Biography

Laraine Day

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Born into a prominent Mormon family in Utah, Laraine Day's acting career began after her parents moved to Long Beach, California, where she joined the Long Beach Players. She appeared in her first film in 1937 in a bit part, then did leads in several George O'Brien westerns. Signing a contract with MGM, she achieved popularity playing the part of Nurse Lamont in that studio's "Dr. Kildare" series. An attractive, engaging performer, she had leads in several medium-budget films for various studios, but never achieved major stardom. She was married for 13 years to baseball manager Leo Durocher, and took such an active interest in his career and the sport of baseball in general that she became known as "The First Lady of Baseball".
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

She was the photo girl of the World War II plane "Lucky Lady". A P38 headed by Max Pyles debuted the plane in September 1944. Laraine (who was at the time a favorite with lonesome G.I.'s) was asked for a photograph to be put on the plane. Laraine immediately wrote back and attached photo of herself in a negligee. The "Lucky Lady" soon held the honor of having the highest number of record flights in the autumn of 1944. Her photo remained pasted on the L/gun door, and the crew and Laraine frequently sent letters back and forth. She was very proud and interested to get updates about "her airplane".
At MGM, she was told that if she did Keep Your Powder Dry (1945), she would be rewarded with the female lead in Undercurrent (1946) with Robert Taylor. When the role was given to Katharine Hepburn, Laraine left MGM and never returned.
She was the first choice to play Mary Hatch in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) but had to decline the role as she was already busy working on The Locket (1946); Donna Reed later got the role. Coincidentally, both films were released to theaters on December 20, 1946.
On Sunday, July 31, 1994, Laraine accepted a posthumous award on behalf of her former husband Leo Durocher, who had been chosen as an inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
On October 13, 2014, which would have been her 94th birthday, Turner Classic Movies recognized Laraine Day with a marathon of her film work.

I recall playing practical jokes with John Wayne. I once got a whole bunch of keys and had little tags made that said, "If lost, please return to John Wayne, RKO Studios. Reward." And I just dropped them all over town. [He got a lot of] phone calls, people showing up at the studio. He never learned who did it.
[Statement Laraine Day gave to CBS in 1968] I am very much a Republican. I think that Richard Nixon is a great man and that he is very dedicated to what he does. I had the pleasure of meeting him when I attended the Republican National Convention in Miami. You can really tell that he is willing to go out of his way to help the American people. I am proud to support him as president and I wish him all the success in the world and may I also say that it was an honor to endorse him.
I enjoyed working at RKO more than at MGM. At RKO, the parts were better!
A lot of sources said I was born in 1917. That is incorrect. I was born in 1920. 1917 was the year the studios listed as my birth year to make me appear older.
MGM never really gave me a break. They loaned me out for leading roles, but cast me in programme pictures.

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