Jerry Summers
February 29, 2020, marked the 104th birthday date of Frances Rose Shore, better known as Dinah Shore, in Winchester, Tennessee.
It has been a well-kept secret that when Dinah was two years old she contacted polio and was fortunate to recover from that deadly disease in said era but she still sustained a deformed foot and limp.
When she was eight years old the Shore family moved to McMinnville, Tennessee, where her father opened a department store.
While still in grammar school the family relocated to Nashville where she attended Hume-Fogg High School and later graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in sociology in 1938.
It was in Nashville that she got her musical start by singing on the WSM-AM radio station. During her studies at Vanderbilt she went to New York City to audition for positions on other radio stations and orchestras. She was initially rejected in her attempts to secure employment as a singer during the Big Band era by the Dorsey Brothers (Jimmy and Tommy) and Benny Goodman.
Her singing career was most successful in the 1940-1950’s and she had 91 hit recordings between 1940 and 1974.
With the advent of television new venues opened up for Dinah in 1949-1950 where she made many guest appearances on shows headed by Bob Hope, Ed Wynn and others.
Eddie Cantor became one of her supporters and he signed her as a performer on his radio show, Time to Smile in 1940 and Dinah gave him great credit for helping her to develop her stage talents to encourage strong fan support. During this time she recorded her first hit record “Yes, My Darling Daughter” which sold over 500,000 copies over a short period of time.
Her first personal program, “The Dinah Shore Show” premiered on November 27, 1951. She won several Emmy awards for said show which introduced her future theme song “See the USA in Your Chevrolet.”
Her career further took off in 1943 when she started her first radio show, “Call to Music” and she also appeared in her first movie with Eddie Cantor, “Thank Your Lucky Stars.”
During World War II she was a favorite with the troops and regularly appeared at USO shows in the states and overseas in Europe along with numerous musicians and Hollywood performers. Prior to his untimely death in a plane crash bandleader, Glenn Miller performed jointly with Dinah. In 1943 she met actor George Montgomery who would become her first husband on December 3, 1943.
The union of the two produced a daughter, Melissa Ann Montgomery in 1948, and they also adopted a son in 1954, John David Montgomery.
Numerous hit records were produced in the 1950’s until her last top twenty chart number “Chantez, Chantez” was recorded at RCA studios in 1957.
Although her recording career began to decline she maintained a 40-year career in television with specials and variety shows and a couple of talk shows.
When TV Guide prepared a list of the top 50 television stars Dinah was selected as number 16.
In 1974 she was awarded an Emmy but received notification of the cancellation of her television series the same day, “Dinah’s Place.”
In spite of her Southern drawl and her lady-like manner, Dinah had many romantic relationships with fellow actors Jimmy Stewart, Wayne Rogers, Dean Martin, “Tarzan” actor Ron Ely, Rod Taylor and musicians Frank Sinatra, Gene Krupa, Andy Williams, and Eddie Fisher, and others.
During the 1970’s she was involved in a spring to fall romance with young actor Burt Reynolds who was 20 years her junior in a highly public romance that benefited both of their images and careers.
Throughout her career she won a Peabody Award, a Golden Globe, and a total of nine Emmys in the entertainment fields. From 1943-1980 she appeared in 15 motion pictures and was awarded stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at three different locations.
An avid supporter of women’s professional golf, she was instrument in bringing about a greater public awareness of female participation in the sport. She helped found the Colgate Dinah Shore golf tournament on the LPGA tour. She was selected as an honorary member of the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1994 and the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1998.
She died on February 24, 1994 after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1993. She was cremated.
Her memory lives on through her daughter, Melissa Montgomery, who owns most of the rights to her television series and they are periodically showed as specials with special guests who are mostly deceased.
Her original hometown, Winchester, has named a public street Dinah Shore Boulevard in her memory and the Old Jail Museum at number 400 in downtown contains memorabilia previously owned by her.
Dinah Shore with a younger Burt Reynolds