Dinah Shore

from WikiMusicGuide, the free music guide. Your music wiki.

Dinah Shore

Dinah Shore was a famous American Pop Singer and an Actress who rose to fame via her hit single, ""Yes, My Darling Daughter."

About

Dinah Shore or "France Rose Shore" in real life was born on February 29, 1916 at Winchester, Tennessee to "Solomon Shore", dry store owner and "Anna Stein Shore", a contralto with operatic aspirations. Stricken with polio at 18 months of age, she recovered after receiving the Sister Kenny treatment.

At an early age, Dinah already loved to sing. She was encouraged by her mother. In 1924 the Shore family moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where her father had opened a department store. Shy because of her limp she began to participate in sports and other activities. Dinah developed a strong will to succeed and be the best in everything. She became a cheerleader at Hume-Fogg High School.

At 14, Dinah debuted as a torch singer at a Nashville night club. She was surprised to spot her parents in the audience. Having been tipped off to their daughter's performance ahead of time. They allowed her to finish, but put her professional career on hold.

She attended Vanderbilt University, where she took voice lessons and sang on live radio shows. She graduated in 1938 with a degree in sociology. After graduating, she moved to New York. She began singing on radio station WNCW in New York, where she sang with Frank Sinatra. Because she had sung "Dinah," a song popularized by Ethel Waters, in her audition for Block, he called her "that Dinah girl." The name stuck, and she was known as Dinah Shore from that point on.

After more failed auditions, including one for Ben Bernie's popular radio program, she received her first big break in January of 1939 when she was hired to sing with Leo Reisman's orchestra for one night at the Strand Theater. Soon after, she sang briefly with Peter Dean's orchestra and was hired by Xavier Cugat to record a song with his group.

Soon Dinah had a recording contract of her own with RCA Victor records on their Bluebird label. Her first hit recording was "Yes, My Darling Daughter." This song became her first major hit, selling 500,000 copies in a matter of weeks, which was unusual for that time.

In 1940 she was part of NBC Radio's Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street. Dinah's singing came to the attention of Eddie Cantor and he signed her as a regular on his popular radio show, "Time to Smile" in 1940. In 1943, she made her film debut in Thank Your Lucky Stars, starring Eddie. Later that year she was asked to host her own radio show, Call to Music, and later starred on Paul Whiteman Presents.

By this time the nation was well into World War II and Dinah became a popular favorite of the troops. Along with stars like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, she did many Command Performances for the armed forces radio network. Her records rose to the top of the charts. "Blues in the Night" and "I'll Walk Alone" were her first #1 hits.

She met a young actor ready to go into military service named George Montgomery. They married on December 3, 1943. After the war, they settled in California's San Fernando Valley, where their daughter, Melissa, was born on January 4, 1948. Six years later, they adopted a son they named John David. Dinah and her husband pursued separate careers in film through the late 1940s, but Shore was difficult to cast, and few roles fitting her talents were available.

In 1951, she became the first woman to host her own variety program, The Dinah Shore Show, a fifteen minute-long affair that aired twice a week on NBC through 1956. In 1956 she did two hour shows for Chevrolet which led to a regular spot on Sunday nights with the Dinah Shore Chevy Show, a musical variety show with many famous guests.

In 1959 , Capitol Records successfully wooed Dinah away from RCA. She recorded only one "almost" hit for her new label, I Ain't Down Yet, which "bubbled under the hot 100" on Billboards pop chart, peaking at 102 in 1960. The success of her specials won her a regular Sunday-night variety show entitled the Dinah Shore Chevy Show, which ran until 1961 under Chevrolet's sponsorship and for another two years as the Dinah Shore Show with another sponsor.

She continued to make recordings into the 1960s. In 1962, however, Dinah divorced George Montgomery and married Maurice Smith less than a year later. Shore and Smith divorced in 1964. The 'Dinah Shore Chevy Show' closed in 1963. She returned to regularly scheduled television in 1970 with Dinah's Place, a 30-minute NBC daytime show that offered a mixture of talk and music.

When NBC failed to renew the show in 1974, Shore jumped to CBS with a 90-minute daily show entitled Dinah! that ran until 1980. She hosted another successful daytime television talk show, Dinah and Friends, from 1979 to 1984.

Through her long career, Dinah Shore earned 8 Emmy Awards and a 1958 Peabody Award for her work in broadcasting. Dinah released several albums like, Country Feelin' in 1969, Once Upon A Summertime in 1975, "The Breeze and I," "Shoo Fly Pie," "Buttons and Bows," "Dear Hearts and Gentle People," and "It's So Nice to Have a Man Around the House,".

Her final series, the weekly 'A Conversation With Dinah', ended in 1991 as she began to suffer ever poorer health. Dinah Shore died from cancer in 1994.

Awards & Certifications

Chart Toppers

News

Tours & Concerts

There are no current tour and concert schedules for Dinah Shore.

Announcements

There are no announcements as of this time

Discography

Albums

Musical Orchids November 1943 Victor	Dinah Shore October 21, 1949 Columbia	Dinah Shore Sings the Blues 1953 RCA Victor	Dinah, yes indeed! 1959 Capitol
Somebody Loves Me 1960 Capitol	Dinah Sings, Previn Plays 1960 Capitol	Lower Basin Street Revisited 1965 Collectables	Songs for Sometime Losers 1968 Project 3
Dinah Sings Some Blues with Red 1969 Capitol

Singles

Compilations & Live Releases

Other artists

Similar artists

Contemporaries

Trivia

• Dinah had a long love affair with Burt Reynolds, who was 20 years younger than she was.

• She earned the USO Medallion Award as the first entertainer to visit GIs on the front lines of WWII.

• Member of Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority.

• Dinah Shore Boulevard is named in her honor in her hometown of Winchester, Tennessee.

• Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1994.

Reviews

External Links

• Dinah Shore Fan Site

• Dinah Shore Myspace Page