It’s been an interesting year in the world of Doris Day.  Being a member of her online fan club one gets to hear about Doris’ ongoing charity work with her foundation; this year raising money for horses as well as the hounds and the felines!  I have another wonderful calendar, with pictures chosen by Doris herself, produced my Doris Day Tribute in conjunction with Doris herself. In the commercial world,  to coincide with America’s TCM network screening of some of her films Sony released a 2 CD set called With a Smile and a Song demonstrating the two facets of her performing life as a movie star and popular singer. 

The Ultimate Collection reached the UK’s Top 40 proving her enduring popularity. The BFI also did a season of Doris’ films and there was a cinematic showing of Pillow Talk.  Is everyone gearing up for her 90th birthday?
It was my idea to celebrate Doris’ birth each year at Ronnie Scott’s (this will be my fourth) as long as Ronnie’s will have me and to celebrate I wanted to do some more promo shots so  I enlisted the help of Dolly, my own Doris in the making! We selected the dresses, the scenes and on one extremely cold Sunday in February, proceeded to turn the house into a photo studio. The fire was lit, the heating turned on and my trusty assistant shot photos for a couple of hours.
My love of all things Doris has extended to a love of all things 50s so now my house is filled with such artifacts.

Last year as we celebrated Doris’ 88th birthday we lost music lover, father, grandfather, Simon Golding Sr., Mr Raymond John Golding (1929-2012) so this year’s show will be tinged with our own sadness and well as the general passing of time.
 
Hope to see you at Ronnie’s on the 7th April. 
Photos by Dolly-Levi.