.
When most Americans think of actress and singer Doris Day (b. 1922), they imagine a virginal sweetheart or wholesome wife and mother – roles she often played in Hollywood and on television during her long career. But any contemporary glance at her legendary comedies with Rock Hudson reveal that the Doris Day of the 1950s was as much a subverter of cultural norms as a representation of them.
What most have forgotten, however, is that Day began her career as a jazz singer, performing with the Les Brown band when she was still in her teens. In 1954 she was cast as singer Ruth Etting in the MGM movie Love Me or Leave Me with James Cagney, where she performed her most memorable motion picture musical numbers. In this scene she sings “Everybody Loves My Baby (but My Baby Don’t Love Nobody but Me)” and “Mean to Me.” Although people joked in the late 60s that Day was “America’s oldest virgin” they clearly had forgotten that she possessed what her friend and co-star James Garner once called “the best ass in Hollywood.” Watch this video and decide for yourself.
– Jim Demetre is a Seattle-based writer and the publisher and editor of Artdish.
.
.
