Taking a slight detour this week and sampling some music by the legendary Doris Day via her radio show for CBS in 1952. The half-hour show ran for a little over a year and primarily showcased her singing, but also featured guests – this episode, from May 16, 1952 features Harry James and singer Guy Mitchell.
Doris Day began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, “Sentimental Journey” and “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time” with Les Brown and His Band of Renown. She left Brown to embark on a solo career and recorded more than 650 songs from 1947 to 1967.
Doris Day was one of the leading Hollywood film stars of the 1950s and 1960s. Her film career began with Romance on the High Seas (1948). She starred in films of many genres, including musicals, comedies, dramas and thrillers. She played the title role in Calamity Jane (1953) and starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) with James Stewart. She costarred with Rock Hudson in three successful comedies including Pillow Talk (1959), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also worked with James Garner on both Move Over, Darling (1963) and The Thrill of It All (1963) and starred alongside Clark Gable, Cary Grant, James Cagney, David Niven, Ginger Rogers, Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, and Rod Taylor in various films. After ending her film career in 1968, only briefly removed from the height of her popularity, she starred in her own television sitcom The Doris Day Show (1968–1973).
Her most commercially successful film for Warner Bros. was I’ll See You in My Dreams (1951), a musical biography of lyricist Gus Kahn that broke box-office records of 20 years. It was Doris Day’s fourth film directed by Michael Curtiz. She appeared as the title character in the comedic western-themed musical Calamity Jane (1953).A song from the film, “Secret Love”, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became Day’s fourth No. 1 hit single in the United States.
Between 1950 and 1953, the albums from six of her film musicals charted in the Top 10, including three that reached No. 1. After filming Lucky Me (1954) with Bob Cummings and Young at Heart (1955) with Frank Sinatra, Day elected to not renew her contract with Warner Brothers.
In case you aren’t familiar, sit back and have a listen.
