Summer Under the Stars: Doris Day

Movie Dearest continues our daily previews of Turner Classic Movies' month long "Summer Under the Stars" celebration:

Now Playing Star Profile for Doris Day - Stardates: Born April 3, 1924, Cincinnati, Ohio. Star Sign: Aries. Star Qualities: Mint-fresh singing, girl-next-door vivacity, superb comedy timing, unexpected dramatic power. Star definition: "She makes you want to give all you've got to a scene, to rise to her level." -- Jack Lemmon. Galaxy of Characters: Laurie Tuttle in Young at Heart, Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave Me, Jo Conway McKenna in The Man Who Knew Too Much, Kate Robinson Mackay in Please Don't Eat the Daisies.

Day became an instant movie star with her film debut in Romance on the High Seas, a light-hearted mistaken identity romp that introduced her now familiar screen persona (as described above) to the world. Off screen, she wasn't as confident as she appeared on; legend has it that when she saw herself in dailies early in the making of the film, she was so embarrassed by her own performance she asked director Michael Curtiz to recommend a drama coach. "No, no!" Curtiz replied, "You're a natural just as you are. If you learn how to act, you'll ruin everything."

That naturalness also extended to her singing, naturally. In addition to "I'm in Love" and "Put 'Em in a Box, Tie 'Em With a Ribbon (And Throw' Em in the Deep Blue Sea)", Day turned the film's Oscar nominated tune "It's Magic" into a hit. The tune was so popular in England, in fact, that the movie was renamed It's Magic when it was released there.

Romance on the High Seas airs tomorrow on TCM at 2:30 PM EST.