It all works out in the end, lovers marry, scoundrels fess up and get second chances. Her onscreen credits ranged from romance to comedies and live shows. Day at a Time: An Indiana Girl's Sentimental Journey to Doris Day's Hollywood and Beyond (Hawthorne Publishing) is a positive, interesting memoir that contains many anecdotes about the star, celebrities she knew and events in her career. In fact, the movie kept one of Durante's classic moments of stage comedy. by BabeWilliams 12 May 2008, 11:56, Unread post Martha Raye, who plays Lulu, is quite a lulu as she strives to get Durante to end their 14 year engagement and finally get married. My favortie movie is Pillow Talk but this will have to be my second favorite. ", Doris Day, Terry Melcher, and his wife at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Monterey, California in 1988 | Photo: Getty Images. First unread post 154 posts Page 2 of 7. He was a wonderfully versatile actor who could switch from Messala to Sam Rawlins in a heartbeat. It's also the ideal word to describe this big-time, big-top extravaganza bursting with laughter and love, sang and dance, circus stunts and star power. Did Doris Day do her own stunts in Calamity Jane? Aside from Boyd the performances are very good. Search; Calamity Jane. Raye and Day are especially deft. There's also a funny clown sequence by all four near the end. Heonce said: They tried to make me a star, a leading man. Discover (and save!) On the other hand, Day explained through her autobiography that her relationship with Wills was plain. When Ive had the choice Ive always opted for the character role. The Wonder Circus comes to a town in the Midwest with its featured attraction, Jumbo the elephant. This comedy bit was reprised in his role in Billy Rose's Jumbo and is likely to have contributed to the popularity of the idiom, the "elephant in the room". That marriage ended in divorce, as did a second one, to saxophonist George Weidler, who allegedly couldnt handle his wifes fame. The time has come to move on., Stephen Boyd sadly died of a heart attack on 2 June 1977 while playing golf at the Porter Valley country club, one of his favorite past-times. Reynolds was an acrobat by training, but these are some serious stunts! Rating:- *** (out of *****). The piqued direction is by Charles Walters, who has his work bolstered a bit by Busby Berkeley, overseeing the circus sequences. Secondly, it is based on a musical by Rogers and Hart that was made in the middle of the 1930s, starring Jimmy Durante. Most of the other songs aren't as memorable, but they are still above average. The Rodgers & Hart tunes included the now-iconic "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" first sung by the person who dubbed Boyd to Ms. Day before Durante sung his verison to Ms. Raye of which the latter version was the most touching even with the kind of voice Durante had! People think, because of Doris movies, she was always happy-go-lucky, said DeVita. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Rather like his Pop Wonder role in "Jumbo" he married his second wife, Marjorie Little after a 16-year courtship when she was 39 and he was 67. She spent money acquiring all sorts of gifts for the man. After Terry turned him down, Manson showed up at the producers home at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles. For all its merits, "Jumbo" was not a perfect entity as it was released upon the last rung of film musicals, and by the 60's only adaptations of Broadway shows like "West Side Story" and "The Sound Of Music" were being released. They lived in the Anacostia area with their father, who was a machinist, and their mother, an elevator operator. In 1947 Charles Walters requested he make the film of the musical as his first assignment; the studio agreed. The play was adapted from the book written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, the screenplay here is written by Sidney Sheldon. She had two brothers, Richard, who died before she was born and Paul, a few years older. (Getty Images). Jane owns a beautiful ranch in New Mexico, where she horse rides, explores on her quad bike and goes fly fishing. Henceforth all of Doris's films would be screen comedies in which she may have sung a ditty or two in the film or over the title credits. Day tested and was then cast in the lead role and the rest, as they say, is history. The finale, with the cast dressed for a double wedding and dancing to "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" is truly lovely. Unfortunately, Billy Roses Jumbo opened in New York at Radio City Music Hall during a newspaper strike and did not get reviewed by the all-important critics. A pleasantly fun musical , Doris Day's last , dealing with a debt-ridden circus that travels throughout the country showing its colorful spectacle . Her first time in love was at age 16. Not until 1948 did Warner Brothers produce a star on par with the MGM superstars. Via Facebook, he claimed that he had not spent much time with his grandmother since childhood due to his fathers bitter divorce from his mother, Jacqueline Carlin, in 1997. She found him interesting because he looked like a former flame and co-star whom she had loved. by Jas1 15 May 2008, 19:09, Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests, Powered by phpBB Forum Software phpBB Limited. She was smitten by Maury and began lavishing expensive gifts on him like color TV sets. Theres plenty of people wondering just how Bob is going to profit from all this., Doris Day, on Jan. 6, 1976, answers questions in New York, during an interview on the book "Doris Day: Her Own Story," written by A.E. | Photo: Getty Images. Billy Rose's Jumbo is a 1962 American musical film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Doris Day, Stephen Boyd, Jimmy Durante, and Martha Raye. To Day, the media ran stories based on a first glance; they did not take time to investigate, leading them to make assumptions about relationships that never existed. Jimmy Durante owns the little circus with the big elephant in Billy Roses Jumbo (1962). Perhaps, as some reviewers have suggested, their comedic talents were underutilized. Wills was of African-American descent, and having a white lover was controversial to their careers. Stephen Boyd was reasonable as was Doris Day, but she was miscast it seems, as she was nearing forty. Do you need underlay for laminate flooring on concrete? A few years later, they became husband and wife, before adding the title of parents to the mix, when they welcomed their only child, Terry. (Note, in particular, the final pullback shot which shows all of the acts rehearsing en masse at the same time.) As for musicals, Jumbo gave Doris the lovely Rodgers & Hart score to sing, but the circus story based on a '30s Broadway spectacle was too old-fashioned to make any impression in 1962. . Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. There is also Stephen Boyd. Hailey Bieber's Birthday Post to Justin Bieber Derails as Fans Comment amid Selena Gomez Drama, Aimee Carreros Husband Tim Rock Is an Actor - Inside His Career & Marriage, Steven Craig Lived in a Commune Facts about Sally Field's Ex-husband, Doris Day 'Felt Married' to James Garner Although He Cracked Two of Her Ribs, Mariska Hargitay & Her Husband Are Happily Married for 18 Years after He Made Her Cry on Their First Date, Guy Fieris Blue-Eyed Wife gave Him a Mean Mug When They Met Yet He Already Knew She Is the One. It wasn't until a few days before her birthday in 2017 that her official birth certificate was found revealing the star was turning 95 not 93 as she thought. After that, Day turned to her fans and people who worked for her. What characteristics allow plants to survive in the desert? And you'd never figure that the great Busby Berkeley staged the musical numbers, because they sorely lack the punch of his earlier musicals. The film ends with a spectacular production number, Sawdust, Spangles and Dreams in which the foursome don clown outfits and perform some traditional slap-happy routines. But, the stars boost it to a fun, non-stop rollick with elephants, high-wire acts, and clowns. Miss Day was the perfect choice to play the lovely Kitty Wonder, co-owner of the Wonder Circus. But her house is full of different people now. He died in January 1980 in Santa Monica, California. Portions of the film are directed too slowly and leading man Stephen Boyd is wooden (I would have preferred Harve Presnell or even Howard Keel), but circus owner Jimmy Durante is marvelous in every scene he's in- especially where he's trying to hide an elephant!! Kitty, I 'think' you refer to the Golden Globe nomination - and it was Roz Russell in 'Gypsy'. Heartbroken and defeated, Kitty, her father and his fiance, Lulu, decide to rebuild the business from the ground level starting with two sticks and a blanket which is equivalent to dancing for pennies on a street corner. For favourite scenes, the rousing opening and the hilarious scene where Jimmy Durante tries to hide the elephant are personal picks. From the circus scenes to those wonderful musical numbers (My Romance, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, This Can't Be Love) this just shines. One of my favorites - completely wonderful! Miss Raye duets with Doris on the lamentable Why Cant I? Jimmy Durante and Martha Raye though, are very good in comic roles, especially the veteran Durante. Doris Day is deceived in the romance department once again! It's also the ideal word to describe this big-time big-top extravaganza, bursting with laughter and love, song and dance, circus stunts and star power. I also thought i would dislike it because i never was into the circus but it was really thrilling watching all those people do stunts. Radiant Doris Day sings beloved Rodgers and Hart tunes and does her own horseback tricks in a razzle-dazzle musical based on Bill Rose's stage spectacular and featuring circus sequences directed by Busby Berkley. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. In his 1991 book "On The Run," Wills wrote that Day was a lovely woman with whom he was romantically involved. **1/2 from ****. She did all her own stunts, too, which was quite a feat in what is an enormously athletic role. But while he may seem fairly nice to look at, he doesn't quite have the star power to carry the viewer's interest his character should have, even if he really was singing "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" and didn't need to be dubbed. "Doris did not believe that . Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Doris Day playing with a dog, circa 1950 | Photo: Getty Images. I don't have any aversion to clowns and enjoyed all of the 'clowning around'. Doris Day, seenJan. 28, 1989, in Los Angeles, died May 13, 2019, at age 97. She starred in a television sitcom called 'The Doris Day Show' from 1968-1973. With Doris Day singing "Little Girl Blue" and "My Romance" as highlights, this pleasing musical should keep the viewer out of trouble for well over two hours and in the world of the greatest show on earth. A wonderfully warm-hearted MGM musical about circus rivalries, based on showman Billy Roses Broadway extravaganza that actually featured an elephant on stage. But thankfully, he was able to undergo therapy successfully. | Photo: Getty Images. In one sequence of uninterrupted takes, she jumps and flips over bars with the agility of a circus performer. Portrait of Doris Day for the Paramount Pictures film "The Man Who Knew Too Much," circa 1956 | Photo: Getty Images. or redistributed. Jumbo is a mighty talented elephant. Other comments will rave about Doris Day and moan about Stephen Boyd and they are all very right. This film seems to fit in with the musicals of the 40's and 50's, after the war America was euphoric to have our boys home but by the 1960's we began to see message musicals like West Side Story dealing with problems below the surface. Just clear tips and lifehacks for every day, They grew up and hit Hollywood on horseback, doubling for stars such as Betty Hutton in Perils of Pauline, Barbara Stanwyck in Maverick Queen, Doris Day in Calamity Jane and Gail Davis in Annie Oakley. . But she spent her final days being manipulated by those around her, sources who were close to the legend allege. The wonderful songs of Richard Rodgers and Hart ! 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