“That makes sense,” said Al. “Okay.” That was the last time he had anything to do for Doris Day.
He left for Century Artists’ New York office with his wife, Ruth, shortly after, to take a look at a bouncing baby called television, switching places with Dick Dorso. When the Andrews Sisters went to London for a big season at the Palladium, Marty Melcher stayed home and got to know Doris well. Later, his marriage to Patti Andrews ended in a heartbreaking divorce for her. Marty and Doris were married on April 3, 1951, her twenty-seventh birthday.
In New York on the Christmas Eve after he and Dorso had exchanged assignments, Al received a call from Melcher: “I just want to tell you that as of now you’re out of Century Artists. Doris and I have decided we don’t need you, and that’s it.”
After Christmas, Al Levy walked down the hall to his Hollywood office and found a locksmith changing the lock on the front door. Inside, Marty had his brother and sister occupying the place to prevent Al’s moving back in. In his absence in New York, he had been voted out of Century Artists. He paid off the locksmith on the spot to keep the lock unchanged. He settled with Melcher and Dorso that he would retain the offices but not immediately take any big lump sum out of the agency; they would pay him off on the installment plan, sending money each month to his parents in Arizona.
Shortly before her third marriage, Doris, born a Catholic, became a Christian Scientist. Soon after the marriage Marty, born a Jew, also became a Christian Scientist.
Marty set out to do over Doris, making her an entirely different kind of woman. A long list of subjects was barred in interviews now. Questions were welcome that let the two of them concentrate on picturing her as the girl next door who never smokes, drinks, or cusses, and always minds her manners. Any queries that probed into the real past were rejected. “Doris is not a movie star,” Marty told me blandly. “She’s a talented girl who through circumstances has been pushed into the limelight.”
That was quite an interview, telling as much in its silences as in its words. They came in to see me together, and that’s how they answered, though they didn’t exactly overflow with information. So they won’t be misjudged, I’ll quote them verbatim:
“How does being married to you affect him?” I asked.
“He couldn’t live without me,” she said.
“Seriously, how has this marriage affected you?”