Doris Day (honest)

Ed here: Cinema Retro links to an interesting About.com interview with Tom Santopietro author the book Considering Doris Day. A portion of his conjecture applies to Teresa Wright, too, a fine (and to me lovely) actress who went abruptly out of fashion after the war was over and America tired of "good girls." As he piiunts out Day was a different kind of good girl--robust and optimistic. I grew up watching Doris Day movies. I liked them well enough even though they were invariably corny love stories. Santapietro makes some solid points about perception versus reality and how success is often defined by the time in which a given person appears on the scene.

"Tom Santopietro: Doris was the biggest movie star in the world because she was equally appealing to men and women. Men found her sexy but also wanted to marry her, and women wanted to be like her, especially in the late '50s and early '60s. In those pre-feminist days, she played career women with great jobs in New York City. Doris Day had the rare ability to be equally believable as a career woman (Pillow Talk) and as a mother with children (The Thrill of It All). She was forthright, independent, aggressive yet utterly feminine. She was a symbol of the post-World War II optimistic and idealized America that was to be the world's "good guy." What I say in the book is that her like will never be seen again.
Laurie: Are there stars who have a similar appeal today?"

Tom Santopietro: I think the closest to Doris Day today is probably Renee Zellweger, who also has a wide range, from musicals like Chicago to dramas like Cold Mountain. Interestingly Renee and Ewan McGregor made Down with Love, in 2004, which was a direct homage to Doris and Rock but it didn't work; it was too self-conscious. They were too self-conscious, and we've changed too much as a country. We view everything through the lens of irony now.
Laurie: How does she compare with other successful actresses of her time?
Tom Santopietro: Doris was one of a kind. She wasn't the voluptuous beauty that Elizabeth Taylor was, nor did she possess the sylph-like elegance of Audrey Hepburn. She was, however, the biggest all-around talent of them all. She really was the idealized girl next door - idealized because no girl next door is that great a singer and such a terrific actress (not to mention being sexy in an understated way)."
for the rest go here:
http://classicfilm.about.com/od/classicsondvdtvprint/tp/DorisDayBook.htm