#ClassicFilmReading: Considering Doris Day by Tom Santopietro

I love Doris Day, and I think it's fairly evident 'round these parts just how much that's true, but my latest foray into the #ClassicFilmReading challenge really tested my patience. 

It's not that I ask for much: I just wanted a biography of Doris Day. I wanted to know about her early life, her musical years, her career, her retirement. What she thought of animal rescue; who her favourite co-star was; if she kept any of her costumes or props from her movies. I wanted an overview of her life. 

Instead, page by page, Tom Santopietro lays into each and every one of her movies, her records, and nearly every episode of her television series and talk-show/variety special appearances to offer a play-by-play on why each movie (save Lover Come Back and some of the musicals at the beginning of her career) is terrible; why nearly every song is perfect; and why The Doris Day Show is terrible.  

The title should've tipped me off: Considering Doris Day, but I thought at least that it'd follow other biography norms and weave together her life. 

The story of her manager-husband Marty Melcher, and his iron-clad grasp of her career is such an interesting story: it was only after he died that she found out that he'd signed her to a five-year television deal at CBS with two TV specials as well (and that it needed to start filming six weeks after his death)! Her son may have been the initial target of Charles Manson when they went to Sharon Tate's that night in August 1969, but it barely gets a mention (the only reference is how she required round-the-clock security guards during the Manson Family trial). 

Thanks to this book, I now have a plot-point-by-plot-point summary of each movie, though I skimmed over the ones I haven't seen yet. I know that her voice always soared on recordings, and that the only genre she never really tried was rock n' roll. I know that I still want to rent The Doris Day Show from the library, even though it's an apparent waste of time. 

Do I know any more about Doris Day and Rock Hudson's off-screen friendship? No. What she thought about others? No (though I do know that she had strong principles). What was her relationship like with her family? Her friends? Her son? We really only find out in the '70s, when he sort-of stepped in as her manager. 

Even her first two husbands barely register in the book, and that's likely because Doris escaped (her first husband, who was abusive) and eclipsed (her second husband couldn't handle being Mr. Doris Day) them, but I don't really know much more about them after reading. Hell, I barely understand who Marty Melcher was. If it was mentioned earlier in the book that they had planned to separate but stayed together, and not, from where I registered it as after his death, then I missed it. 

What did Doris Day do during retirement? Who really knows? It's not fully elaborated on here. She devoted herself to her animals, but that section of the book lasts mere pages. She attended the James Cagney AFI Tribute, gave a great speech, and was, according to the book, the only star who showed up early to rehearsals. After that, no travel anywhere, which meant that she never received her own AFI Lifetime Achievement Award (they require actors to receive them in person) and that she was absent from the ceremony where she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004. Other ways she occupied her time? Search me!

I guess my gripe is that I feel like I missed a lot and I'm coming out only really knowing more about Santopietro's opinions on her oeuvre. This book was written for an audience, obviously, or it wouldn't exist. That audience is not me. 

At the very end of the book Santopietro includes a quote from Doris in an interview with Ms. magazine in January 1976: "I always felt that making a living wasn't the easiest thing in the world, and I decided I was going straight ahead and try to be as uncomplicated as possible. The important thing in life is just living and loving." 

How I wish this book had've dived in to her life story, to show me some of that living and loving. If anyone has a lead on where to buy Doris Day's autobiography, or another biography by another author, please let me know! 

Up next, No Bed of Roses by Joan Fontaine.