Considering Doris Day [Paperback]

Tom Santopietro (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312382146 | ISBN-13: 978-0312382148 | Publication Date: August 5, 2008 | Edition: First Edition

A revealing look at a star who was much more than just our favorite girl next door.

The biggest female box office attraction in Hollywood history, Doris Day remains unequaled as the only entertainer who has ever triumphed in movies, radio, recordings, and television. But while on screen Day may have projected a wholesome image, her acting and singing range made her the role model for independent American career women for four decades.

In Considering Doris Day, Tom Santopietro reveals why Day’s work continues to resonate today, both in ever-increasing record sales and Hollywood lifetime achievement awards. Placing Day’s work within the social context of America in the second half of the twentieth century, Considering Doris Day is smart, funny, and grants Doris Day her rightful place as a singular American artist.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following his witty overview of Streisand's career in The Importance of Being Barbra (2005), Santopietro turns to Doris Day and delivers a sharp-eyed, carefully researched career evaluation that also convincingly rebukes many modern misconceptions about her pristine screen persona and status as a singer. With the exception of That Touch of Mink ("a film nearly devoid of wit or humor"), most of Day's onscreen characters were far from eternal virgins; they were proto-feminist icons ranging from successful career women with healthy libidos to smart can-do housewives. Santopietro's sassy assessment of Day's 39 films illuminate her best (Love Me or Leave Me, Pajama Game, Thrill of It All), analyzes her worst (Tunnel of Love, Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?) and offers some surprises (he defends the KKK melodrama Storm Warning, but is more reserved about Pillow Talk). Delving into her prodigious recording career (from 1948 to 1967, she released more than 600 songs), Santopietro appraises her songs almost track-by-track with such full-blooded enthusiasm that most readers will be racing to iTunes to download her catalogue. While not intended as a full biography, there is enough biographical detail as it concerns her career choices to create a vibrant portrait of the artist and the woman. B&w photos. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Radio, recording, and TV star Doris Day is the all-time Hollywood box-office champion, female division, yet she gets little respect for her accomplishments. Santopietro, however, fully acknowledges her extraordinary singing voice, innate acting ability, and self-reliant persona. She was from the beginning a reluctant star, whose early career resembles a Hollywood screenplay. Her mother pushed her into show business, and after she won a dance contest, her parents agreed to move to Hollywood. A car accident ended her dancing, but singing along with her favorite radio vocalists while she recovered birthed a new career. Santopietro follows Day's tumultuous personal life, especially her abusive early marriages, and discusses her unprecedented career at length. More than the ultimate girl next door, Day is "the perfect embodiment of post-World War II America," he contends. If baby boomers later found that image "plastic," the times (the sixties) were to blame, and her later activism for animal rights redeemed her in the eyes of many youthful scorners. Santopietro reveals a complex human being behind the pitch-perfect persona. June Sawyers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (August 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312382146
• ISBN-13: 978-0312382148
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,270,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DAY'S STAR GETS ADDED LUSTRE BY REAPPRISAL, March 20, 2007

By 

Paul Brogan (Concord, NH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Considering Doris Day (Hardcover)

Tom Santopietro's new book, "Considering Doris Day" is a sincere, thoughtful and relatively concise look at the career of the lady who is the top-ranked female box-office star of all-time.
For years pundits have had a field day mocking Day or belittling her tremendous contributions to the entertainment industry. Most of them have probably never seen a Day film or listened to one of her hundreds of recordings. Had they, they would be forced to reevaluate their insipid remarks.
Throughout the years there have been many books written about Doris Day. Some have been entertaining and enjoyable while others have been either re-hashes, promoting falsehoods and misconceptions or just plain bad. A few have read like extended versions of stories from a bygone era that might have appeared in Photoplay, Modern Screen or Motion Picture. Thankfully Mr. Santopietro's book is a nice opening act for what promises to be the definitive book about Miss Day, the long-awaited "But Not For Me" due out in 2008 and written by David Kaufmann.
Doris Day has had an astounding career by any definition.
From the early 40's when her professional career started, as a big band singer, through nearly 40 films between 1948 and 1968, through a hit series, some classy television specials and a warm-hearted talk show promoting animals in the mid 80's, she has excelled. Whether the story was a musical, comedy, biography, drama, suspense thriller, western - Miss Day was able to play every role with an effortlessness that defied convention. "Considering Doris Day" looks at the remarkable film career and the astounding popularity Miss Day achieved, topping the polls year after year and turning a profit with almost every title.
In the recording field she was, for a while, the "Queen of Columbia", turning out Gold Record after Gold Record and making even some titles that defy description seem enjoyable. One could only wish that she'd had the chance to work with some other musical talents that might have enabled her to deviate from the well-plowed rut that Columbia big-wig Mitch Miller seemed to place her in. Nevertheless, some of her 1960's recordings are masterworks and her phrasing, intonation, breath control and warmth are still like fresh air in an era when female singers in particular seem to feel that louder and more shrill is better.
Mr. Santopietro sheds some new light on Day's many accomplishments and while his book may not be the eye-opening tome that Kaufmann's promises to be, it is certain to open some eyes and force a reevaluation of Miss Day's durable career.
If nothing else, after reading the book, some of the naysayers may actually run out and rent a Day film or listen to a Day tune and find themself quite impressed with the lady's incredible talents.
There's a lot of "Day-light" contained on the pages of this book and I would venture to say that reading it is time well spent.

27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Greatly Disappointed, May 15, 2007

By 

J. Jamison (New Albany, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Considering Doris Day (Hardcover)

After a glowing beginning, where he praised Doris Day to the heavens, Santopietro then proceeds to trash every movie she ever made. He picks them apart and when he gets finished there is not much left of any role she played.

I think he forgot that her movies were made almost 50 years ago, when audiences were not always looking for references to gays, and hidden meanings. My three favorite movies "Pillow Talk" "Lover Come Back" and "Send Me No Flowers" were ripped to shreds, and although I've seen all these movies many times, I don't see what he sees. He sees homosexual overtones in the least little look and nuance. I know there were homosexual overtones in both "Pillow Talk" and "Lover Come Back", but they were not hidden. But when he managed to see homosexuality in "Send Me No Flowers" I knew he was stretching to make his point.

Also, he had trouble keeping the character names straight. In "Pillow Talk", Doris Day's character was Jan Morrow. He is correct in her name on pg. 121, but on pg. 157, he calls her Jan Gordon. And strangely, he seems puzzled as to why Doris's character in "Send Me No Flowers" was so helpless, when her character in "On Moonlight Bay" was able to "fix cars with ease." What did one have to do with the other? She was acting, for gosh sakes!

I especially don't care for the way he tells the reader what the audience was thinking while watching Doris's movies. I've seen most of her movies, and I sure wasn't thinking what he seems to believe viewers were thinking. He seems to be a mind reader. He spent most of the book finding fault. A big waste of time.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Repetetive and Banal, June 16, 2007

By 

a viewer "a viewer" (antioch, tn United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Considering Doris Day (Hardcover)

I cannot add anything that the other reviewers have not covered. All I can say is that this analysis of Day's marvelous career is marred considerably by the author. He thinks he's being objective but he comes off with the same things in practically every review he does of Day's movies......that the Warner Bros. films were innocuous, hokey and contrived (hello!!!....they were a form of escapism Mr. Santopietro...they weren't art.....they were entertaining and wholesome...just like Day herself!!) He finds gay overtones in many of Day's films (probably because he's gay himself....nothing wrong with that...I'm gay myself....but to say that "Calamity Jane" was full of lesbianism (never mind the Day/Hudson pictures where he proceeds to do the same thing with Hudson)is downright stupid. Its like he wants Ms. Day herself to be gay.



He trashes her television series to no end and rarely finds anything good to say about it. Again, the series may not have been "classic" but it wasn't bad.



These are Mr. Santopietro's opinions of course. Some will agree with him, others will disagree with him. His style of writing varies between competent and mediocre. The book is a one-note analysis of Doris Day's career. She deserves much better. Oh, Mr. Santopietro, if you're reading this I thought "Julie" and "Midnight Lace" were great films (showing Day's versatility and she certainly deserved an Oscar nomination for the latter!!). And I found "Pajama Game" and "Jumbo" two of her least entertaining vehicles. I also thought "Lucky Me" was entertaining and I happen to enjoy Ms. Day's trademark "eye popping, energy, and bounce" something that seems to annoy you.