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| photo by Oliver Sigurdson, c. 1945 |
“Let someone else be the world's greatest actress. I'll be the world's greatest baseball fan.” —a pretty good actress, at least, Laraine Day, born 13 October 1920. Known to millions as the sweetheart of the screen, she won hearts as Nurse Mary Lamont in the beloved Dr Kildare films—her performance a study in luminous poise and wholesome sincerity. Yet to dismiss her as merely the ingénue next door would be to miss the steel within the silk: at only nineteen, she shone under the tutelage of director Alfred Hitchcock, and starring opposite the formidable Joel McCrea, in the excellent Foreign Correspondent (1940, United Artists), acquitting herself with grace and intelligence far beyond her years.
Off-screen, her story was scarcely less vivid. For more than a decade—from 1948 to 1960—she was celebrated as ‘the First Lady of Baseball’, as the wife of the fiery, mercurial manager Leo Durocher, whose temper and genius for the game were legendary. To that end, she hosted a pre-game broadcast for the New York Giants on WMGM 1050 AM (a modern-day ESPN radio affiliate with the call letters WEPN).
A divine and dependable leading lady in every sense, Laraine Day embodied the rare union of warmth and discipline, the professional polish of the studio era tempered by a very human charm. Whether clad in a nurse’s uniform or a designer gown, she embodied the confidence of a woman who knew precisely who she was, and how to remain so in an industry that seldom forgave identity. —Arthur Newhook, 13 October 2025.
Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. FULL LIST OF LINKS - linktr.ee/arthurnewhook. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED on Cash App ($ANewhook).
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