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DORIS DAY continued
In a way, Doris was the house guest of the entire town of
ONE reason Doris gets along so fine is a well-proportioned ego: big enough for stardom, small enough to tuck away when not needed.
Doris found in New England a Court of Connecticut Yankees who were, in her words, "just great."
While she was "Down East," Doris failed to come across any evidence supporting the legend of bleak New Englanders stonily cold to outsiders. The men knocked themselves out, going over and beyond the call of duty to be helpful. The women came up with those little — and big — gestures that show a new neighbor she's a welcome addition to the community. And the kids did more than their share also to let the pretty "foreigner" from Hollywood know that she was in friendly territory.
Taking a breather for lunch at the Beverly Hills Brown Derby during a recent hat-buying spree, Doris said, "Finding the location, in the first place was a long, hard problem. We must have cruised through the whole of Connecticut looking for a typical Maine town."
That's right. Hollywood shopped for Maine in Connecticut. Not on a screwball whim, but for reasons having to do with budgets, weather charts, proximity to New York, and other practical matters that are all a very definite part of the making of glamour entertainment.
"Finally," Doris went on, "our director, Dick Quine, said, 'You leave this location scouting to me.' He hired a car and driver and sent back daily reports — all positively negative. Then one day Dick got a hunch. It was like an angel sitting
on his shoulder. Anyhow, something told him when to have the driver turn left, right — go up, down — cut past one highway to take another.
"Like a homing pigeon, he arrived at the ideal spot. There, in the middle of Connecticut, he found plenty of Maine hills and flowing water. Everything we needed. Chester couldn't have been more perfect if it had been designed and built by Hollywood experts."
With the location once established, the large crew came on from Hollywood to Hartford, where they had room to spread out. Doris, however, was still roofless and desperately in need of finding a place to set up housekeeping — quick.
A LOCAL real estate man dropped all other business to give the project his full time, and after days of futile search he discovered that beautiful house in its greeting card setting. The house was all lovely fieldstone and pale coral-colored wood, and it had its own road right on the Connecticut River.
There was only one drawback. The house's architectowner, who worked in New York, lived in it with his wife four days a week. He wouldn't dream of renting their dream home. The real estate man pleaded. The architect was -firm. Then the rental agent got a brain-storm.
"Joe," he said, "do you ever go to the movies?"
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