..........which found America's Sex Goddess replaced by America's Girl Next Door........
The deep irony here: Day, a national symbol of cheerful virginity and eternal optimism led a personal life every bit as deeply troubled, turbulent and tragic as Monroe's.......
Day's married life consisted of a woeful rogue's gallery of horrific husbands......men who physically abused her, left her and in the case of husband-producer Martin Melcher, looted the fortune she earned as the country's most popular movie star, leaving her widowed and broke.......
Though routinely mocked and derided by cynics, you'll notice nobody makes fun of Day's rare but stunning forays into dramatic roles.......the abused singer tormented by James Cagney in "Love Me Or Leave Me", the distraught mother of a kidnapped child in Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much".........or even her work in the admittedly cheesy thriller "Midnight Lace" where Day threw herself into the role of a woman terrified into hysteria......
If you grew up with her films and recordings, like the BQ, then you understand how her very name evoked not only her persona but how we saw ourselves as a country........bright, happy and basked in sunshine........
I think it's safe to say that in this cyber-era of instant fame, instant notoriety and the instant disposable nature of pop culture in general, you'll never see the likes of her again......
Neither the Motion Picture Academy nor any other cinema organization ever got around to bestowing a Lifetime Achievement award to Day.........which says more about them then her.
Rest In Peace, Doris Day.
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