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• Amazon Sales Rank: #147683 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-09
• Released on: 2009-06-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 720 pages

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• ISBN13: 9780753518090
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From The Washington Post

Reviewed by Gerald Bartell

David Kaufman comes right to the point at the start of his life of Doris Day: "Day has been largely and unfairly neglected by cultural arbiters."

Day's career is not something to neglect lightly. After paying her dues as a big band singer, the former Doris Kappelhoff scored big in a series of pleasant but innocuous Warner Bros. musicals: "Romance on the High Seas" (1948), "My Dream is Yours" (1949), "It's a Great Feeling" (1949). Audiences warmed to this fresh-faced, smiling girl who sang in clear, soothing tones. With more complex roles and the push of Martin Melcher, her aggressive husband-manager, Day climbed higher. She played masochistic real-life singer Ruth Etting in "Love Me or Leave Me " (1955), trembled as the mother of a kidnapped son in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1956), and wowed 'em singing and dancing in "The Pajama Game" (1957). Then came a series of glossy comedies, including "Teacher's Pet" (1958), "Pillow Talk" (1959) and "Lover Come Back" (1962). For 10 years, Day reigned as Hollywood's number-one female box-office attraction.

But when Mike Nichols suggested that Day bare body and soul as Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate" (1967), she hung a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. She made trite films like "Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?" (1968) and "With Six You Get Eggroll" (1968). A tepid TV series and a talk show marked her career glide-path.

Kaufman, also the author of a biography of actor-playwright Charles Ludlum, offers a tour of Day's life, but it's not always a guided tour. God may dwell in details, but keen writers sort, omit and evaluate them. Kaufman avalanches a reader with what seems like every detail recorded, written or imagined about Day (except for anything directly from the star herself, whom he did not interview).

For example, Kaufman could well have scrapped a tedious, ongoing narrative about Day's relationships with her British fan club. And instead of describing the bathrobe she didn't wear in "Storm Warming" (1950), her first drama, he might have spent more time assessing her mature acting in the film, which led Alfred Hitchcock to cast her in "The Man Who Knew Too Much."

Throughout the biography, Kaufman appraises Day's acting in enthusiastic but rather general terms. He then hands over the discussion to others, ticking through the contrasting opinions of a slate of critics stretching from the New York Times to the Beverly Hills Citizen. He presents without elaboration James Wolcott's astounding assertion in Vanity Fair that, in their romantic comedies, Day and Rock Hudson were "far superior to Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy."

For all its details, the biography scants a major aspect of Day's career, her singing. Kaufman lauds her vocals as "extraordinary" but describes her full shelf of recordings only in passing. In an appraisal of Day's career far more judicious than Kaufman's, author Tom Santopietro ranks Day's singing with Frank Sinatra's. Does she deserve a niche in the pantheon of American pop singers? Kaufman doesn't explore this most pertinent question.

He does provide some insights into the star's troubled personal life. Day's parents divorced when she was 13, leaving her to be raised solely by a driving stage mother. The first of Day's four husbands beat her when she was eight months pregnant. Her third husband, Melcher, trusted her business dealings to a lawyer who robbed her of over 22 million dollars. (Day's son took charge of a long court battle that recovered the funds.) Kaufman suggests that Day's heartbreaks may have fed the tears welling in her eyes in so many Technicolor close-ups.

And to his otherwise soft-focus biography, Kaufman supplies a sharp, haunting climax. He reports that in 1991, when cabaret singer Mary Cleere Haran beseeched Day to appear in a documentary about Day's career, a "wild eyed" Day burst into tears when asked about her success in films. Her career, she said, "was not a dream come true. All I ever wanted is what you have right now: a baby, a husband who really loved me, a home, all the happiness that they could bring. I never got that, and that's all I really wanted.''

Day, now 86, lives mostly alone on her 10-acre estate in California's Carmel Valley. Fan gatherings divert her, as do the pets she shelters. But her son, Terry, and many close friends have died. According to Kaufman, she once turned her grandson away at the gate, fearing that he might serve papers related to a divorce dispute among his dad, mother and grandmother. Day recently told Liza Minnelli, "Everything is fine." But this book suggests that beneath the phony tinsel of Day's time in Hollywood is not the real tinsel of Oscar Levant's wisecrack, but a deep vein of melancholy.

Copyright 2008, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

From Booklist
After reading Doris Day’s own memoir, Doris Day: Her Own Story (1975), Kaufman decided to research and write his own biography, seeking to tell the definitive tale of the box-office queen. Day enjoyed a brilliant career as queen of the all-American, wholesome, girl-next door types, but, as Kaufman reveals, her personal life was much more dramatic. The actress started life in Cincinnati, the product of an overly ambitious stage mother and a withdrawn, taciturn father who eventually left the family. Conducting extensive interviews with many of Day’s family members, friends, and peers in the acting world, Kaufman goes beyond the sanitized version in the star’s autobiography. The result is fascinating, as Kaufman weaves anecdotes about famous players involved in Day’s life, including Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Rock Hudson, and many others. Kaufman also explores Day’s relationships with her four husbands, including Martin Melcher, whose business dealings left her nearly bankrupt, and her tireless activism on behalf of animal welfare. Readers, especially fans of the star, will thoroughly enjoy this meaty, well-written, entertaining look at the surprisingly tumultuous life of an American icon. --Kathleen Hughes

Review

Customer Reviews

Not much untold here
While I totally understand the zeal with which Mr. Brogan and Mr. Green embrace this book, since both are major contributors to it, I think a more objective critical analysis might be valuable as well.

There is a certain amount to like in Mr. Kaufman's "version" of Doris Day's life. It's a quick read, despite the length, and does touch on some interesting pop-culture of the 50's, 60's and 70's, and how Doris Day related to, and was related to by, that culture.

But too frequently, the negatives far out weigh the positives:

Too much of the book is lifted directly from Day's autobiography, as well as some other celebrity autobios, as opposed to new interviews. We're told many were conducted, but they didn't seem to yield much of anything that hadn't been told before. Many are also gleaned from DVD interviews and liner notes from the 1990's Bear Family boxed sets of Day's Columbia recordings.

There is much repeating of old movie fan magazine "interviews," the sort of which the authors seldom left their offices to compose, let alone always meet their subjects at all. They are frequently reported as fact, and often to discredit statements by Day and (frequently) her husband, Marty Melcher, made at other times.

There is not as much reportage here as there is supposition in many instances. For instance he hypothesizes that Day may actually have never remembered her young son playing with water balloons, but instead may have "inspired the memory" after playing a similar scene in one of her movies. No proof or reason is offered. He also maintains that Doris' marriage to Marty Melcher was entirely a business relationship from the beginning, and presents as proof their smiling wedding and honeymoon pictures: proof that since the photographs exist, and since the parties are smiling, it was obviously all done for publicity. It's a nice trick, presenting potential proof that might disprove a supposition as the very proof that the supposition is accurate. But it's still a supposition, and not a fact. For all his direct quoting of the Melcher-haters from Day's own autobio, any Melcher-supporters are summarily ignored or dismissed.

While he is quick to analyze anything and everything that Doris or her husband Marty Melcher might say (and frequently tries to prove that they seldom were ever telling the truth publicly on almost any subject from benign to important), he gives others a pass with no editorial checking or further interviewing of others to confirm what he then reports as hard facts. An ex-employee maintains that Day turned on him when he claimed that his co-workers had "poisoned her mind against" him, and he had been reduced to "a nothing." His version is portrayed as gospel, with no corroborating or refuting interviews done with the co-workers or anyone else. No examination of the possibly paranoid or narcissistic elements of the employee's statements is undertaken either. (There may have actually been none in the statements, but the phrasing does cry out for analysis, which is solely reserved for Day's and Melcher's statements.)

He depends heavily on the views of four particular fans who got to know Doris later in life: two as friends and 2 as employees. While their stories are indeed interesting, and add a welcome and unique slant, the major dependence on them in the last 3rd of the book bespeaks either a lack of access to more major players in Day's life, or a lack of information from major players that could be played up as "controversy."

Much space is also devoted to film budgets, grosses and reviews, Very interesting if you love Hollywood, but again, it smacks of filler.

Similarly, Mr. Kaufman spends paragraphs describing the contents of the pressbooks of most of Doris' films. While they can be mildly amusing for an old-time Hollywood buff or Day fan, their excessive appearance again indicates a lack of more major information to impart on his titular subject.

Sadly, this book also dwells on all the old 1960's carping fodder: Doris' insecurity over her looks and photographic filters, etc. Just when these were being forgotten about and new generations were discovering Doris without any of those old preconceptions, this book seeks to make them a permanent and integral part of her legacy.

Unlike the earlier reviewers, I don't think the book is for everybody. It's not simply "dishy" enough to appeal to the Enquirer crowd, nor is it the journalistic examination of this Superstar and the culture that the author intended or that would appeal to the more thoughtful reader, especially if they weren't already a major Day fan.

Author Doesn't Know His Subject At All
Mr. Kaufman, who apparently spent years doing his research on Ms.Day, has absolutely no clue of the woman he wrote about. Since he was not privileged to speak with Ms. Day on a one on one basis, I do not see where he thinks he knows who she really is. He gets most of his information from hearsay, and from some people who have had personal agendas, so the real truth gets tainted or changed. All it would take is one visit with her for him to have seen the person who is really behind the "star image." Having had that pleasure on several occasions through the years, I found Ms. Day to be one of the most candid and open individuals I have ever met.
This is not, as Mr. Kaufman would have it, a woman who is hiding from the rest of the world due to the bad treatment she received from people that came in and out of her life. Known to be a woman with a very forgiving heart and one who consistently has shown strength through adversity, she has been thrown a lot of life's surprises along the way. The fact that she is forgiving and moves on, does not make her someone who is afraid to look at the past, nor is she someone who is trying to get over an abandonment issue and so has devoted her life to the animals....his whole thought process through his book just makes me ill.
Ms. Day has always had a love for animals. This is a part of her nature. Now, that she has retired and has the time away from the silver screen, she is doing what she loves to do, and so for all the great humanitarian contributions she has made across this nation, we have people like Mr. Kaufman who have their own theories and then put them in print for their own self gain.
I did find alot of his information gathered as Doris' career took off to be enlightening at best, but he paints a picture of a woman who was thrown into a career she did not want by the manipulations of her mother, and then later, her agent husband Martin Melcher. Regardless of whether Marty was or was not the best person to guide Doris' career, the fact remains that it was Doris' innate talent that got her through the achievements she accomplished in both films and music. Everyone makes choices in their lives, some for the good and some not so good. I am sure there could have been more to her career if handled differently, but at this stage of the game, didn't she work enough? I think she did and am happy that we have so much of her talent to enjoy. Her music is such that she will live forever in the hearts of fans, because there is no one who can come across with a song like she does. Her film career made her the Box Office Queen for many years...because of this legacy she has and will leave behind, we have several authors now who find this is a good time to exploit her and mutilate what is real about her to make their books sell.
Ms. Day is not in hiding and she is not a recluse. She does what makes her happy and she has earned the right to do that. As someone who has seen the heart of this woman, it amazes me to see statements about her, in this book and in its publicity, that are so erroneous just to gain attention. Doris Day, who has always done and wanted to do rescue work for animals, has managed to change how an entire nation views their pets. Laws have now been adapted to eliminate animal cruelty from the grass roots and up to Washington's front door. Her organization rescued thousands of pets from their demise when Katrina hit New Orleans a couple of years ago. And most of all, due to her diligent efforts and her organization, many towns across our country have adapted a mandatory spay and neuter program to lower the overpopulation of unwanted pets. Does all this sound like a woman who hides behind another name known as "Clara," because she has disassociated herself with her persona? On the contrary, Ms. Day has used her persona to accomplish a lot of good in the world and to educate us all on the responsibilities we have as pet owners.
I differ with Mr. Kaufman's beliefs and find his book to be no authority on Doris Day, the person. I believe his ego overshadowed his judgement in his writings and theories. If he had seen and visited with the essence of this remarkable woman he would have found her to be a most sincere and caring individual, who has always known exactly who she is, where she is going, and what she wants out of life. No book has ever captured that essence and I doubt anyone ever will...because as the song goes, "It's Magic" and that is why she is still loved by millions of fans across the world.
Am I one of those fans? You better believe it!!!

A Woman of Considerable Talent... before she met Rock Hudson
I have always been a fan of Doris Day. In many ways, I grew up with Doris Day's characters with their pert, color-coordinated outfits. Having been born a brunette, I always coveted her slivery blond hair, juxtaposed against her tawny skin. That was the look in the Sixties.

After reading this book, one is reminded that the blond on the screen was very different than the woman at home. Under the hair, the tan, and the picture perfect ensembles, was/is a complex, yet multi-talented woman. This book also reveals and reminds the reader that Miss Day started out as a singer of considerable success... those days in the Forties and Fifties. She made serious films way before she was pitching soap or jumping into swimming pools fully-clothed. Kaufman reveals the personal difficulties she endured with men, including her father. Its no wonder she made some really poor choices.

This book does fill in many of the details that have been overlooked these last 60 years... It is a good read and an enlightened look at "Hollywood" as it existed in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.