Doris Day, Singer, Actress, Animal Activist
The Darker Side of Life For Everyone’s Girl Next Door
Oct 28, 2009
According to biographer, David Kaufman in his book Doris Day, The Untold story of the Girl Next-Door, pages four and five, Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff was born on April 3, 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was the youngest of three children born to Alma Welz, a housewife and William Kappelhoff, a high school music teacher.
Alma named her only daughter after Doris Kenyon, a silent screen actress whom she admired. Doris’ Germanic father was a taciturn, distant man who left her mother for another women when Doris was thirteen years old.
Doris inherited her mother’s outgoing, vivacious, personality and was extremely popular throughout her school years. Although she was a talented, outgoing girl who strived for perfection, her strained relationship with her father led to a lifetime of insecurities.
A Life Changing Accident
Doris’ initial aspirations to be a dancer were dashed in her teens, when a car accident shattered her right leg. This led to a career as a singer. With her perfect pitch and emotive delivery, she soon landed a job with Cincinnati bandleader, Barney Rapp.
Rapp decided the name Kappelhoff was too long and told Doris to change it to Day. Thus her alter ego Doris Day, the ideal All-American girl was created.
On April 17, 1941, Doris married the first of her four husbands. Al Jorden was a handsome, charismatic, trombone player in the Rapp orchestra. Jorden, however, proved to be a fiercely jealous and abusive husband. Doris was routinely beaten for the slightest provocation. The one bright spot for Doris was the birth of their son, Terry on February 8, 1942.
Doris Day's First Hit Recording
With her mother Alma caring for her son, Doris finally separated from Jorden and accepted a job with the Les Brown orchestra. She divorced Jorden in 1943 and in 1945; Doris recorded her first smash hit, Sentimental Journey with Les Brown and his band of Renown.
On March 30, 1946 Doris Day married for the second time to George Weidler, a musician in the band. George was the opposite of Al Jorden, gentle and attentive. But long separations due to Doris’ burgeoning career led to another marriage breakdown for the distraught singer.
With her recording career launched, Hollywood began to take notice. Her movie career began with the Warner Brothers, romantic musical Romance on the High Seas in 1948.
Doris Day Films
A string of hit Doris Day films followed: Calamity Jane in 1953, Teacher’s Pet in 1958 and into the sixties with The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956, The Pyjama Game, 1957, and in 1959, Pillow Talk the first of a series successful, romantic comedies with Rock Hudson.
In 1951, with her movie career was in full swing, Doris met and eventually married agent, Marty Melcher. Many in the industry knew Melcher as an opportunist who had cashed in on his first wife, Patty Andrews’ career and they felt he was doing the same with Doris.
With Doris busy making movies and recordings, Marty assumed total control of all her finances and contract negotiations.
When Melcher died suddenly in 1968, Doris discovered that along with his partner Jerome Rosenthal, her husband had squandered all of her hard earned income. She blamed it all on Rosenthal and sued him, finally receiving a $22,000,000 settlement.
The last contract Melcher had signed for Doris was for a television show to be called, The Doris Day Show. Although Day was still grieving and didn’t want to do the show, she needed the money and showed up for work.
The Doris Day Show ran for five years and exposed the effervescent, spunky Doris to a whole new generation of fans. She actually began to enjoy the job and it led to new television ventures including, Doris Day Today, (1975) and Doris Day’s Best Friends (1985).
In 1975, Doris Day co-authored her biography, Doris Day: Her Own Story, which became a number one best seller.
Doris’ last marriage to Barry Comden in 1976 was short lived and as Day admitted herself, it was a mistake.
Doris’ final and most devastating blow came on November 19, 2004 when her son, Terry Melcher died at the age of 62 from a cancerous melanoma
Doris Day's Animal League
Doris Day has always been an animal lover and a vocal supporter of animal rights. She still owns a pet-friendly hotel, The Cypress Inn in her hometown of Carmel, California.
After a life of incredible achievements and gut wrenching sorrows, Doris Day today lives quietly in her beautiful home in Carmel supporting her Animal League and basking in the adoration of her still legions of fans around the world.
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