Day and Night

April 3, 1924. In Ohio, Doris Day, nee Doris Mary Ann Von Kappelhoff, is born. In Nebraska, Marlon Brando, Jr., makes his first appearance. They were both destined to become show business icons, their images virtually defining their era. One of them was what we thought we were, or maybe what we wanted to be. The other was what we really were, or afraid we might be.

Day started out as a girl singer with the big bands, and played plenty of movie roles that could be described as out-of-character, if we think of in-character as the quintessential Doris Day persona of being competent, funny, virginal, probably a businesswoman, not necessarily looking for a man but going to get either Rock Hudson or Cary Grant before the movie is over. Even when she played the housewife, she embodied all those characteristics. Her character was a creation of the 50s and early 60s, as defined by the mainstream mores of the time. Pre-feminist, post-war, middle American. She was America's Sweetheart, Eisenhower era version.

Her astrological twin also played a variety of roles over the space of his career. An unusually large number of those roles became individually iconic, as compared to Day's general iconic impact. Think of Brando, and you'll think of Johnny in The Wild One ("What are you protesting against?" "What do you got?"), Stanley Kowalski or Don Corleone. What unifies those three? Beats me, except that Brando made them unforgettable. They too are creations of the times, and they seem way more real than Day's image, although they are hardly run-of-the-mill Americans. But what individual Americans actually are run-of-the-mill. You? Me? Maybe that's why we might have loved Doris Day as an image, but were wowed by Marlon Brando as a person.

To celebrate the dual birthday, let's have some singing. The 50s saw a lot of Broadway musicals made into Hollywood musicals. Most of them are a little drab, unfortunately. In the 50s Hollywood was making stunning originals like Gigi and An American in Paris, so The Pajama Game and Guys and Dolls, while they have their moments, are not classics. Still, here's a couple of those moments.