Doris Day: the wholesome face of postwar American optimism
The actor, who has died aged 97, worked with the greats of Hollywood’s golden era and rivalled the crossover success of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley
The face of Doris Day, eerily beautiful in all its buttery-blond wholesomeness, beamed over Hollywood in the 50s and early 60s like a gigantic roadside billboard advertising the American way. In that extraordinary period of white America’s postwar prosperity and patriotism, Doris Day was the biggest box office and recording star in the US: easily equalling the music-movie crossover success of alpha males such as Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, although somehow without being entitled to the guys’ iconic status.