two films he made, James Cagney wrote that he rated this among his top five. Doris Day also named this film as her best performance.
LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME marked arranger Percy Faith's first screen assignment. Charles Vidor directed the 1955 picture, which was Doris Day’s highest grossing film to date, earning $11.5 million at the box office.
The Columbia Records soundtrack album was also a phenomenal success for Doris Day, maintaining the number-one spot among Billboard’s popular albums for an impressive 17 weeks. The CD released by Sony in 1993 presented the score in true stereo sound for the first time. The disc also contained previously unreleased versions (in mono) of the title song (music by Walter Donaldson, lyrics by Gus Kahn) and "Ten Cents a Dance" (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 14, 2019 - 11:36 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Doris Day co-starred with James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock’s remake of his own 1934 film THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. In the film, an American physician (Stewart) and his wife (Day) take matters into their own hands after assassins planning to execute a foreign Prime Minister kidnap their son (Christopher Olsen).
June Allyson, Lana Turner, Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, Jane Russell, Gene Tierney, and Ava Gardner were considered for the role of “Jo McKenna.” Alfred Hitchcock requested blonde Doris Day for the main female role as he had liked her performance in STORM WARNING (1951), though associate producer Herbert Coleman was reluctant on Day, whom he only knew as a singer.
Doris Day had a fear of flying ever since touring with Bob Hope in the 1940s, and enduring some close calls in impenetrable winter weather. She almost turned down her role in this film because it required travel to London and Marrakesh. Her husband and manager, Martin Melcher, talked her into accepting it.
Doris Day was so popular with the British that when she arrived at her London hotel for location shooting, mobs of fans had gotten word that she would be staying there, and had gathered. Pandemonium erupted when they saw her, and she needed a police escort to get in. Fans continued to surround the hotel, camping out, shouting her name, asking for autographs, and hoping for a chance to see her. The hotel management finally had to ask her to leave.
Throughout the filming, Doris Day became increasingly concerned that Alfred Hitchcock paid more attention to camera set-ups, lighting, and technical matters than he did to her performance. Convinced that he was displeased with her work, she finally confronted him. His reply was, "My dear Miss Day, if you weren't giving me what I wanted, then I would have to direct you."
It was during the making of this movie, when she saw how camels, goats and other "animal extras" in a marketplace scene were being treated, that Doris Day began her lifelong commitment to preventing animal abuse. She was so appalled at the conditions the animals were in, that she refused to work unless they were properly fed and cared for. The production company actually had to set up "feeding stations" for the various goats, sheep, camels, etc., and feed them every day before Day would agree to go back to work.
Doris Day, Christopher Olsen, and James Stewart in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Bernard Herrmann (the composer of the score) can be seen conducting the orchestra during the Albert Hall sequence, and his name is on the advertising poster as Doris Day exits her taxi. Herrmann was given the option of composing a new cantata to be performed during the climax. However, he found Arthur Benjamin's cantata “Storm Clouds” from the original version of the film to be so well suited to the movie that he declined, although he did expand the orchestration, and insert several repeats to make the sequence longer.
The most memorable piece of music from the film, however, was the song "Que Sera Sera." Songwriter Jay Livingston said that he came across the phrase "Que Sera Sera" in the movie THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (1954), when Rossano Brazzi shows Ava Gardner his house, and she sees the inscription "Que Sera Sera" on the gate. He tells her that is the family motto, and it means "Whatever will be, will be".
Although she sang it in the film, at first Doris Day refused to record "Que Sera, Sera" as a popular song release, dismissing it as "a forgettable children's song". It not only went on to win an Academy Award, but also became the biggest hit of her recording career and her signature song. She sang the same song in two more movies, PLEASE DON’T EAT THE DAISIES (1960) and THE GLASS BOTTOM BOAT (1966), and it was used as the theme song for her television series, “The Doris Day Show”.
In discussing in an interview his work on the two versions of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. Hitchcock stated: "Let's say that the first version was the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional." The “professional” 1956 version of the film earned $11.7 million at the box office.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 15, 2019 - 12:08 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Louis Jourdan starred in his first thriller with 1956's JULIE. Jourdan played the jealous husband of airline hostess Doris Day. Day sings the song "Julie" during the opening credits. Her voice-over narration is heard throughout the film, describing "Julie Benton's" increasing anxieties over her husband.
Doris Day did not want to do this film. The character of “Lyle Benton” (Jourdan) was painfully reminiscent of her first two husbands, Al Jorden and George Weidler. In later years, Day wrote that her close friendship with co-star Jourdan angered her jealous producer husband Martin Melcher, mirroring the character-relationships in the film.
While in pre-production for the film, Day was being driven to a local airport to learn some airplane cockpit tips when the car she was riding in was slammed into by a teenage hot-rodder. Despite the potential seriousness of the situation, nobody was hurt and Day wrote that she remained remarkably unfazed by the accident.
While making this film on location, Doris Day repeatedly complained to Melcher, whose first film as a producer this was, that she felt ill and needed a rest. He insisted that she adhere to her Christian Science beliefs - and the film's shooting schedule - and "have faith" that whatever was ailing her would pass. Once shooting was completed, Day consulted her doctor in Beverly Hills, and discovered a large ovarian tumor, which required her to have a hysterectomy.
Doris Day and Louis Jourdan in JULIE
Portions of the film were shot on location in the Northern California coastal regions of Carmel and Monterey. Doris Day fell in love with the region. She retired there in the late 1970s, and lived there for the rest of her life.
Andrew L. Stone directed the film, which had an unreleased score by Leith Stevens. The only music from the score that has been released is a 5-minute piece (“Midnight On the Cliffs”) by Leonard Pennario, who provided additional music for the film.
Of the many films that Doris Day appeared in, the budget for this one ($785,000) was reportedly the lowest. This was because Arwin Productions (the Doris Day-Marty Melcher company) kept cost to a minimum. The film was a commercial success, earning $4.0 million at the box office.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 15, 2019 - 2:05 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
In 1953, Frederick Brisson, Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince bought the novel 7½ Cents, intending to develop both a Broadway musical and, later, a film from the property. Richard Bissell, author of the novel and co-writer of the stage play and film script, worked as a factory supervisor in a Dubuque, Iowa pajama factory. The producers were negotiating with Cary Grant, Gene Kelly and Van Johnson, hoping that one of them would star in both the stage and film versions. Ultimately, John Raitt, who had starred in such shows as “Carousel” and “Oklahoma!” got the lead role. The original Broadway production of THE PAJAMA GAME opened at the St. James Theater in New York on May 13, 1954, ran for 1,063 performances and won the 1955 Tony Award for the Best Musical.
Jack Warner optioned the film rights to both THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES with the idea of teaming stage director George Abbott and film director Stanley Donen to ensure both a faithful transfer and a cinematic rendition of the original shows. In each case, Warner was willing to import the entire original cast for the film version as long as one of the leading roles was played by a bankable movie star. For THE PAJAMA GAME, the studio wanted to cast Frank Sinatra as “Sid,” pairing him with Janis Paige, who played “Babe” on Broadway. (George Abbott wanted Marlon Brando to play the lead. Bing Crosby was interested in the part, but was unaffordable.) When Sinatra turned down the role, Warner decided to retain John Raitt from the stage version, playing opposite the studio's former musical star, Doris Day.
In the end, the following cast members from the Broadway show reprised their roles in the film: John Raitt, Eddie Foy, Jr., Ralph Dunn, Reta Shaw, Buzz Miller, Ralph Chambers, Thelma Pelish and Carol Haney. Haney, who was Gene Kelly’s dance assistant on loan from MGM, made her stage debut in “The Pajama Game,” which launched her successful stage choreography career. THE PAJAMA GAME was John Raitt’s only major film role.
In her autobiography, Doris Day recounted how, as one of only four cast members who hadn't appeared in the Broadway production, it was challenging to fall into the groove of a company that had been playing the show for more than one thousand performances together. She described the experience as trying to find her place in a well-oiled machine.
John Raitt and Doris Day in THE PAJAMA GAME
On the 1957 film, George Abbot and Stanley Donen have unusual onscreen credits, in that they are jointly listed as producer-directors. Donen was interested in Abbott’s input in the direction of the film to keep it consistent with the stage play, and Abbott agreed, if Donen would share producer responsibilities with him. The two men are listed twice: above the title as “A George Abbott Stanley Donen Production,” and at the end of the opening credits as “Produced and Directed by George Abbott and Stanley Donen.”
A number of the songs in the film are presented in unconventional ways. At one point during the song “Racing with the Clock,” footage of the busy factory employees is sped up to illustrate their feeling that they are being rushed. During the song “Hey There,” John Raitt is shown singing into his Dictaphone, then playing back the recording and singing a duet with himself. The reprise of “Hey There,” sung by Doris Day as “Catherine ‘Babe’ Williams” is set in Babe’s darkened bedroom. As she sings, red and green lights from a nearby railroad sign shine through the window and color the room. In addition to "Hey There," which became a hit song for Rosemary Clooney and other artists, the score produced two other hit songs, "Steam Heat" and "Hernando's Hideaway."
Several songs from the stage version were dropped from the film. A new song, “The Man Who Invented Love,” was written for the film solely by Richard Adler, as Jerry Ross had died in 1955, but, before release, the song was cut from the film and replaced with a reprise of “Hey There.” "The Man Who Invented Love," which was sung by Day, was included as added content on the DVD version of the film.
THE PAJAMA grossed $7.7 million domestically. Columbia Records' original soundtrack LP vaulted to ninth position on Billboard's charts in 1957. The album was re-issued on CD by Collectables Records in 2001.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 15, 2019 - 2:31 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
TEACHER’S PET was Doris Day’s first non-musical romantic comedy. It was a long time in the planning. Producer William Perlberg and director George Seaton purchased the original screen story to TEACHER’S PET from the husband-and-wife writing team of Michael and Fay Kanin in February 1952. At that time, the film was projected as a 1953 Paramount release, with the producers planning to begin production as soon as they completed their current project, THE COUNTRY GIRL. Production on TEACHER’S PET was finally set to begin in November 1956, but filming was delayed until April 1957 in order to fit into Doris Day's schedule.
Cary Grant and James Stewart both turned down the lead male role of “James Gannon” because they knew they were too old for the part. The character of Jim Gannon was originally supposed to be a reporter. However, when veteran star Clark Gable was cast, it was decided to make him an editor instead. The film was deliberately shot in black and white in an attempt to disguise Gable's age and weight.
The film involves a hard-nosed newspaper editor (Clark Gable) who poses as a night school student in order to woo a journalism teacher (Day) who cannot stand him. Striving for authenticity in the newspaper city room scenes, Perlberg and Seaton cast 67 members of the nation's press in the movie.
As a publicity stunt, the producers invited newspaper film critics from across the United States to appear in the film as journalists. Over 143 newspapers accepted the invitation, and a drawing was held from which fifty critics were chosen at random to appear as themselves. However, Norman Isaacs, the managing editor of The Louisville Times, then wrote a scathing editorial on the matter, accusing Perlberg and Seaton of "intellectual bribery." While Issacs claimed the producers could have saved $15,000 using real New York City newspapermen, who would have agreed to appear in the film for free, the producers noted that the then-current Screen Actors Guild (SAG) contract required that each performer be paid a minimum salary of $285 per week (not $375, as stated by Issacs in his editorial), and that they had agreed to donate any performer's salary to charity if any selected film critic's newspaper had so requested. Variety also pointed out that this publicity stunt cost the production over $25,000, including travel and living expenses for the 49 out-of-town critics selected.
Clark Gable and Doris Day in TEACHER’S PET
Doris Day won the Golden Flame Award from the California Association of Press Women while the movie was being filmed. The award was for being cooperative with the press, and in honor of her role as a journalism professor.
Day and her husband Martin Melcher threw a party for the visiting press and other cast members at their recently-purchased Beverly Hills home, even though they had not yet renovated it or moved in. The original plan was to stage a garden party and barbecue in the backyard. However, half an hour before the guests were due, it began to rain, so everyone ended up in the house, on the floor because there was no furniture.
Roy Webb provided the film’s unreleased score. The title song, sung by Day, was a modest hit in 1958. The film grossed $7.7 million at the box office.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 15, 2019 - 5:27 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
THE TUNNEL OF LOVE was based on the successful Joseph Fields-Jerome Chodorov play and novel of the same name, although only Fields was credited onscreen. Blacklisted writer Chodorov's screen credit as a co-author of the original play was reinstated by the Writer’s Guild of America in 1998. The Broadway production of the play starred Tom Ewell, Nancy Olson and Darren McGavin. Johnny Carson replaced Tom Ewell in the original Broadway production.
In the film, a series of misunderstandings leaves a married man (Richard Widmark) believing he has impregnated the owner of an adoption agency (Gia Scala), and that she will be his and his wife's (Day’s) surrogate. The only major change made by Fields in his screenplay adaptation was an explanation that "Augie Poole" (Widmark) is not the father of "Estelle Novick's" (Scala’s) child. In the play, Estelle seduces Augie intentionally in order to get pregnant so that she might experience firsthand the plight of unwed mothers, the topic of her PhD thesis, which, as in the film, she reveals she is working on part-time.
Glenn Ford was set to co-star with Doris Day in the film, but Ford dropped out of the production because of commitments to two other projects. Day performs the title song, but does not sing within the film.
Doris Day and Richard Widmark in THE TUNNEL OF LOVE
THE TUNNEL OF LOVE marked the first film directed by Gene Kelly in which he did not appear. Kelly said that he accepted the assignment as a way of fulfilling the final obligation of his long-term contract with MGM, but studio executives stipulated he had to shoot it in black-and-white, using only one main set, with a production schedule of only three weeks, and with a strict budget of just $500,000. The studio was delighted when Kelly was able to honor all those provisos. At the box office, the film came in on the low end of a Doris Day film, grossing $5.0 million. Day fell out of the list of top ten box office stars, but because TEACHER’S PET had done better, she still came in at #15 for the year.
Because of the 1958 musician’s strike, the film had a stock music score. Doris Day was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Actress - Comedy or Musical. She lost to Rosalind Russell for AUNTIE MAME.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 15, 2019 - 11:53 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
“Jane Osgood” (Doris Day) is trying to support her two young children by running a lobster business. After one of her shipments is ruined by inattention at the railroad station, Jane decides to take on “Harry Foster Malone” (Ernie Kovacs), director of the line and the "meanest man in the world". With the help of her lifelong friend - and lawyer – “George Denham” (Jack Lemmon), Jane sues Malone for the price of her lobsters and her lost business. What she ends up with is a lot more than either of them bargained for, in the 1959 comedy IT HAPPENED TO JANE.
Richard Quine produced and directed the film. George Duning provided the unreleased score. The film grossed a tad less than THE TUNNEL OF LOVE, pulling in $4.9 million at the box office.
Doris Day and Jack Lemmon in IT HAPPENED TO JANE
Jack Lemmon wrote that he thought this was a good, funny movie that didn't do well because of its "terrible title". He felt that he and Doris Day had very good chemistry together, and he regretted that they never did another film.
Doris Day’s manager/husband Martin Melcher, who executive produced the film, was terribly concerned over the box-office performance of this film and THE TUNNEL OF LOVE. Day and Melcher had words about him hustling her into almost any film for the money instead of waiting to find good scripts that would have produced better results.
After Doris Day’s subsequent success in PILLOW TALK (1959), and Jack Lemmon’s in THE APARTMENT (1960), in 1961, Columbia Pictures re-released IT HAPPENED TO JANE under the new title of TWINKLE AND SHINE. Day recorded a new theme song with that title to replace the song “It Happened To Jane” from the original film. Needless to say, the film’s re-release did not set the box office on fire.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 16, 2019 - 12:34 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
RKO originally bought the script for PILLOW TALK by Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene in 1942, but when it was not produced, the writers bought it back in 1945. In 1947, they sold it as a play, but bought it back once again four years later, finally selling it in 1958 to Arwin Productions, the company owned by Doris Day and her husband, Martin Melcher. Although the film was originally titled PILLOW TALK, the title “displeased” the Production Code Authority and so was changed to “Any Way the Wind Blows.” In August 1959, however, the original title was reinstated.
Rock Hudson turned down the film three times, believing the script to be "too risqué". Despite being contractually bound by Universal to do the film, Hudson feared it was too dirty and would harm his masculine image. Doris Day finally talked him into starring in it.
In the film, a man (Rock Hudson) and a woman (Doris Day) who share a party line telephone cannot stand each other, but he has fun romancing her with his voice disguised. Contemporary reviews noted the film's use of split screen technology during the scenes in which "Jan Morrow" (Day) and "Brad Allen" (Hudson) talk on their party line, as well as Rock Hudson's skill in his first comedic role.
The first scene that was shot was one towards the end of the film in which Hudson drags Day out of bed and carries her through the streets of New York to his apartment. After many takes, Hudson's back and arms were hurting, so they created a sort of sling which held Day in a crate-like device and hooked over Hudson's shoulders to evenly distribute her weight.
Rock Hudson and Doris Day in PILLOW TALK
The picture was coproduced by Universal and Arwin. Jean Louis designed twenty-four costumes for Doris Day and Laykin et Cie. loaned the production $500,000 worth of jewels.
PILLOW TALK marked director Michael Gordon's first film since the 1951 Twentieth Century-Fox production THE SECRET OF CONVICT LAKE, after which he was among those blacklisted in the wake of investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Producer Ross Hunter wrote that after he made this film, no theater managers wanted to book it. Popular movie themes at the time were war films, westerns, or spectacles. Hunter was told by the big movie chains that sophisticated comedies like PILLOW TALK went out with William Powell. They also believed Doris Day and Rock Hudson were personalities of the past and had been overtaken by newer stars. Hunter persuaded Sol Schwartz, who owned the Palace Theatre in New York, to book the film for a two-week run, and it was a smash hit. The public had been starved for romantic comedy, and theater owners who had previously turned down Ross Hunter now had to deal with him on his terms. In describing his interest in getting the film made, Hunter reportedly said: "I always thought Doris Day had one of the wildest asses in Hollywood, and I thought it was time she showed it off!"
Rock Hudson recorded the film’s title song and the tune “Roly Poly” for Decca Records, while Doris Day recorded “Pillow Talk” for Columbia Records. In 1996, Bear Family Records released a two CD set of Frank DeVol’s score, which reportedly copied a two LP set given by the film’s producers to Doris Day and several other cast members as a gift at the film’s wrap party.
PILLOW TALK was listed on the New York Times list of the 10 Best Films of 1959, and received the following Academy Award nominations: Best Actress (Day); Best Supporting Actress (Thelma Ritter); Art Direction, Color (Richard H. Riedel, Russell A. Gausman and Ruby R. Levitt); and Music Scoring, Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Frank DeVol). The film won the Academy Award for Writing, Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Rouse, Greene, Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin). Day lost the Best Actress Oscar to Simone Signoret for ROOM AT THE TOP. Frank DeVol lost the Best Music Oscar to Miklós Rózsa for BEN-HUR. Day was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Actress – Comedy or Musical. She lost to Marilyn Monroe for SOME LIKE IT HOT.
PILLOW TALK was a huge hit, grossing $22.2 million, making it the sixth-highest grossing film of the year. The film helped redefine Day’s image into what she described in her autobiography as “a new kind of sex symbol—the woman men wanted to go to bed with, but not until they married her.” The film’s popularity propelled Day and Hudson to the top of the box office charts and earned them Photoplay and Golden Globe awards as the most popular actors of 1959. It also ushered in a new wave of romantic, often suggestive comedies popular in the 1960s. The film marked the first of three collaborations between Melcher, Day, Hudson and Tony Randall for Universal.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 16, 2019 - 12:08 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
The book on which PLEASE DON’T EAT THE DAISIES was based was a recollection by author Jean Kerr of her life with her husband, Walter Kerr, noted New York Herald Tribune [NYHT] drama critic and Pulitzer Prize winning dramatist and playwright. Kerr co-wrote several successful plays with her husband including King of Hearts and The Song of Bernadette. She was also well-known for her comedic plays Finishing Touches and the hit Mary, Mary, among others.
The real newspaper for which Walter Kerr's alter ego , "Lawrence Mackay," was the drama critic, was not specified in the film, but the NYHT review, perhaps tongue-in-check, criticized as unrealistic the film's portrait of a New York newspaper drama critic and its exaggeration of the influence of the job. The reviewer further warned readers not to draw any conclusions about real critics and their wives from the film. In her contract with MGM, Kerr insisted that the studio refrain from using the names of the author, her husband, their four children, or her husband’s newspaper.
Doris Day played “Kate Mackay” and David Niven played “Lawrence Mackay” in the film, in which a university professor (Niven) leaves his job to become a theater critic, creating problems with his family and friends. Charles Walters directed the film.
Doris Day and David Niven in PLEASE DON’T EAT THE DAISIES
Charles Herbert, who plays the nose-picking oldest son of Day and Niven in the film, was one of the busiest child actors of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and had featured roles in such high profile movies as THE FIVE PENNIES, THE FLY, HOUSEBOAT, and William Castle's 13 GHOSTS. Herbert claimed that Doris Day only spoke three words to him throughout the filming.
The song "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," which became Doris Day's signature song after she sang it in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, can be heard briefly in PLEASE DON’T EAT THE DAISIES when Kate sings a verse from it to Lawrence in an Italian restaurant. The musical number Kate rehearses for an amateur show ("Any Way the Wind Blows," music by Marilyn Hooven and Joseph Hooven, lyrics by 'By' Dunham) had been written for the previous year's PILLOW TALK. The song title was, for a while, even the working title of that film.
The title song “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” as sung by Doris Day was issued on a Columbia 45rpm disc. David Rose’s score has not had a release. The film was a hit, grossing $15.2 million at the box office.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
May 16, 2019 - 12:30 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
MIDLIGHT LACE is set in London, where a newly-wed American woman's sanity comes into question when she (Doris Day) claims to be the victim of a stalker. John Gavin plays a contractor who meets the woman when he saves her from a falling girder from a construction site.
The film marked the second co-production of Universal and Arwin Productions, which was owned by Doris Day and her then-husband, producer Martin Melcher. In her autobiography, Day wrote that to prepare herself for one of the terror scenes, she recalled a time when her first husband, trombonist Al Jorden, dragged her out of bed when she was ill and pregnant and hurled her against a wall. Day wrote that in the scene she wasn't acting hysterical, she WAS hysterical, and at the end of the take she collapsed in a real faint. She was carried to her dressing room, and producer Ross Hunter shut down production for a few days while she recovered. Day vowed to never make another thriller after MIDNIGHT LACE, claiming it emotionally drained her. She stayed true to her word; until her retirement eight years later, the only movies she made were comedies.
John Gavin and Doris Day in MIDLIGHT LACE
Costume designer Irene was nominated for an Academy Award for MIDLIGHT LACE. The film marked her return to cinema costume design after an absence of ten years, due to what she referred to as the "downbeat" nature of movies. Doris Day was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Actress - Drama. She lost to Greer Garson for SUNRISE AT CAMPOBELLO.
David Miller directed the 1960 drama. Frank Skinner's score has not had a release. The film grossed $10 million at the box office.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
