Talk:Doris Day

Cite Sources

Need a source cite on this statement about finances after Melcher died:

She was forced to do a television series to pay off his debts.

The source I have (Leonard Maltin bio) says that her return to financial health was brought about by a favorable settlement from her former attorney as a result of a legal malpractice/breach of fiduciary duty suit.

Gay Icon Project

In my effort to merge the now-deleted list from the article Gay icon to the Gay icons category, I have added this page to the category. I engaged in this effort as a "human script", adding everyone from the list to the category, bypassing the fact-checking stage. That is what I am relying on you to do. Please check the article Gay icon and make a judgment as to whether this person or group fits the category. By distributing this task from the regular editors of one article to the regular editors of several articles, I believe that the task of fact-checking this information can be expedited. Thank you very much. Philwelch 20:24, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC).

The song Que Sera Sera is Spanish for What will be will be, and not French as reported in the article

I think this page should be improved, as it jumps too fast from going to Hollywood to suddenly becoming a star. It doesn't explain about her early singing career and jumps to fame.

re Marriages

Doris Day is listed as having been married five times, the final time to a man listed as a busboy named Otis Washington who later changed his name to Otis Day and began a recording career. According to the posting the marriage ended due to his touring schedule and his inability to see to Doris's "needs". Otis Day is an actor named DeWayne Jessie who now tours under the name Otis Day due to the popularity of the character he portrayed in the film "Animal House".

This item needs a legitimate source citation. The footnote for this item (#3) - an interview with Day in a January 1996 interview in "OK! Magazine" - only mentions a fourth marriage to restaurant owner Barry Comden. And it specifically states that "there has been no sign of another husband" since that fourth marriage. A Google search only brings up the same Wikipedia source. So this item should be considered unsubstantiated until properly sourced. Titan69 22:23, 30 April 2007 (UTC)Titan69

It's bogus. There's nothing that I've found on the web that backs it up. I suspect that the same person has been entering it, but has been entering it from various ip addresses. They have been very persistent; I've counted at least 14 reverts of the Otis Washington busboy paragraph in the last 5 weeks. A cite has been requested several times, which has been ignored. I consider it vandalism. It's not amusing any more. Is there anything more we can do about it? Leon7 18:38, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I think that the whole thing is rather funny! I'll bet that even Doris is having a chuckle over this one.

German-American

While she does have german ancestory, it does not seem approriate to call her German-American. As mentioned later, it was her grandparents who immigrated, at some point its time to stop prefixing the German. If the article played up the importance of the distinction I would agree with including it there, but other than the information about her grandparents there is nothing to indicate her ancestory played a paticularly important role in her life. And her ancestory is sufficiantly detailed with the grandparents info Monty845 12:22, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Doris Day's birthdate

Ms. Day is known to have been born on 4/3/22. My source is a close friend of one of her former personal secretaries. Many sources list her correct birthdate, one of which is http://www.topsynergy.com/famous/Doris_Day.asp .

Celebrities going by a different birth year doesn't seem so unusual to me. In this case, Ms. Day using a more recent birth year may have very well taken place. Since we have a dispute, I would suggest that you come up with a more authoritative and verifiable source. Although well intentioned, citing a source such as your close friend is not up to WP standards. The web seems to be quite evenly divided between the 2 dates, with a slight bias toward 1924. I would suggest finding and citing a book or magazine article that has researched 1922 vs. 1924 to back you up. In the mean time, let's keep it the way it has traditionally been for years at WP and elsewhere. Leon7 23:48, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Leon,

The Internet source that I cited gave the minute and hour of her birth, which suggests that they researched it. I have not seen any article on "1922 vs. 1924" but it is known that she was born in 1922. The sources that list 1924 are just perpetuating the error. You stated that the Internet sources are evenly divided between 1922 and 1924. I believe this has occurred in recent years. Why do you think some sources would start listing 1922? They had to have a reason for doing so. She was born in 1922; insiders know that and now others are starting to accept it. Sorry that for the "dispute" but she was born in 1922.

TPR

Given that the purpose of that website is an astrological chart, it does not necessarily mean that they researched her date of birth using traditionally accepted methods. They provide no source for their information. It may be that they used the technique of Rectification, using the known facts of her life to deduce her date and time of birth, and concluded that 1922 was a much more likely candidate than 1924. That may be fine for astrologers, but it doesn't hold water for mainline historical researchers. -- JackofOz 04:17, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

I was informed a few minutes ago (by a Doris Day insider to whom I sent an e-mail) that the book about her coming out next June will give 1922 as her birth year. (Another book about her will be out in October.) She was born in 1922; there is no doubt about it.

In your mind, maybe. Let's wait for the books and see what they say. -- JackofOz

05:44, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't know what the book that is coming out in October will say regarding her birth year. That book is written by one of Doris's former personal secretaries and if I were her I would probably not mention her birth year at all out of respect for her former employer. I was told that the book that is coming out next year will give 1922 as her birth year.

I am not merely expressing an opinion when I state that her birth year is 1922. The following quote is taken from the e-mail I received last night from a woman who wrote the Foreword for the book that is coming out in October: "I am happy to tell you that it is 1922!! That is just one of the shocks that fans will find out when they read David's book due out next June. I've known this since the 1970s!!"

As for my credibility, I am the author of four books and my books are highly regarded. I don't make things up.

• • Other sources that list her birth year correctly as 1922 include the

Songwriters Hall of Fame http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/artist_bio.asp?artistId=72 and the following source: http://www.hastingsentertainment.com/catalog/artist/artist.asp?Ctrb_Id=33344925 . IMDB is not a reliable source of information as I have corrected a few errors for them over the years. For example, they had Vera-Ellen listed at 5-0. Anyone who knows anything at all about her knows that was an obvious error. So I informed them that she was 5-4 and they made the correction.