Dinah Shore

Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore, February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress and talk show host. She first became famous as a "girl singer" during the Big Band era, then went on to become a movie star. She is best known as the host of a long-running series of popular TV variety programs.

Biography

Born to Solomon and Anna Stein Shore, Jewish immigrants from Russia, in Winchester, Tennessee, Dinah Shore was stricken with polio at 18 months, but recovered. She was left with a shortened leg, which she always covered with long pants or a long dress. Despite this disability, she sometimes successfully danced before audiences. She was a 1938 graduate in sociology from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. After graduation she moved to New York City, where she began singing. She recorded with bandleader Xavier Cugat and eventually changed her name to Dinah after the title of a favorite song.

Shore remained one of the most popular singers in the United States, making regular radio broadcasts and having over 80 hits records, most of them in the 1940s and early 1950s. Shore made many popular appearances entertaining members of the United States Armed Forces during World War II, for which she was awarded the USO Medallion.

The Dinah Shore Show premiered on the NBC television network in 1951 and ran (with a title change) through 1963. The sponsor's theme song ("See the USA in your Chevrolet") became the singer's signature piece. She continued to appear in Chevrolet advertising through the 1950s.

From 1970 through 1980, Shore hosted one of the first TV talk shows, variously named Dinah!, Dinah's Place and Dinah and Friends. On her show Dinah!, she once had the misfortune of interviewing the comedian Andy Kaufman in his Tony Clifton guise. He took deliberate offense at her questions and eventually tipped a pan of eggs over her head. This happened live on the air to a huge TV audience and Shore's producers cut to impromptu commercial as Kaufman was escorted out of the studio.

As an actress, Shore appeared in many musical films, such as Belle of the Yukon and Up in Arms (both in 1944), and Till the Clouds Roll By (1946). She was also featured in numerous TV movies and series. She lent her musical voice to two Disney films: Make Mine Music (1946) and Fun and Fancy Free (1947).

Shore founded one of the most prestigious golf tournaments on the LPGA tour, the Colgate/Dinah Shore Winner's Circle Golf Championship (now the Kraft Nabisco Championship) in Rancho Mirage, California.

Shore was married to actor George Montgomery from 1943 to 1962; this produced her only child, Melissa Ann (known today as Melissa Montgomery-Hime, executor of the Dinah Shore Trust and the owner of the rights to most of Shore's television series). Shore later adopted a son, Jody Montgomery. After her divorce from Montgomery, she briefly married Maurice Smith. In the early 1970s, Shore had a long and happy public romance with actor Burt Reynolds, who was 19 years her junior. The relationship gave Shore an updated, sexy image, and took some of the pressure off Reynolds in maintaining his image as a lady's man.

Rumors that Shore had African-American ancestry haunted her career, and caused her to lose some popularity in the U.S. South during the early 1960s. Yet Shore, with her Dixie drawl and demure manner, was always identified with the South, and guests on her shows often commented on it.

Shore won nine Emmys, a Peabody Award and a Golden Globe.

Dinah Shore died in Beverly Hills, California of ovarian cancer at age 77 (5 days before her 78th birthday), and was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Major Recordings

• "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (Duet with Buddy Clark)
• "Blues in the Night"
• "The Breeze and I" (her first recording, as a vocalist with Xavier Cugat's orchestra)
• "Buttons and Bows"
• "Chantez, Chantez"
• "Dear Hearts and Gentle People" (also done by Bing Crosby)
• "The Gypsy" (also done by The Ink Spots)
• "I'll Walk Alone"
• "It's So Nice to Have a Man Around the House"
• "Laughing on the Outside, Crying on the Inside"

Filmography

• Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
• Up in Arms (1944)
• Follow the Boys (1944)
• Belle of the Yukon (1944)
• Make Mine Music (1946) (voice)
• Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)
• Fun and Fancy Free (1947) (voice)
• Bongo (1947) (short subject) (voice)
• Aaron Slick from Punkin Creek (1952)
• Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Stars on Parade (1954) (short subjects)
• Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Small Fry (1956) (short subject)
• Premier Khrushchev in the USA (1959) (documentary)
• Oh, God! (1977) (Cameo)
• HealtH (1980) (Cameo)

TV Work

• The Dinah Shore Show (1951-1956)
• The Dinah Shore-Chevy Show (1956-1963)
• Dinah's Place (1970-1974)
• Hold That Pose (1971) (canceled after a few weeks)
• Dinah Shore: In Search of the Ideal Man (1973)
• Dinah! (1974-1980)
• Dinah and Her New Best Friends (1976) (canceled after 8 weeks)
• Conversations with Dinah (1989-1991)

External links

• Dinah Shore at IMDb
• Bio on museum.tv
• Bio on Naxos site
• Find A Death - Dinah Shore