Abstract:
This paper will examine how Doris Day’s persona as a musical star was created at the Warner Brothers studio in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Over the course of the first five years of her career, in which she starred in 13 films, one can see Day’s persona taking shape. She sings a mixture of original songs, standards from the American Songbook, and traditional Americana, musicalizing both the present and nostalgically re-musicalizing the past. Tracking the creation of Day’s persona allows us to take a snapshot of American musicality as it was constructed shortly after the Second World War.