Dinah Shore

• Born: March 1, 1916
• Birthplace: Winchester, Tennessee
• Died: February 24, 1994
• Place of death: Beverly Hills, California

Entertainer and singer

Shore, an effortless singer, had numerous hit recordings, and she was known for her appearances on radio, in films, and before thousands of troops during World War II. She became one of the first women to star in a variety show in early television.

Early Life

Dinah Shore (DI-nuh shawr) was born as Frances Rose Shore in Winchester, Tennessee, and was called Fanny growing up. Her parents, Solomon Shore and Anna Stein, had emigrated from Russia and, like so many Jewish immigrants of the time, operated a dry-goods store. Before Dinah Shore was two years old, she contracted polio, and she was left with a noticeable limp and a deformed foot. Over the years, her limp became less pronounced, and during her long career she managed to conceal her deformity successfully. The family eventually relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where her increasingly prosperous father established a department store.

Singing became a passion for Shore before high school, and she landed a job on local radio. She also attended Vanderbilt University, receiving a degree in sociology in 1938. However, a singing career was her goal, and she went shortly after graduation to New York, where she was hired by a radio station. One of her young colleagues there was Frank Sinatra. It was during this early phase of her career that she received the name Dinah, from the popular song of the same name. There are various versions of how it became her professional name, but it well suited her developing persona.

Life’s Work

Shore sang with the orchestras of Leo Reisman and Xavier Cugat before signing a recording contract with Radio Corporation of America (RCA) Victor and having her first hit with “Yes, My Darling Daughter.” In 1940, she got her big break when comedian Eddie Cantor, then a popular radio personality, signed her to appear on his program, Time to Smile. She was dubbed a “New Star of Radio,” and by 1943 she had her own radio show, Call to Music. That year she made her film debut with a singing appearance in the all-star Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), with Cantor in the lead. Before she faced the cameras for the first time, Shore’s naturally dark complexion and brunette hair were transformed by cosmetics and lightened to some degree. Some of her facial features were surgically altered. This remarkable new look was then maintained for the rest of her career.

The year 1943 proved important for Shore. It was then she married actor George Montgomery, with whom she was to have two children, before he left for his military service. Her brief film career, which partly consisted of guest appearances as herself, continued with Follow the Boys (1944), Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), and Fun and Fancy Free (1947), and with a few leading roles, such as those in Up in Arms (1944), Belle of the Yukon (1944), and Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick (1952). Film acting was not her strong suit. During World War II, Shore toured troop installations, sang on the Armed Forces Radio Network, and released more popular records, which included “I’ll Walk Alone” and “Blues in the Night.” With her mellifluous contralto voice and her soothing southern accent, she was the female peer of crooners such as Bing Crosby. Her singing style had been influenced by the African American music she had heard growing up. Her series of successful records continued with the smash hit “Buttons and Bows,” “The Gypsy,” “Dear Hearts and Gentle People,” and “Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy.” Eventually her record sales reached into the several millions. She also continued to guest-star on many radio shows.

Shore made her television debut in 1949, and it was in this medium that she found a perfect match for her sunny, outgoing personality and her intimate style of singing. She soon had her own program, the first of a series of popular shows, and many awards were to follow. Continuing with her television performing, Shore also made nightclub appearances and continued to release recordings, although none proved as popular as those made earlier in her career. In 1962, her marriage to Montgomery ended in divorce, and her subsequent marriage to Maurice Smith was of short duration. A long-lasting relationship with the considerably younger actor Burt Reynolds garnered considerable publicity for several years. An avid sportswoman, she also became well-known for sponsoring the Dinah Shore Classic, an annual women’s golf tournament held near Palm Springs, California. In the year of her death, she was inducted into the Ladies Professional Golf Association Hall of Fame. Shore wrote three cookbooks, among them the wittily titled Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah (1971). In 1992, she was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. Less than two years later, she died of ovarian cancer on February 24, 1994.

Significance

Shore began life as the plain daughter of the only Jewish family in a small Tennessee town. She conquered severe illness and physical handicaps to reinvent herself as a glamorous entertainer. She struggled in the early days of her career, but the force of her talent, her ambition, and her personality led her to fame as a singer who sold millions of recordings. When she did not succeed as a film actor, she went on to become an enduring television star. Shore was several times named one of the most admired women in the United States, and she was said to have been that rare person who had no enemies. As a gauge of her fame, she was immediately identifiable by her first name alone.

Bibliography

Cassidy, Bruce. Dinah! A Biography of Dinah Shore. New York: Franklin Watts, 1979. Full-length biography. Relatively well-rounded and does not avoid discussing some negative aspects of her life.

Kort, Michele. Dinah! Three Decades of Sex, Golf, and Rock ’n’ Roll. Los Angeles: Out Traveler Books, 2005. A history of the Dinah Shore golf tournament, which has become a favorite destination of the lesbian community.

Shore, Dinah. The Dinah Shore Cookbook. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1983. Contains some of Shore’s favorite recipes.

Slonimsky, Nicolas. Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. 8th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1992. Well-respected reference book that contains an article about Shore.