Doris Day is an American icon who should never be forgotten due to her life and impact on the American and European society. However, her “Girl Next Door” image has been proven just an act. When asked why she wanted to do a biography, she stated, “Because I’m tired of being thought of as Miss Goody Two-shoes, that’s why – the girl next door, Miss Happy-Go-Lucky. You doubtless know the remark dear Oscar Levant made about me – ‘I knew her before she was a virgin.’ Well, I’m not the All-American Virgin Queen and I would like to deal with the true, honest story of who I really am. This image I’ve got – oh, how I dislike that word ‘image’ – but it’s not me, not at all who I am. It has nothing to do with the life I’ve had.”

Doris Day was born Doris MaryAnn Von Kappelhoff on, April 3, 1924 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her parents divorced when she was 11 and, it was around the same time Doris had dreams of being a successful dancer, like her idol Ginger Rogers. She had a dance partner and together they had done quite well. Yet, on the way home from a burger joint, the car that Doris was riding in was struck by a train. Her right leg was shattered along with her dreams of becoming the next Ginger Rogers.

While recovering from her leg injury, she began singing along with her favorite big band records. Her mother heard her and decided that if she couldn’t dance, she could sing. To ease the boredom of being injured, her mother began to take her to voice lessons. Doris once stated, of her voice coach, “Grace Raine really taught me virtually everything I ever learned about singing”. She began singing on “Carlin’s Carnival,” a radio show. Later she was contacted by Barney Rapp, to sing in his new club, “The Sign of the Drum”.

It was because of Barney that she changed her name. He wanted to put her name on the marquee and in the ads he was running, but Kappelhoff was too long. He suggested several names but none that fit her approval. Finally, he suggested Doris Day. She had a hit with the song “Day After Day,” and Barney suggested naming her after that. She wasn’t crazy about it then and still isn’t. However, she couldn’t come up with anything better, and so it stuck. She later said, “But I never did like it. Still don’t. I think it’s a phony name”. Nevertheless, Doris Day was on her way to becoming a household name.

Once her music career got going, it really took off. Doris’ schedule became extremely hectic as she was always on the road, she never went to college. Thus, Doris never had the opportunity to experience the teen years like most did. Her second year of high school was the last formal education that she ever received. She spent hours on bumpy buses traveling from location to location. She sang with Les Brown, Bob Crosby, Bob Hope, and many other notable performers.

The popularity of her music was outstanding. People said that she had “golden tonsils.” She sang all through her career, no matter what she was doing. Singing is something that she never gave up. Les Brown once said, “[Doris] was every band leader’s dream, a vocalist who had natural talent, a keen regard for the lyrics, and an attractive appearance”. And all this was only by the time Doris was 16!

She could take songs that had flopped and turn them into chart toppers. She later signed a contract with Columbia Records. She was with them for almost twenty years. Some of the songs she sang in her movies were nominated for “Best Song” at the Academy Awards. She was the Golden Girl of the music industry. The song “Que Sera” which she sang in the Hitchcock thriller, “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” became the most popular of all her songs. Though many have sung the hit, “Que Sera” belongs to Doris Day, and it became the motto for her own life. She took the words, “whatever will be, will be” and lives by them still at the age of 79.

While singing at “The Sign Of the Drum,” Doris had to travel several miles, she had to depend on trombone player, Al Jorden, for a ride. He wasn’t a very social person and was angered easily. He later asked her out on a date and under protest, she went. Surprisingly, “Al the date,” was different from, “Al the chauffeur.” His Jekyll-Hyde personality should have been warning enough, but it was not. After dating for several months, 23-year-old Al asked Doris to marry him. They were engaged for only a month before Doris, shortly after her 17th birthday, quit The Les Brown Band and moved to New York to marry. Les Brown heavily tried to persuade her not to. Even Doris’ mother tried to convince her not to marry Al Jorden. But, being a wife and raising a family was something that Doris had always wanted.

It was only after a few short days that she met the real man that she had married. Al was very abusive and violent. He beat her on several occasions, but always ended up begging for forgiveness.

Just when she was ready to leave him, she found out that she was pregnant. Doris was not sure how Al would take the news. To her surprise, he wept with joy. However, soon after finding out about her pregnancy, he brought home the name of an abortionist. Doris was appalled and had no desire to have an abortion.

Not only did Al want to get rid of the baby, he didn’t want anyone knowing that Doris was pregnant. He wouldn’t even allow her to tell her mother. Doris’ mother spotted right away that she was pregnant. When Al found out, he was outraged. Turning to violence, he beat her once again. The beatings continued throughout her entire pregnancy. Al was away with the band and didn’t make it to the hospital until two days after Doris gave birth to their son, Terry.

By this time, Doris was even more determined to seek refuge from the wrath of Al. She told him that the feelings she once had for him were gone, and that it would never work out. As easy as it may seem, that was virtually the end of Al Jorden for Doris. He did come and visit Terry, but not very often. One year after Terry’s birth the divorce was final.

Doris once again was back on the road singing with Les Brown. Terry was left in the care of Doris’ mother, Alma. After traveling for several months, Doris met another man. This time he was a saxophone player, by the name of George Weidler. He was a very soft-spoken and a gentle man, the exact opposite of Al Jorden. A year passed by before George asked Doris to marry him. Once again Les Brown was there to try to talk Doris out of marriage, and once again, she didn’t listen.

Leaving Terry with Alma, the couple moved to Los Angeles. While in Los Angeles, Doris sang for local radio programs. She was then booked by Al Levy, who at the time was her agent, to appear in New York at Billy Reed’s “Little Club.” The marriage to Weidler ended during her engagement at the “Little Club.” George was certain that his new wife would become a big star, and his biggest fear was losing his own identity and of becoming “Mr. Doris Day.” Doris’ second marriage was over in a mere eight months.

Knowing that Doris was not in the best of spirits Al Levy forced her to go to a party. While there, Sammy Kahn and Jule Styne asked her if she would be interested in auditioning for a film. Although she detested the idea, she went to the audition. Never in a million years did she ever dream of acting. She was just a singer. She was amazing at the screen test, and so her film career began with, “Romance on The High Seas” in 1948.

It was while she was filming for Warner Brothers that she met Martin “Marty” Melcher. At the time, Marty was married to Patty Andrews of “The Andrews Sisters.” Marty later became her agent and after working with him for a while, and he and his wife separated, he and Doris began to see each other regularly. They were married on April 3, 1951, her 27th birthday. This was husband number three.

This relationship was slower paced. Doris did not feel rushed into it. She knew what she was doing was right. The low-key, effortless nature of the relationship is what attracted Doris to Marty the most. Unlike her other two marriages, no one urged her to change her mind. For the first time in her life, Terry and she had a stable home to live in.

Shortly after finishing her fourteenth movie, “Calamity Jane,” things changed for Doris. She began having panic attacks; feeling as though she was falling apart. She kept it all from Marty and because of her Christian Science background, would not go to a doctor. She did however see her Christian Science Practitioner, Martin Broones. When she did see him, she found out that she was just exhausted. It took her several months to become herself again.

Because she was ill during the time that “Calamity Jane” premiered, she took no interviews. She had always been very cooperative with the media in the past and when she became uncooperative, the media began to call her snooty. They began to think that because she was now so famous, she didn’t need anyone. This upset Doris and only added to the problems.

After making “Lucky Me”, she had the opportunity to speak to the press. She explained to them that she had had a nervous breakdown and that she was sorry for avoiding them. She just needed time to put herself back together again. Telling the people about her condition and being able to talk about it, was a turning point in her recovery.

While filming “Julie,” problems struck again. Doris did not want to do the movie from the start, and fate told her not to. The plot of the film reminded her of her previous marriage with Al. Not only was the whole idea of the movie hard for her, she had health problems again as well. She began hemorrhaging badly. Because she was in almost every scene, there was no way that she could see a doctor.

When the film was over, the first thing that she did was go to her gynecologist. Come to find out, she had a huge tumor in her abdomen. It had to be removed immediately. While she laid in the hospital, she realized that she would never be able to have more children. This sent her into depression.

When Doris signed with Universal pictures, she began making movies with the great Rock Hudson. Over a six-year period, she had made nine films. Three of those films were Hudson-Day comedies. “Pillow Talk,” “Lover Come Back,” and “Send Me No Flowers.” Doris won an Academy Award for her performance in “Pillow Talk.”

She was at the top of her career, earning around five thousand dollars a week. Over a twenty-year span she had made 39 films. Eighteen of those where made under the production of Warner Brothers, most of which were musicals. Doris only played a few dramatic rolls over the duration of her film career. Her film career was just as successful as her music career as well as long lasting.

All the while Marty had been working with an attorney, Jerry Rosenthal. Marty worked with him on Doris’ contracts and tax matters and he worked as an investor for Doris’ earnings. As her earnings increase, Marty and Jerry increased investments. Between the two of them, they had Doris’ money invested in oil wells, cattle, and big hotels. Doris was dissatisfied and had no desire to be involved with these high-risk attempts to invest her money.

Doris began to worry if her money was really safe or not. Marty then became upset and blamed Doris for not trusting him. “Either you trust a husband or you don’t,” Marty would say. Even though she was uneasy about her investments, she trusted Marty. The relationship that Doris and Marty had was changing. Time went by and as it did, the marriage unraveled even more. Although Doris still loved Marty, she was no longer “in love” with Marty.

Marty was producing a play, and was about to go on the road for a tour. At this point Doris asked him to leave altogether. He was now telling her to do things instead of discussing them with her. She even stated in her biography, “There comes a time when a marriage must be terminated. Nothing is forever”.

Doris felt a divorce was in order. However, Marty explained to her that there was no way they could divorce, he told her that they had to be together for financial reasons, and so that is how it went. She said that the sex life they had was over and that they were only together because they had to be. Although it sounds absurd, the arrangement worked out quite well for the two of them.

Shortly after Doris filmed “With Six You Get Egg Roll,” Marty became ill. He wasn’t doing well and wasn’t getting any better. Marty had an enlarged heart. Because it was too late, and there was no saving him, Marty died a few weeks later. Marty’s death was hard for Doris to handle, but it didn’t take her long to get over it. Her relationship with Marty had lasted 17 years.

She soon found the scripts of a show that Marty had signed her to, “The Doris Day Show.” She was very disgusted with this news. He had mentioned television to her before, but she had always declined. She was angered to find out that he had done it behind her back. She also found out too soon that she was half a million dollars in debt.

In March of 1974, after five years of investigation Doris finally brought Jerry Rosenthal to trial. After the court dealt with the trial, the court system awarded Doris Day with just less than $23 million.

All throughout Doris’ career she was known as “The Girl Next Door.” It was her virginal image in her movies that gave her this name. The “Girl Next Door” image is something that Doris Day has always tried to avoid. In reality, Doris wasn’t at all that person. She was far from it. She may have portrayed it in her movies, but life at home could never have been more different.

No matter how hard she may try to put the ‘image’ aside, it will never go away. Although the image Doris Day holds was never true, she will forever be our “Girl Next Door.” Very few people have accomplished as much as this “Girl Next Door” from Ohio and she will never be forgotten in the hearts the many people she truly touched. •