Presenting a Tale
of Two Pillow Talks

Doris Day vs. Michael Lindell, the “My Pillow Guy”

By Byron Toben

In 1859, Charles Dickens published perhaps his most famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities. One hundred years later, in 1959, Hollywood featured Doris Day in the film Pillow Talk. In 2021, 162 years later, the internet was flooded with Michael Lindell, the “My Pillow Guy,” ranting about how Donald Trump really won re-election in his own style of Pillow Talk.

Michael Lindell, the “My Pillow Guy”- Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dickens used print, the mass communication of his day. Doris Day communicated on radio, film and TV, the mass tools of her day. Lindell uses the internet, which is the main tool of our day.

These comparisons occurred to me in remarking on these two contrasting expressions of pillow talk. The Doris Day film was based on the complications of sharing a telephone party line. This led to a romantic liaison. Lindell’s rants are based on a political party line, not a mechanical one. Doris sang, Mike yells. She spouts love, he, hate (perhaps the feathers in her pillow are more conducive than whatever foam is loaded into his pillowcases).

Doris is famous for singing (in another film), Que Sera, Sera. Whatever will be, will be. Mike is famous for proclaiming that Donald Trump was robbed of his re-election and will be re-instated on various dates continually postponed when they don’t happen… January 6, March 4, August 13 and most lately, September 20.

What does the future hold?

Doris passed away in 2019 at age 97, having won 23 film and TV awards, as well as an Oscar nomination (for Pillow Talk). She also established an animal rights foundation.

Lindell, 60, a recovered crack cocaine addict, is defending himself in a billion-dollar lawsuit for defaming Dominion Voting Systems. He is apparently considering running for Governor of Minnesota with a Trump endorsement.

Doris passed away in 2019 at age 97, having won 23 film and TV awards, as well as an Oscar nomination (for Pillow Talk). She also established an animal rights foundation.

Is he planning to emulate Sydney Carton, sacrificing himself on the guillotine to save his admired look alike (Charles Darnay) in the famous last lines of A Tale of Two Cities? “It is a far, far, better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

So much for this admittedly stretched comparison of two pillow talks. Let’s end with Doris cheerfully singing a few bars of that song in the opening titles of that film.

Feature image: Doris Day in Pillow Talk, courtes of IMDb

More articles from Byron Toben

Byron Toben, a past president of The Montreal Press Club, has been WestmountMag.ca’s theatre reviewer since July 2015. Previously, he wrote for since terminated web sites Rover Arts and Charlebois Post, print weekly The Downtowner and print monthly The Senior Times. He also is an expert consultant on U.S. work permits for Canadians.