By the late fifties, Jane was running out of gas, Marilyn and Liz were too big to work regularly, and the foreign gals were just too damn sexy. There was an opening for an old-fashioned girl with a touch of class, and Doris took it. Watching the films Rock and Doris did together, one can watch cultural assumptions of this world start to come apart, watch the great cultural shift from Manhattan to LA, from urban style to suburban comfort, take place. In Pillow Talk, New York still reigns supreme. She lives alone in a fabulous New York apartment on Park Avenue.
Rock lives in an adjoining building.
As swinging Broadway songwriter Bret Allen, Rock naturally has his pick of the chicks. To help things along, he has special switches built into his couch to dim the lights, lock the door, and turn on some mood music. The final switch, of course, converts the couch into a bed. 9 Doris, on the other hand, is a nonswinging career gal, an interior decorator with a top firm. She's being pursued by Tony Randall, a thrice-divorced, neurotic playboy with eight million dollars burning a hole in his pocket.