294. Doris Day and Her Trashy Divorces

Done & Dunne

Hemlock Creatives

History, True Crime

4.7 • 629 Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2026

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It is a special double length bonus today as we explore the life and the loves of Doris Day in this Trashy Divorces crossover! Actress and singer Doris Day built a giant career in Hollywood on the image of the All-American Girl, a perfectly relatable Girl Next Door, virtuous and funny. It was pure spin, with Groucho Marx once quipping, “I’ve been around so long, I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.” Doris herself chafed at the limitations of the typecasting and how utterly at odds it was to the life she was actually living. In this first part of her story, Alicia takes us through her start in show business, her first two husbands, and a whole lotta playing the field in 1950s Hollywood. In this second half, Alicia tracks Doris Day’s disastrous marriage to Martin Melcher, and the enormous financial hole he left her in when he died at the young age of 52. There was still one more husband to go before Doris would decide she’d had enough of matrimony and turned her focus to a more deserving cause: rescuing animals. More spiderwebs to come in tomorrow’s episode, bringing it all together! Sources and Recommended Reading can be found on doneanddunne.com. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠info@amplitudemediapartners.com⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Dun & Dunn. I'm Alicia, your hostess on this podcast journey, All Things Dominic Dunn,
0:07.0	where nothing is linear and everything is connected. Thank you for joining me today on a Sunday,
0:13.7	no less. I am dropping in a little bonus for you investigators today from the trashy divorces side.
0:22.7	We are talking about the trashy divorces of Doris Day. What a legend, what a terrible picker. This one really is a banger of a story all
0:30.0	around, but for our purposes here within our done and done journey, this story is also stacked
0:36.7	with a ton of spider webs I think you're going to enjoy.
0:41.1	I did want to make this particular episode available for your listening pleasure,
0:45.3	before tomorrow's episode drops on Dun & Dun. Everything really does always connect.
0:51.9	I'm dropping you in on this double-length episode of America's sweetheart Doris
0:57.0	Day, where the reality was far different from her life on the silver screen. Let's investigate.
1:05.2	Hi, friends, it's Alicia. And Stacy, hello and welcome to a delightful spring holiday weekend encore episode.
1:13.2	You ain't kidding.
1:14.1	We mentioned Doris Day in the Sandra D. episode.
1:17.1	Healthy sex, remember?
1:19.4	And Doris Day, her April 3rd birthday just a few days ago reminded me of this banger of a tale.
1:26.8	Happy birthday, Doris Day.
1:28.3	Doris' marital misadventure qualified is so trashy.
1:31.3	It is worth a revisit.
1:33.3	We hope you enjoy today's double feature of this TD alum classic and legend.
1:40.3	Welcome friends to another episode of trashy divorces everybody's favorite good podcast about bad
1:46.9	relationships my name is stacey and we are so happy to have you joining us today alicia you are as
1:53.4	as your want bringing us back to old hollywood that i am hey you friends alicia here and it is time
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Hemlock Creatives, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Hemlock Creatives and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.