Passport of Hollywood Icon Doris Day at auction
The U.S. passport of Hollywood legend Doris Day was at an auction in America. All her items went for high prices, surprising, especially in nowadays situation. On the other hand, Doris Day was a Hollywood Icon. Her real name was Anne Kappelhof. Day died in May 2019 at the age of 97.
Her passport, a standard type, dated “September 11, 1973,” depicting a black and white photograph of the star with her black ballpoint ink signature on it, her blue ballpoint ink signature appears on the page above, interestingly, her birthday is noted as “April 3, 1924” [though the year was 1922], further annotations by the star appear in blue felt-tip ink on the address page; passport seemingly only used for one trip to the U.K. in September 1973.
Doris Day, the freckle-faced movie actress whose irrepressible personality and golden voice made her America’s top box-office star in the early 1960’s, died at her home in Carmel Valley, Calif. She was 97. The Doris Day Animal Foundation announced her death.
Ms. Day began her career as a big-band vocalist, and she was successful almost from the start: One of her first records, “Sentimental Journey,” released in 1945, sold more than a million copies, and she went on to have numerous other hits. The bandleader Les Brown, with whom she sang for several years, once said, “As a singer Doris belongs in the company of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.” But it was the movies that made her a star.
Between “Romance on the High Seas” in 1948 and “With Six You Get Eggroll” in 1968, she starred in nearly 40 movies. On the screen, she turned from the perky girl next door in the 1950’s to the woman next door in a series of 1960’s sex comedies that brought her four first-place rankings in the yearly popularity poll of theater owners, and accomplishment equaled by no other actress except Shirley Temple.
In the 1950’s she starred, and most often sang, in comedies (“Teacher’s Pet,” “The Tunnel of Love”), musicals (“Calamity Jane,” “April in Paris,” “The Pajama Game”) and melodramas (“Young Man With a Horn,” the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “Love Me or Leave Me”).
Her travel document was sold for $6400. Other high-flyers were her Golden Globe Award from 1962 ($25.600), Golden Record Award (‘WHATEVER WILL BE, WILL BE’ AKA ‘QUE SERA, SERA’ FROM 1956) at $15.625, and even her Driver’s License went for $4480.
The following article shows auction results of dozens of celebrity passports (accessible only for newsletter subscribers).
I reckon that the relatively low price paid for the passport is definitely a reflection of the times when you consider that one of Marilyn Monroe’s passports sold for more than $100,000 not that long ago. Also, pleased to see that your latest article is “exciting” – you may recall that I drew your attention to the earlier spelling error some time ago.
I hope you are well and that the coronavirus crisis hasn’t affected you too badly. Best wishes and keep up the good work. Your articles help relieve the doom and gloom here in the UK at present.
Thanks, Rob for the comments and the grammar hint. My excuse – I am not a native English speaker 😉 I am not sure if we can compare MM with DD? I observe that celebrity pp’s do currently not reach the price level like years ago. I also never understand why an auction house is selling 6 Neil Armstrong pp’s at the same time. In my opinion a strategic mistake. Cheers, Tom.
thanks for info. Stardom more prized than passport.
That’s right, Martin.