Screenland Plus TV-Land (Jul 1955-May 1957)

DORIS DAY continued In a new kind of role, Doris proves herself commissaries, because I can never decide which one I want. "I've tried to work out a 'share the dessert' system with some of my friends — you know, like the share-the-rides thing in wartime? The way it works is that one of us orders pie and the other orders cake and then we trade halves of what we have. It's interesting." Doris hasn't told the half of what goes on when she really gets into a "share-the-dessert" routine. And she's 'famous for it. She is quite capable of taking her two halves of dessert and visiting several tables to investigate what others have ordered and to make shrewd trades from the "halves" already on her own plate. In no time, half the room is circulating, bartering halves of desserts, which makes for some hilarious goings-on at studio lunch breaks and it certainly makes for some curious combinations of desserts for a number of people. All' of which makes the next "I want to know" question seem almost incongruous. "\tkt HAT do you do for fun? Is it mostly getting all dressed Iff up for big premieres or going to night clubs? Or do you sometimes have lunch with 'the girls' and go shopping or play bridge, as we do?" Doris' reply to that was a crisp one. "We don't often go to premieres and we almost never go to night clubs. And I don't particularly enjoy getting 'all dressed up' too often because I happen to adore old clothes — jeans and shorts and things that I have worn long enough so that they are really comfortable. And I dislike any sort of card game (that's because I love to talk) and I don't like to just shop except when I'm really looking for something specific. "But I do love meeting my gal friends for lunch ! Occasionally we swim or play tennis and then we sit down and gab and gab and gab. That I adore. And we plan things! I've been planning for months to take up golf but as yet haven't started. Always plans — no action! "A friend and I decided we would like to give a big tent party — one of those things where you have a huge tent pitched over the back garden and set up a big buffet and invite hundreds of people. But I went to a couple of them, quite close to each other, and decided that I didn't want to give one, after all. The people who gave them happened to be people I like very much, but I barely got to speak to anyone, there was so much confusion and fuss and congestion, even though the parties were beautifully planned and appointed. But I like to talk to people so I decided that I would never, never give a party of my own for more than 10 guests, no matter what the occasion might be. "Now here's a question that fits right in here. It says, 'I want to know if you ever start things and then don't finish them?' I do and I wonder how to overcome it!" She thought a moment. "I do lose interest sometimes," she admitted. Doris is subject to sudden and violent enthusiasms. Not long ago one of them was gardening and an engaging sight she was, in shorts or jeans, trowel in hand, smudge on nose, grubbing away among the camellia bushes or daffodil bulbs. She knew the names of a lot of the varieties of plants in her garden, too, and could sound pretty learned about plant foods and mulches. "I discovered," she says now, with finality, "two things. Three things, really. One — it all made my back ache. Two — WIFE of an American doctor, Doris finds her family in a terrifying spot in sinister Morocco.