Dark secrets of Calamity Recluse

Tag : Documentary Bag

Indeed it wasnt. Tales have subsequently emerged of a woman with avoracious sexual appetite. In his book, Kaufman claims that Dayonce enjoyed a brief but passionate affair with late Americanbaseball player Mickey Mantle. Day met Mantle on the set of the1962 movie That Touch Of Mink.

A notorious womaniser, writesKaufman, Mantle boasted to friends that not onlyhad he slept with Day at his regular suite in New Yorks St MoritzHotel but also that she was an accomplished lover. To date, Dayhas neither confirmed nor denied this report.

Her relationship with her fourth husband Barry Comden also provesenlightening on the subject of Days sexual nature. A maitre d atone of her favourite restaurants, Comden had flirted with Day,realising that the way to her heart was through her dogs, for whomhe used to supply plentiful leftovers.

Having asked her out and been refused, he persisted and  accordingto Kaufman  accompanied Day home after another date. He describedwhat happened in a 1997 proposal for a tell-all memoir: I sat onthe end of her bed while she took a quick shower. On an impulse Iopened the shower door. She let out a yell and for the first time Ilaid my eyes on the most beautiful body I had ever seen.

They made love that night, Day asked him to move in  and he did.The tempestuous marriage lasted five years before ending in 1981.


According to Kaufman, and rival biographer David Bret, whose DorisDay: Reluctant Star was published last month, Day was not only thesunshine in the lives of a nation that had spent too long under theCold War cloud of the Fifties. She was also massively vulnerable, acatastrophically poor judge of men, a lousy businesswoman and abottomless pit of insecurities.

Norman Jewison, who directed her in The Thrill Of It All and SendMe No Flowers, was particularly insightful. Doris did not believethat she was an attractive woman, he said. I thought she wasbeautiful. Millions of fans thought she was beautiful. Every