Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1956)

Pooped! Tour of Saks Fifth Avenue sends Doris to a divan while Ruth continues shopping. High heels kill this Day — she’d rather go barefoot! • The sun sparkled on the water in the pool. Ruth Gordon wriggled her toes in its cool depths, wondered idly whether to go in again. Most of the hotel guests had gone indoors to dress for dinner. Ruth took off her swim cap . . . mmm, the sun felt good! Her eyes closed — flew open again at the sound of a voice. “Hi!” Grinning down at her was a freckle-faced blond. “I wanted to know who cuts your hair,” she said. Ruth straightened up — and gasped. Those freckles, that grin — you couldn’t mistake them. Not when you’d been a fan for years. “D-D-Doris Day!” she stuttered. “Yep!” And Doris sat down beside Ruth. “I hope you don’t mind but I’ve been thinking of cutting my hair and yours looks so darling and — well?” “Oh — of course, of course!” said Ruth. And soon the two were deep in conversation about hair styles and hairdressers. Ruth didn’t see Doris during the rest of her vacation at Palm Springs. But one day, back home in Los Angeles, the phone rang. It was Doris. Inviting Ruth to go with her to the hairdresser’s! The trip lengthened into lunch, a shopping tour — and a fast friendship between the two girls. Today, Ruth drives Doris to her studio, spends hours in her home listening to records while they stuff themselves on penny candies and bubble gum, joining in games with Doris’ son Terry, listening to the affectionate kidding that is always going on between Doris and her husband Marty Melcher. It’s been over a year now since that day in Palm Springs when Ruth Gordon met Doris Day — and fate made them friends. The bubble-gum champ. As son Terry has learned , any attempts to beat her end in a complete bust! 58