Doris Day

Barry Comden, a businessman and restaurateur who was the fourth husband of singer-actress Doris Day, died May 25 of heart failure at his Los Angeles home, said his son, Danny. He was 74. In 1976, he married Day after meeting her at the Beverly Hills Old World Restaurant, where he was the maitre d'. He always made sure that her favorite wine was chilled and provided her with ample leftovers for her dogs to eat, Vanity Fair magazine reported last year.

Add it all up, and Doris Day's singular singing voice has spent more than 11 years on the Billboard charts. Her three dozen-plus films made millions of fans and dollars. And now, after nearly two decades of living below the radar in Carmel, Doris Day is back on the charts. "My Heart" is a baker's dozen of songs from the vaults, many produced by her late son, Terry Melcher, who worked with the Byrds and who co-wrote and sang "Happy Endings" on the CD, and sang a second song on it with his mother.

IT'S refreshing to see that Doris Day is being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award [Quick Takes, Dec. 19]. Now if only the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would wake up and do the same. It is a disgrace that they have not yet bestowed similar recognition on a lady who was one of our top film stars for many years. It's time to correct this embarrassing oversight, and the sooner the better. George Gallucci Los Angeles

Along with Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn, Doris Day was one of the iconic actresses of the 1950s and '60s. But nearly 40 years ago, she left Hollywood behind and moved to Carmel after her CBS sitcom "The Doris Day Show" left the airwaves after five seasons. She brought out a few albums, did a series with animals from Carmel ("Doris Day's Best Friends," from 1985-86), and appeared in a PBS special on her life in 1991. But just a few months shy of her 90th birthday, she is back in the limelight.

The Doris Day Collection Warner Home Video, $89 for gift set; $20 each During the 1950s and 1960s, the perky blond singer was one of the biggest stars of the silver screen. Day, now 81, began her career in the '40s as a big-band singer -- she scored a hit with Les Brown's band on "Sentimental Journey" -- and made her movie debut in 1948's romantic comedy "Romance on the High Seas."

The California Supreme Court on Monday ordered the disbarment of the former lawyer and financial adviser to actress Doris Day, ending an arduous, 19-year legal-ethics dispute between the entertainer and the attorney. The court unanimously upheld a recommendation by the State Bar urging the action against Jerome B. Rosenthal of Los Angeles for a wide range of ethical violations in his dealings with Day and her late husband, Martin Melcher.

Doris Day probably thought she was finished with litigation involving her former lawyer in 1974, when a Superior Court judge awarded her about $22 million for malpractice. The popular actress might have thought it was over in 1985, when the state Supreme Court rejected the lawyer's appeal. Having a reputation as an optimist, she might have even figured there would be no more real courtroom scenes after March, 1986, when the U. S. Supreme Court refused to review the lower court's judgment.

Actress Doris Day is returning to acting after a 17-year hiatus from television. Day signed a multipicture deal with ABC Productions to star in TV movies that will air on ABC-TV, the studio disclosed this week. The contract calls for her to star in three TV films a year as a recurring character. The character was still in the planning stages. Production is expected to begin at the end of the year, with three movies to be televised during the 1991-92 season.

MCA Universal Home Video's new letterboxed laser release ($35) finally restores "Pillow Talk" to its original widescreen ratio. Now, the film's party-line interplay can be seen as it was supposed to be seen: at opposite sides of the same screen at the same time. Contemporary audiences may find plenty to wince about in this classic '50s-genre romantic comedy, but it should relate more to the comedic mores, not the panning and scanning of the wrong parties.

I hear there's a fabulous new shopping experience called the Grove, next to the Farmers Market. I may never visit. Oh, I'm sure the stores are lovely, the movie theaters state of the art and the restaurants decent. But I won't go because they've gotten rid of the free parking. Chalk it up to my East Coast mentality.

Ray Aghayan, an Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated costume designer whose credits included more than a dozen Oscar shows and the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, has died. He was 83. Aghayan, the lifetime partner of costume designer Bob Mackie, died Monday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, said a spokeswoman for the Costume Designers Guild. In a career that spanned television, film and Broadway, the Iranian-born Aghayan designed costumes for such stars as Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Dinah Shore, Julie Andrews, Carol Channing and Doris Day. "He was a darling man, and I loved working with him on my films," Day said Thursday in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.

It was 50 years ago today, the Lakers' band began to play. . . . As they do today, the Lakers had marquee idols at courtside ? or at least one, Doris Day ? and their own stars, led by, arguably, the best player of his day. So much for similarities. Everything else was different March 27, 1961, when the Lakers were in St. Louis to play the Hawks in Game 5 of their second-round playoff series. Like, who cared? New in town, and, unlike the Dodgers, uninvited, the Lakers were dropped off like orphans on the new Sports Arena's doorstep by owner Bob Short, who went back to his trucking business in Minneapolis.

Time seems to fly by faster every year. That's why it's so hard to believe that the intense film adaptation of Tom Clancy's Cold War thriller " The Hunt for Red October," starring Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. You can join in the commemoration Thursday as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technology Council presents a screening of a new 35-millimeter print at the Linwood Dunn Theater. After the movie, film historian and author Eric Lichtenfeld will talk with crew members.

Barry Comden, a businessman and restaurateur who was the fourth husband of singer-actress Doris Day, died May 25 of heart failure at his Los Angeles home, said his son, Danny. He was 74. In 1976, he married Day after meeting her at the Beverly Hills Old World Restaurant, where he was the maitre d'. He always made sure that her favorite wine was chilled and provided her with ample leftovers for her dogs to eat, Vanity Fair magazine reported last year.

Ray Ellis, the versatile pop music arranger who wrote the charts for hits by the Four Lads, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, Doris Day and Johnny Mathis, has died. He was 85. Ellis, a longtime resident of Ojai, died Oct. 27 of liver cancer at an assisted-living facility in Encino, according to his son Marc, a film and television composer.

George Putnam, the pioneer television news anchorman and conservative commentator whose distinctive stentorian voice was a mainstay of Southern California broadcasting for decades, has died. He was 94. Putnam, who had been suffering from a kidney ailment since December, died early Friday morning at Chino Valley Medical Center, said Chuck Wilder, Putnam's cohost, producer and announcer. Beginning at KTTV Channel 11 in the early 1950s, Putnam quickly became a dominant and influential force in Los Angeles TV news.

The new owner of the Cypress Inn Hotel sat sipping a glass of white wine in one of the cool and high-ceilinged ground floor guest rooms. The hotel is by California standards historic, built in 1929 in the Spanish Colonial Revival Style associated with Santa Barbara. It is a quietly elegant oasis in the tourist-teeming town where you can get a bumper sticker that says "Clintville." One change associated with the new management is that the guests' dogs will be welcome.

Along with Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn, Doris Day was one of the iconic actresses of the 1950s and '60s. But nearly 40 years ago, she left Hollywood behind and moved to Carmel after her CBS sitcom "The Doris Day Show" left the airwaves after five seasons. She brought out a few albums, did a series with animals from Carmel ("Doris Day's Best Friends," from 1985-86), and appeared in a PBS special on her life in 1991. But just a few months shy of her 90th birthday, she is back in the limelight.

IN HER article about David Kaufman's biography of Doris Day, "Doris Day: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door," writer Susan King quotes the author as saying that Day "will not talk about the past" and "I don't think she's ever had a truly confidential, candid conversation with anybody on this earth. I don't think she is capable of being intimate" ["Shadows of Day," July 5]. My question to Kaufman: What and who dictate the necessity of such a conversation? One of the definitions of intimate is "very personal, private."

HER LIFE on screen played like an American fairy tale. Blond, bouncy and beautiful, Doris Day captivated mid-20th century moviegoers in a series of rollicking romantic comedies with her favorite leading man, Rock Hudson, including "Pillow Talk" and "Lover Come Back," as well as the western musical "Calamity Jane," Alfred Hitchcock's thriller "The Man Who Knew Too Much," the musical drama "Love Me or Leave Me" and many more.