Doris Day, Richard Chamberlain, & Lew Ayres

Doris Day is eighty-eight today. Or eighty-seven or eighty-nine. The number doesn’t matter. To celebrate, we watched Send Me No Flowers. Not her best–I much prefer Lover, Come Back–but we were limited to whatever we could find on streaming. She’s still cute. Rock Hudson and Tony Randall are still cute. They’re part of my childhood. I like them. So sue me. Doris Day is also good to animals.

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Richard Chamberlain was seventy-seven several days ago. When I was ten, he was Dr. Kildare on TV. All the girls in the fifth grade were simply agog. He sang, too.

I’m going to post this to meet the midnight deadline. Then I’m going to come back and write some more.

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That was totally unprofessional, but until I’m paid to do this, I shall take liberties.

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In one episode, Dr. Kildare sang. Actually, he sang in more than one episode, but I remember best his rendition of “Hi Lili Hi Lo.” Here’s a link to a video accompanied by the song.

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Lew Ayres starred in the film Young Dr. Kildare in 1938, and went on to star in several more Dr. Kildare movies. According to Wikipedia, he was offered the starring role in the NBC television series. Ayres requested that he show have no cigarette advertising. The network refused and the part went to Richard Chamberlain. That was in 1961.

Rocking the boat over tobacco was a very Lew Ayres thing to do. Denied guaranteed entry to the Medical Corps in World War II, he declared himself a conscientious objector. Faced with unwelcome publicity, the government revised the rules. Ayres joined the Medical Corps and served in the Pacific.

Lew Ayres was one of those actors, like Charles Laughton and Audrey Hepburn–who brought class to a show–whether Johnny Belinda or Mary Tyler Moore–by just showing up on the screen. That class obviously wasn’t an act.

Here’s a link to Young Dr. Kildare. In its entirety.

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Now that I’ve demonstrated my own deficiency in the class department–posting an unfinished piece shows an appalling lack of respect for my readers, as well as for myself as a writer–and now that I’ve groveled sufficiently–I’ll put an end to this.

Thanks for your support.