Doris Day's ROCKY ROAD to STARDOM

THE SINGER AND ACTRESS SURVIVED MANY SETBACKS BEFORE SHE BECAME A HOUSEHOLD NAME

- LOUISE A. BARILE

After Doris Day's performance at a party in Beverly Hills, a composer asked the 26-year-old singer to audition for an upcoming movie musical, Romance on the High Seas. "Acting in films never so much as crossed my mind," admitted Doris. But her 1948 film debut would take her one step closer to becoming one of Hollywood's most in-demand actresses of the 1950s and '60s.

Getting to that moment didn't come easy to Doris. Her parents' divorce upended her security at age 11, and a car accident derailed Doris' dream of becoming a dancer. With more talent than life experience, she started singing with big bands as a teenager, but her naivety led her to make poor choices in men. By 20, she was a struggling single mother. "I think I have always been a survivor," said Doris.

She inherited her naturally sunny personality from her mother, Alma. Doris also developed a desire to please through her distant relationship with her cold father, William, a music teacher and choirmaster, who insisted Doris take piano lessons from an early age. She loved playing, singing and dancing for her mother's friends. "I'd do my stuff until mother would throw up her hands and say, 'That's enough, Doris,"" she recalled in her memoir, Her Own Story.