Terrible twilight of Doris Day

The Daily Mail Online ^ | 10-26-13 | Tom Leonard

[afraidfortherepublic]

Stand outside the huge gates to Doris Day’s fortress-like home in California’s beautiful Carmel Valley and you can sometimes hear the sound of the canine companions who share the Hollywood star’s life.

It’s been some years since Day, now 91 and so reclusive many may be surprised to learn she is still alive, used to steal through the streets of the nearby town of Carmel in the middle of the night on a regular basis.

Locals would watch in surprise as she rounded up stray dogs and emaciated cats, bundling them in her car to take home and look after them.

At one time she had close on 50 dogs rampaging through her house, some of them piling on to her kingsize bed to sleep at night. People would leave abandoned pets at the gates and Doris, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood history, never turned them away.

She once refused to tell a interviewer exactly how many animals lived with her — people would think her ‘wacko’, she said.

The pert, fresh-faced and fun-loving blonde won Oscars romancing Rock Hudson in Pillow Talk and for her belting rendition of the song Que Sera Sera alongside James Stewart in The Man Who Knew Too Much.

But after four tumultuous and — in some cases, violent — marriages, she long ago gave up the company of men.

She much prefers her beloved dogs, though friends say she has always lived in fear that one of them might inadvertently knock her over or even bite her, causing serious injury.

[ottbmare]

As much as I admire her commendable rescue work, teaming up with HSUS is the mistake of a naive person.

[ottbmare]

OK, does “love” or “feel great compassion for” suit you better as terminology for people who are warmly devoted to animals? By your definition I and many other Freepers must be either Marxists or out of our tiny little minds since we do love animals, while still maintaining very close, healthy, and loving relationships with our children, spouses, and other family members. Most of us do not have the real estate or the staff to care for so many creatures, but we take in the rescues we can, and it’s a good thing that someone does have the time, space, money, and staff so that abandoned and abused animals don’t just die.

You may be a nice person in real life but to be quite honest you’re not making yourself sound like it in these posts. There’s no evidence at all, from any source, that Doris Day is a Marxist filthbag, and continuing to maintain that someone who does animal rescue is vile simply because you don’t care for animals is more than a bit cold.

[miss marmelstein]

She was a great singer and a very good actress. Hitch loved her. She also had one of the best figures of any movie star I’ve admired.

[miss marmelstein]

I love Doris Day. I think like Tippi Hedren and Brigette Bardot, they turned to the comfort of pets and animal rescue after years of sad and disastrous relationships with men. They just got fed up with the human race - understandably in my opinion.

[miss marmelstein]

Brigette Bardot is a far-right activist. Hardly a Marxist.

[Liz]

A great actress-—told not to take acting lessons.

The famed director Michael Curtiz directed her first pic-—and told her NOT to take acting lessons——b/c she was a natural-born actress.

[Liz]

THE YEAR WAS 1964--CONSERVATIVE HOLLYWOOD STARS SPEAK OUT FOR PRAYER IN SCHOOLS

In 1964, the handsome, virile star, Anthony Eisley, emceed a "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California.

Eisley played Tracey Steele on the "Hawaiian Eye" series, and appeared 17 times on the eight-year run of ABC's The F.B.I., with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr (another Hollywood conservative).

Eisley was later replaced on Hawaiian Eye by Hollywood icon Troy Donahue (a conservative---and practicing Catholic). Eisley also appeared three times on CBS's Perry Mason during its final three seasons.

The Hollywood gathering sought to flood the United State Congress with letters in support of school prayer, following two decisions in 1962 and 1963 of the United States Supreme Court which struck down the practice as in conflict with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Eisley declared that the nation was facing in 1964 "an ideological crisis. Movie stars and the stars of the entertainment world will tell you what you can do about it. Everything will be from the heart."

Eisley was joined at the event by Walter Brennan, on whose series The Real McCoys he had once been a guest star, Rhonda Fleming, Lloyd Nolan, Dale Evans, Pat Boone, and Gloria Swanson.

Eisely added that John Wayne, Ronald W. Reagan, Roy Rogers, Mary Pickford, Jane Russell, Ginger Rogers, and Pat Buttram would also have attended the rally had their schedules not been in conflict.

Syndicated columnist Drew Pearson claimed in his "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column that Project Prayer had "backstage ties" to the anti-Communist John Birch Society. Pearson noted that the principal author of the prayer decisions, Chief Justice Earl Warren, was a Republican former governor of California and that most mainline denominations endorsed the court's restrictive rulings.

Sylvia Sydney---staunch Republican and conservative.
Memorable co-starring w/ George Raft.
Later appeared in one of the "Omen" sequels.

Film legend Ginger Rogers was another Hollywood conservative and lifelong Republican and appeared in the Nixon-Lodge Bumper Sticker Modorcade in Los Angeles in 1960.

Her biographers all considered Rogers to have been Fred Astaire's finest dance partner, principally because of her ability to combine dancing skills, natural beauty, and exceptional abilities as a dramatic actress and comedienne, thus truly complementing Astaire, a peerless dancer who sometimes struggled as an actor and was not considered classically handsome. The resulting song and dance partnership enjoyed a unique credibility in the eyes of audiences.

Loretta Young was a lifelong Republican. In 1952 she appeared in radio, print, and magazine ads in support of Dwight D. Eisenhower and was in attendance at his inauguration along with Anita Louise, Louella Parsons, Jane Russell, Dick Powell, June Allyson, and comic Lou Costello, among others.

In both 1968 and 1981 she was a vocal supporter of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. She was also an active member of the Hollywood Republican Committee with close friend Irene Dunne as well as Ginger Rogers, William Holden, George Murphy, Fred Astaire, and John Wayne.

Superstar director Leo McCarey was a devout Roman Catholic and deeply concerned with social issues. He was considered the most handsome director in Hollywood---a Cary Grant look-alike.

During the 1940s, McCarey's work became more serious and his politics more conservative. In 1944 he directed Going My Way, a story about an enterprising priest, the youthful Father Chuck O'Malley, played by Bing Crosby, for which McCarey won his second Best Director Oscar.

McCarey's share in the profits of this smash hit gave him the highest reported income in the U.S. for the year 1944, and its follow-up, The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), which was made by McCarey's own production company, was similarly successful.

Going My Way also produced the fanciful hit song sung by Bing, "Would you like to swing on a star."

Gloria Swanson 1922

Swanson's most celebrated role--was as faded silent star Norma Desmond--1950. In 1980 Gloria Swanson chaired the New York chapter of "Seniors for Reagan-Bush". In 1964, Swanson spoke at the "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Swanson declared, "Under God we became the freest, strongest, wealthiest nation on earth, Should we change that?"

The gathering, which was hosted by Anthony Eisley, a star of ABC's Hawaiian Eye series, sought to flood the United States Congress with letters in support of school prayer, following two decisions in 1962 and 1963 of the United States Supreme Court which struck down the practice as in conflict with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Joining Swanson and Eisley at the Project Prayer rally were Walter Brennan, Lloyd Nolan, Rhonda Fleming, Pat Boone, and Dale Evans.

Both Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were Republicans. Comic star ZaSu Pitts was a staunch Republican---she mentored starlet Nancy Davis (Reagan).

[Liz]

Ping to post #127.

[miss marmelstein]

When I was a teenager, I went several times to a Catholic Church in Los Angeles. Loretta Young was in one pew and Pat O’Brien passed the collection plate! Those times are pretty much gone forever, sadly.

[miss marmelstein]

Excellent post. Yes, Hollywood was once a two party town. In fact, when I lived there in the 70s, Southern California was Republican.

[Gay State Conservative]

You may be a nice person in real life but to be quite honest you’re not making yourself sound like it in these posts.

A few years back Rush featured the story of an incident that occurred in California.A young woman who had been jogging in a rural area was attacked,and killed,by some sort of mountain lion.The offending creature was somehow identified,captured and put down.It turns out that the woman left a couple of young kids behind and the mountain lion left one or more young cubs behind.Funds were set up to help the woman's kids *and* the mountain lion's cub(s).Presumably the funds were set up by different people/groups.After some time had passed it was discovered that the mountain lion fund had received something like four times as much money as did the fund for the children.

I find that to be *beyond* disgusting and nauseating.From your posts I'm forced to assume that you see nothing wrong with that scenario.

But hey...whatever floats your boat.

[ottbmare]

Can you clarify what would make you think I prefer the survival of mountain lion cubs to the survival of human children? As it happens, tomorrow morning I’ll be participating in a Forty Days for Life demonstration and prayer gathering in front of a local late-term abortion mill. What does that have to do with the fact that Doris Day is not a Marxist “filthbag”? It’s quite possible to love children and other humans, but still not want animals to be starved and abused. If you really think that people who rescue abandoned dogs, cats, and horses are Marxists or are mentally ill, there is an unusual lack of compassion in your heart. You might want to think through whatever it is that makes you lack love most normal people have.

[Liz]

.......in a Catholic Church in Los Angeles. Loretta Young was in one pew and Pat O’Brien passed the collection plate....

There a pic somewhere---wish I could find it online----of Irene Dunne, Ray Bolger, Roz Russell, and other stars. who all went to the same Catholic Church.

Could be the same Catholic Church Frank Sinatra was buried from?

In the new book on Ava Gardner---she says Louis B Mayer was upset about her divorce from Mickey Rooney "b/c Mayer was going through his Catholic statge"........Mayer never did, but in that Hollywood era, several of the Jewish moguls converted to Catholicism.

[Liz]

Hmmmmm....I think I confused Troy Donahue w/ Tab Hunter in that post.

Handsome Tab was gay but, according to his autobio, he adhered to his Catholic faith and was very conservative.

[miss marmelstein]

I need to ask my mother what church we went to. It was very grand as I remember. How I would have loved to see my idol Irene Dunne in church!

[Liz]

Irene Dunne was so talented-—an actress who could do drama and comedy, and a beautiful operatic voice.

[miss marmelstein]

Her comedy performances are superlative. Then she turns around and gives a truly fine performance in “I Remember Mama.” What a woman!

[Liz]

I love the Cary Grant / Dunne comedy-—The Awful Truth-—about the marriage breakup. Dunne does her scintillating laugh in that film.

Also the two were sensational in the comedy about Dunne being shipwrecked——remade w/ Doris Day and James Garner.

[Liz]

Time for a Dunne pic.

So very glam in Roberta---in love with Randolph Scott.

[miss marmelstein]

The Awful Truth is my favorite. When she does her insane song and dance (with her dress blowing up over her head!) in front of Grant’s stuffy girlfriend. Hilarious.