I have long loved Doris Day. As a young girl I watched her movies and thought she was the most adorable actress I had ever seen , along with her beautiful voice and shiny coiffed hair but best of all , she had freckles ! I was not happy with mine at the time as a teenager. Copious amount of foundation being used to cover them, with lines of black eyeliner and permed big hair….well , it was the 80’s.
Anyhoo back to Doris.
My favorite character she portrayed was Calamity Jane. I just loved that she was a rough and tumble tomboy and transformed into a gorgeous female deliriously in love with Wild Bill Hickok, singing about her ‘secret love’ in the movie.
Recently we were in the Sierra mountains of California and I picked up a book called ‘Soiled Doves’ by Anne Seagraves in a recreated cowboy town of Columbia.
In it there is a chapter all about ‘Calamity Jane’ being a camp whore , a liar, swindler and a drunk! This rocked my senses like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I thought she was a misunderstood , uneducated masculine like female , without any female guidance. Which in hindsight , she still was. But she’s not like my Doris! I wanted her to be pure and yearning for Bill Hickok.
This article is extensive and shows her as a woman who didn’t have parental guidance, ran with the boys and wasn’t really a menace to anyone but herself. Eventually leading to a fairly early grave.
http://m.infobarrel.com/Wild_Western_Women_Calamity_Jane
She was still a very interesting individual , and in talking to my father , he reckons it’s a great screenplay waiting to be written. I agree and will be first in line at the movies .. or accepting my Oscar statuette for the script and direction !
The true calamity that was her life.
laundry and lemon curd 