She is somewhat forgotten in 2022, which is unfortunate. She had a long, incredible, entertainment career as a successful recording artist, stage performer, talk-show host, golfer and lover to Burt Reynolds.
Not everyone can be as ubiquitous as the Pyramids of Egypt, OP...
by Anonymous | reply 1 | July 9, 2022 2:49 PM |
Maybe a beachfront community can rename itself to Dinah Shore, NC or Dinah Shore, CA, etc...
by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 9, 2022 2:51 PM |
Not forgotten, OP. There’s a major golf tournament/lesbian party weekend as well as a major road named after her in Palm Springs.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 9, 2022 2:53 PM |
Pale Lez Negress with a pale voice to match.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | July 9, 2022 2:54 PM |
A nice lady who liked nice ladies.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | July 9, 2022 3:01 PM |
I Love her
by Anonymous | reply 6 | July 9, 2022 3:02 PM |
[quote]Not forgotten, OP. There’s a major golf tournament/lesbian party weekend as well as a major road named after her in Palm Springs.
This was the last year for the tournament in PS. Moving to Texas next year.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | July 9, 2022 3:04 PM |
Is it true that she was secretly a lesbian and had many relationships with women?
by Anonymous | reply 8 | April 18, 2023 3:02 PM |
Did Burt know?
by Anonymous | reply 9 | April 18, 2023 3:13 PM |
Dinah Shore was where we vacationed when we lived in New Jersey
by Anonymous | reply 10 | April 18, 2023 3:23 PM |
pitchy
by Anonymous | reply 11 | April 18, 2023 4:37 PM |
She's a dim memory for me from watching her talk show with my grandmother.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | April 18, 2023 4:41 PM |
I once dined on the shore.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | August 9, 2025 6:11 PM |
My mother thought she was the height of sophistication until Dinah hooked up with that gigolo, then we never watched.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | August 9, 2025 6:16 PM |
[quote]She is somewhat forgotten in 2022, which is unfortunate. She had a long, incredible, entertainment career as a successful recording artist, stage performer, talk-show host, golfer and lover to Burt Reynolds.
"Lover of Burt Reynolds" is a career?
by Anonymous | reply 15 | August 9, 2025 10:29 PM |
I liked her but I'm not overly fond of her sound. I do like her on duets though.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | August 9, 2025 10:35 PM |
I could have sworn she was a lesbian.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | August 9, 2025 10:35 PM |
See the USA in a Chevrolet.
America is asking you to call.
Good night, everybody!
Mmmmwaaaa!
by Anonymous | reply 18 | August 9, 2025 10:40 PM |
I watched her show when I was young. I also watched Steve Allen, Michael Douglas, and Merv Griffin.
But my favorite was Dark Shadows.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | August 9, 2025 10:45 PM |
Loved her, but also loved Hollywood Squares when Paul Lynde was asked "Burt Renoldys said he never knew anyone who could throw herself into a what as much as she did" - he said a headboard. hysterical.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | August 10, 2025 2:28 AM |
She's referenced in an old cartoon as Dinah Saur.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | August 10, 2025 3:09 AM |
She’s been dead for a long time. She was the first woman to headline her own variety show and quietly provided one of the few showcases for Black performers. She managed to stay on tv for three decades with different formats, specials, and innumerable commercials for your gas company, S&H Green Stamps, Purex soap and God knows what else. She was a pleasant presence who stemmed to get on well with just about everyone.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | August 10, 2025 3:16 AM |
She pings for me. Very masculine vibe.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | August 10, 2025 3:19 AM |
When Dinah Shores Ruled the Earth
by Anonymous | reply 25 | August 10, 2025 3:20 AM |
One segment I remember from her daytime show had a seamstress as a guest and she was teaching Dinah how to use a sewing machine. Dinah was so cute when she started to get the hang of it and gleefully declared, "Oh look! Honey, I'm sewin'!"
by Anonymous | reply 26 | August 10, 2025 3:25 AM |
See the USA in your Chevrolet! 🎼🎶🎵
(Did she really have a black baby and gave it up for adoption?)
by Anonymous | reply 27 | August 10, 2025 3:29 AM |
Maybe her black baby, given away, had a black daddy with a big black dick.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | August 10, 2025 3:36 AM |
My grandmother and I would watch her talk show. It was old school but a lesser show than Merv or Mike Douglas.
Then she'd get up and sing. Every show she did a number that was always bad. Her voice was long gone.
From that clip I see she really could sing at one point.
Even my 75 year old grandmother knew that woman had never seen Burt Reynolds naked. And, like Carol Channing, there were always rumors about her "background" , code for black ethnicity. It was nonsense of course.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | August 10, 2025 3:38 AM |
She fucked both Burt Reynolds and George Montgomery, who, during their marriage, was even hotter than Burt!
Google him, bitches!
by Anonymous | reply 30 | August 10, 2025 3:52 AM |
I always liked Dina. Ahe looked great, had a nice demeanor and a pleasant slightly Southern accent.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | August 10, 2025 4:08 AM |
She and her talk show were very calming.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | August 10, 2025 4:14 AM |
I never knew about her big network variety show for Chevrolet because I wasn't born yet. So I knew the later, "Dinah" morning talk show.
She had many hits, had several radio shows. She could never make it as a movie star. She was super appealing but I didn't like her singing.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | August 10, 2025 4:39 AM |
She was a graduate of Vanderbilt, she majored in sociology.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | August 10, 2025 4:45 AM |
She also was great hosting Loretta on Mary Hartman2 when Loretta said she couldn't believe that Jews were the ones that killed our Lord.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | August 10, 2025 4:52 AM |
Maybe a dingo ate her black baby.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | August 10, 2025 4:53 AM |
Dinah sings, Previn plays is an album recorded in 1960. I love listening to it.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | August 10, 2025 4:56 AM |
When she first did her TV show in the early 50s, she was criticized for milking the audience's affection for her too much. This was parodied in the "Midnight with Madelyn" sequence with Dolores Gray in the film "It's Always Fair Weather."
by Anonymous | reply 39 | August 10, 2025 5:05 AM |
I meant to mention Dinah in the "celebrities you didn't know were Jewish" thread.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | August 10, 2025 5:20 AM |
[quote] "Lover of Burt Reynolds" is a career?
R15 Yes, it’s called a “Professional Beard.” Sally Field and Judy Carne had the same career when they were with Reynolds.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | August 10, 2025 5:25 AM |
R41 What was I? Chopped liver?
by Anonymous | reply 42 | August 10, 2025 5:28 AM |
It's good Dinah and Sally could pick up a little extra money on the side being Burt's professional beards.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | August 10, 2025 5:31 AM |
Dinah was one of the most famous, most admired women of the 1950s.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | August 10, 2025 1:20 PM |
I OBJECT!
by Anonymous | reply 45 | August 10, 2025 1:28 PM |
Dinah had a HUGE number of songs that charted in the '40s and '50s.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | August 10, 2025 1:50 PM |
Dinah got polio when she was less than 2 years old. Her mother gave her the massages and care necessary to recover, but she always walked with a slight limp, according to what you read online anyway.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | August 10, 2025 1:54 PM |
I would mix Dinah and Dorris Day up as a kid. My mother corrected me and thought my mistake was laughable.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | August 10, 2025 2:06 PM |
Dinah was one of the women Sinatra had an off-and-on thing with for years.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | August 10, 2025 2:09 PM |
What about Jo Stafford?!
by Anonymous | reply 50 | August 10, 2025 2:18 PM |
I was forced to watch her show with my Grandmother and my spinster Aunt. I found it horribly boring. Granny baby sat me and used the TV as a distraction. So I remember watching shorts of Peggy Lee. My mother always enjoyed Martha Rae. Now she was hilarious. Then there was Sid Caesar and Imogene Coco, and Milton Berle too. Carl Reiner got his start back then. TV in the 50's was fun. And a lot of it was live.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | August 10, 2025 3:10 PM |
R51, BORING is a requirement for a TV host.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | August 10, 2025 3:15 PM |
My mom always liked her in the movies and on TV. My parents went to see her at the Frolics, a club that used to be in Salisbury Beach (MA). My mother was really disappointed, said her act was "filthy." That was probably in the '50s.
by Anonymous | reply 53 | August 10, 2025 3:16 PM |
(Martha Raye, not Dinah Shore.)
by Anonymous | reply 54 | August 10, 2025 3:16 PM |
My mother watched her talk show everyday when I was a baby. My first word, spoken from the crib, was “Dinah.”
That should have been her first clue but she still acted shocked and appalled when I came out.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | August 10, 2025 3:26 PM |
Dinah and George Montgomery were close friends with Alexis Smith and Craig Stevens.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | August 10, 2025 3:34 PM |
Burt always said Dinah was the great love of his life.
by Anonymous | reply 57 | August 10, 2025 3:35 PM |
I liked her but her voice was always more intention than accomplishment.
by Anonymous | reply 58 | August 10, 2025 3:36 PM |
Burt was so full of shit.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | August 10, 2025 3:37 PM |
She was a groomer.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | August 10, 2025 3:40 PM |
Remember George Montgomery did those TV ads for furniture restorer? I think Mad magazine or some other humor magazine did a parody with "George Gaunt Mummery."
by Anonymous | reply 61 | August 10, 2025 3:42 PM |
I liked her when I was a kid because I loved dinosaurs and her name sounded like “dinosaur.”
by Anonymous | reply 62 | August 10, 2025 3:42 PM |
In the movie On the Town, the sailors and their girls manage to knock down the dinosaur skeleton at the Museum of Natural History. Two cops are listening to the radio and there's a bulletin that the dinosaur collapsed at the museum, and one cop says to the other, "That's too bad. She's my favorite singing star, that Dinah Shore."
by Anonymous | reply 63 | August 10, 2025 3:47 PM |
Didn’t she die of the cancer?
by Anonymous | reply 64 | August 10, 2025 3:47 PM |
[quote]I never knew about her big network variety show for Chevrolet because I wasn't born yet.
You only know about the events that happened since you were born, r33?
by Anonymous | reply 65 | August 10, 2025 3:58 PM |
R65 Her daytime talk show was on TV when I was young. I didn't know anything about the history of television before my birth, at that time. Was that unusual?
by Anonymous | reply 66 | August 10, 2025 4:04 PM |
I don't know how anything came about or who was in the world or what they did because I wasn't born yet with my IQ of 64.
If only there was a way to know anyfing.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | August 10, 2025 4:04 PM |
r2, I was her BFF.
by Anonymous | reply 68 | August 10, 2025 4:07 PM |
Perhaps her early bout with polio is what gave her huge thighs. That's why she wore slacks and long dresses all the time. She was embarrassed to be seen in shorty whites when playing tennis. She never wore a skirt even close to the knees on her talk show.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | August 10, 2025 4:13 PM |
R67 I didn't say I don't know anything now about her show in the '50s. Obviously, I do. Twice now I've said that when I was a kid and watched her daytime show, I didn't know at that time she'd had a previous TV show in the 1950s. There's no reason why I would have. I do now. What don't you get? Troll.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | August 10, 2025 4:19 PM |
It does look like they had to be carefully posed, r69.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | August 10, 2025 4:25 PM |
She probably wore long dresses on TV to mask that she had a limp. And if she limped, she may have not had a perfect frame, either.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | August 10, 2025 4:34 PM |
[quote]I *never* knew about her big network variety show for Chevrolet because I wasn't born yet.
by Anonymous | reply 73 | August 10, 2025 4:38 PM |
R73 Give up.
by Anonymous | reply 74 | August 10, 2025 4:41 PM |
It’s amazing how much old TV variety and other shows from the 50s and early 60s are posted on YouTube to discover — they’ve helped my education on stars from early TV. Always a treat to find clips or complete shows in color (from NBC, trying to sell those incredibly expensive RCA color sets). Dinah was a huge enough star at the time to have her show broadcast in color and even recorded on color videotape, starting in late 1958 — the clip [R16] posted is an excellent example. Not that many Americans actually saw her or other shows in color as few had color sets until the later 60s or early 70s. But being able to see Dinah and other big names of the time at their peak (Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Darin, Andy Williams, et al) in living color is quite an enjoyable time capsule.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | August 10, 2025 5:19 PM |
[Paraphrase] she quietly provided a showcase for Black performers
Ed Sullivan featured Billie Holiday, Harry Belafonte, Ella Fitzgerald, Della Reese, Sammy Davis Jr, Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, etc.
Jack Parr, Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett were inclusive as well.
by Anonymous | reply 76 | August 10, 2025 5:24 PM |
R75 I used to love to be parked at my aunt and uncle's house when my parents needed them to babysit me because they had a big color TV set, in the '60s. I remember watching The Match Game in color @ 1965. Too bad more of the YouTube clips aren't as sharp as they looked on TV but I guess they're better than nothing.
by Anonymous | reply 77 | August 10, 2025 5:29 PM |
Born in 1949 I think of myself as the same age as television. Growing up in the 50s and 60s, we never had a color TV in our house, nor did our neighbors. It was just considered an unnecessary luxury. I didn't even own a color TV until sometime in the mid-80s.
by Anonymous | reply 78 | August 10, 2025 6:58 PM |
My folks bought a color TV @ Xmas 1970 and one of the first things I remember watching on it was the first TV showing of Ben-Hur.
by Anonymous | reply 79 | August 10, 2025 7:01 PM |
I guarantee you never saw this. Tina and Dinah doing Proud Mary. You can thank me afterwards.
by Anonymous | reply 81 | August 10, 2025 7:40 PM |
R16 Thank you, that’s a wonderful color TV clip of Dinah and Peggy Lee from 1959! The YouTube video has been upscaled, but the source video still had to have been better than anything I’ve ever seen from 1959 color TV.
by Anonymous | reply 84 | August 10, 2025 8:22 PM |
I have a vague childhood memory in the late 1970s being at a friend’s house and something came on the radio about Dinah Shore involved in some sort of shoplifting charge. My friend’s mother went on and on about it. Saying things like, “Can you believe it? Celebrities, all that money and success and she’s stealing!” I never forgot the moment. I think…
I was in like the 4th or 5th grade and could be remembering it wrong. Or it could have been some small or incorrect story that got buried over time. But I can’t find anything about it online.
This is a long shot, but does anyone on DL remember this? It was probably 1978.
by Anonymous | reply 86 | August 10, 2025 8:41 PM |
I have some lesbian friend that still go to Dinah Shore weekend.
by Anonymous | reply 87 | August 10, 2025 9:00 PM |
[quote]She’s been dead for a long time. She was the first woman to headline her own variety show and quietly provided one of the few showcases for Black performers.
That's not true.
Actually the first woman to host her own TV Variety Show was a black woman, The Hazel Scott Show in 1950 on Dumont..
A day later The Joan Edwards Show debuted.
Both before Dinah Shore.
And black performers were often on the Ed Sullivan Show and The Steve Allen Show. among others.
The Ed Sullivan Show loved Pearl Bailey. 23 appearances. The first was in 1948.
Pearl in 1955:
by Anonymous | reply 88 | August 10, 2025 9:07 PM |
[quote]Actually the first woman to host her own TV Variety Show was a black woman, The Hazel Scott Show in 1950 on Dumont.
Nobody cares about Hazel Scott, r88. I started this thread in February and sadly there was little interest in it.
by Anonymous | reply 89 | August 10, 2025 9:12 PM |
R89 Agreed. Unfortunately forgotten.
by Anonymous | reply 90 | August 10, 2025 9:19 PM |
A color clip of Dinah and Frank from a 1959 NBC TV Tribute special called “Some of Manie’s Friends” (Manie Sacks, who died in 1958, had been a recording executive for many of the established singers of the era). While broadcast live in color, a lot of the show was prerecorded on color videotape. Amazing the quality difference, in sound and video, between color videotape and B&W kinescope (even with Youtube compression). Somebody posted the version of the special on YouTube that had the many color segments in it. Now I can only find the B&W kinescope version (somebody must still be making a buck on it!)
by Anonymous | reply 91 | August 10, 2025 9:20 PM |
[R91] here. I should have said that Sacks “had been a recording executive who helped in the success of many of the established singers of the era”. Sometimes your brain thinks the right words, but the fingers don’t type them out. 😏
by Anonymous | reply 92 | August 10, 2025 9:28 PM |
^ Actual adults!
by Anonymous | reply 93 | August 10, 2025 9:28 PM |
^ That's in reference to the video at R91.
by Anonymous | reply 94 | August 10, 2025 9:29 PM |
I'm old enough to remember all of the evening TV variety hours regularly featuring Black guest stars. Dinah, Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen, Garry Moore, Perry Como, Andy Williams, et. al. would have Nat King Cole, Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis Jr, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Diahann Carroll, Johnny Mathis, Eartha Kitt and a few other well-known recording artists.
Lawrence Welk was an exception, of course.
But what was rare to see back then was a Black performer in their resident singing and dancing ensembles. Maybe by the mid-late 1960s on shows like Hullabaloo. I think that was around the time Black actors also suddenly, if occasionally, appeared in commercials. This may have been directly following MLK's assassination.
by Anonymous | reply 95 | August 10, 2025 9:31 PM |
Dinah and Pat Boone in a nice crisp copy of a '59 Chevy advertisement. In Living Color. This would have been broadcast in the fall of 1958.
Both huge TV stars at the time. I love Dinah's 1958 on-trend sack dress silhouette. And Pat's shark skin suit.
by Anonymous | reply 96 | August 10, 2025 9:38 PM |
[quote]But what was rare to see back then was a Black performer in their resident singing and dancing ensembles.
Leslie Uggams ...Sing Along with Mitch
by Anonymous | reply 97 | August 10, 2025 9:40 PM |
This thread is making me thirsty.
by Anonymous | reply 98 | August 10, 2025 9:44 PM |
This shows Dinah singing her famous "See the USA in your Chevrolet" from her show in the early 50s. It shows both the sugariness of her onscreen persona (which people adored) that Dolores Gray parodies in the clip upthread, and it also shows that when he was younger Dinah was able to sing much better than she did in her later years.
by Anonymous | reply 99 | August 10, 2025 9:45 PM |
I was going to mention Leslie Uggams but I think of her as more of a featured performer, albeit regularly, on Sing Along with Mitch, not ever part of an ensemble or chorus.
I wonder if there were any Black men in the singing ensemble. I don't think so, even though IIRC they were all middle-aged ordinary looking guys.
by Anonymous | reply 100 | August 10, 2025 9:46 PM |
Astounding to see the difference in styling of the 1953 and the 1959 Chevys! It's like 20 years had past but it was only 6.
Also, Dinah's legs and ankles look pretty great in that sack dress at r96. Her knees are covered but, of course they would be in any cocktail dress of the 1950s.
by Anonymous | reply 101 | August 10, 2025 9:51 PM |
I liked Leslie's variety show, r100.
by Anonymous | reply 102 | August 10, 2025 9:52 PM |
As posted upthread, r101, Dinah's problem area was her thighs.
by Anonymous | reply 103 | August 10, 2025 9:54 PM |
Sing Along with Mitch didn’t debut until after Shore was cancelled.
by Anonymous | reply 104 | August 10, 2025 10:48 PM |
[quote] I'm old enough to remember all of the evening TV variety hours regularly featuring Black guest stars. Dinah, Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen, Garry Moore, Perry Como, Andy Williams, et. al. would have Nat King Cole, Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis Jr, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Diahann Carroll, Johnny Mathis, Eartha Kitt and a few other well-known recording artists.
[quote] He had dancer Arthur Duncan staring in 1964. I'm old enough to remember all of the evening TV variety hours regularly featuring Black guest stars. Dinah, Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen, Garry Moore, Perry Como, Andy Williams, et. al. would have Nat King Cole, Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis Jr, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Diahann Carroll, Johnny Mathis, Eartha Kitt and a few other well-known recording artists.
[quote] Lawrence Welk was an exception, of course.
R95 Welk didn't usually have guest stars. But he did have black dancer Arthur Duncan. Duncan was the first African American regular on a variety TV show, from 1964 to the '80s.
by Anonymous | reply 106 | August 10, 2025 11:47 PM |
[quote]Sing Along with Mitch didn’t debut until after Shore was cancelled.
Shore's variety show ran on NBC until 1963. First as The Dinah Shore Show, then as The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, then back again to the original name.
Sing Along With Mitch debuted in 1961
Anyway, what's your point?
by Anonymous | reply 107 | August 10, 2025 11:51 PM |
Did she ever officially come out back in the days of her talk show? I hate the "everyone knew BS" excuse for not doing that.
by Anonymous | reply 108 | August 11, 2025 12:00 AM |
R109 Dinah in a floor-length gown again.
Even if that was the only hit song Steve ever wrote, it's a great one.
by Anonymous | reply 110 | August 11, 2025 12:31 AM |
Clearly, Dinah isn't limping, floor-length gown or not.
by Anonymous | reply 111 | August 11, 2025 12:39 AM |
I love Ann Sothern!!!!
by Anonymous | reply 112 | August 11, 2025 12:40 AM |
^ It's a terrific melody.
by Anonymous | reply 113 | August 11, 2025 12:41 AM |
[quote]Clearly, Dinah isn't limping, floor-length gown or not.
She was on wheels.
by Anonymous | reply 114 | August 11, 2025 12:43 AM |
Her right leg was crippled, she had a raised arch on her foot. Maybe she was able to compensate for it.
by Anonymous | reply 115 | August 11, 2025 12:46 AM |
r115 and any other naysayers, please have a look at the clip at r96 of Dinah dancing around VERY CLEARLY in high heels and knee length skirt.
by Anonymous | reply 116 | August 11, 2025 12:53 AM |
Like Lucy, "B" actress Ann Sothern transitioned successfully to TV with 2 hit series during the 1950s.
by Anonymous | reply 117 | August 11, 2025 12:56 AM |
For the Pat Boone of 1958, I also would have dancing around VERY CLEARLY in high heels and knee length skirt.
by Anonymous | reply 118 | August 11, 2025 12:58 AM |
Shows you how fickle is the public. Dead, soon forgotten. Remembered only by older gays on DL.
by Anonymous | reply 119 | August 11, 2025 1:04 AM |
R119 She's been dead for 30 years. People of today, don't even know who Katherine Hepburn was, do you expect them to know Dinah Shore? The world moves on. But let older people reminisce.
by Anonymous | reply 120 | August 11, 2025 1:10 AM |
[quote]For the Pat Boone of 1958, I also would have dancing around VERY CLEARLY in high heels and knee length skirt.
He probably would have had a lovely gift for you, r118.
by Anonymous | reply 121 | August 11, 2025 1:22 AM |
Is it true she had lesbian flings?
by Anonymous | reply 122 | August 11, 2025 1:55 AM |
[quote] Shows you how fickle is the public. Dead, soon forgotten. Remembered only by older gays on DL.
That's always been the way. Who in Dinah Shore's day remembered the famous singers of seventy, eighty years past?
Popular culture is and always has been disposable.
by Anonymous | reply 123 | August 11, 2025 2:57 AM |
[quote]My mother watched her talk show everyday when I was a baby. My first word, spoken from the crib, was “Dinah.”
I'm older than you. My mother told me when I was in my high chair watching the Dinah variety show, I would always blow a kiss when Dinah did it.
by Anonymous | reply 124 | August 11, 2025 3:07 AM |
I remember watching her last show in 1963. The show ended with a long compilation of her end-of-show kisses.
by Anonymous | reply 125 | August 11, 2025 3:43 AM |
She was okay I guess. I never felt impressed by her. The most interesting tv person to me back in the day was Groucho Marx.
by Anonymous | reply 127 | August 11, 2025 5:47 AM |
R81 thanks for that one. There are no words.
by Anonymous | reply 128 | August 11, 2025 6:05 AM |
I enjoyed her talk show but by that time her singing voice was gone. She couldn't sing but still did...unfortunately.
by Anonymous | reply 129 | August 11, 2025 7:09 AM |
Even as a small child, her accent annoyed me.
by Anonymous | reply 130 | August 11, 2025 11:23 AM |
I remember looking at her show on channel 11 in the early afternoon when there were no cartoons on to watch.
by Anonymous | reply 131 | August 11, 2025 11:35 AM |
Once she had Hal Linden on. She asked what year Barney Miller was in. He answered and she replied "if that ever goes off the air I'll cry."
I always remembered that.
by Anonymous | reply 132 | August 11, 2025 11:39 AM |
At 50:45, Burt coaxes Dinah to sing an impromptu song for her. Jack Lemmon winds up playing piano. This should be DL catnip. It feels very performative on Burt's part. Dinah seems extremely uncomfortable.
There's another video of them reuniting on their cooking show. ZERO sexual chemistry.
by Anonymous | reply 133 | August 11, 2025 11:47 AM |
"Will you be having dinner on board the ship?"
"No, I prefer to dine ashore."
by Anonymous | reply 134 | August 11, 2025 11:52 AM |
R107: Shore had Black guests on the 50s when it was quite unusual, esp. with a big sponsor concerned with sales in the South like Chevrolet. Bringing up shows from the 60s makes no sense.
by Anonymous | reply 135 | August 11, 2025 12:01 PM |
R134 how dare you.
by Anonymous | reply 136 | August 11, 2025 12:08 PM |
In the 40s it was rumored Dinah was half black. Started by another female singer. Both parents were Jews who emigrated from Russia.
by Anonymous | reply 137 | August 11, 2025 12:16 PM |
R116 Yeah, polio still left her with a deformed, high arch on one foot. Look it up, don't be intentionally stupid.
by Anonymous | reply 138 | August 11, 2025 12:48 PM |
r138, I never said she didn't have polio (or a deformed foot!). I said that she had no limp, great legs (from the knees down, anyway) and danced in high heels with no apparent problem.
by Anonymous | reply 139 | August 11, 2025 12:57 PM |
R139. Okay, and I'm not a "naysayer." I said she was probably able to compensate for her problem.
by Anonymous | reply 140 | August 11, 2025 1:02 PM |
r137: It's generally believed the other female singer was Kate Smith. All through the 1930s, Smith was radios beloved "Songbird of the South" - she had a fantastic voice (better than Shores) and a homey, warm persona. Dinah came along in the early '40s and almost immediately stole Smith's audience and "Songbird of the South" persona plus her sponsorship deals were far more lucrative. Plus, she was young, sexy with a trim, buxom figure. She completely eclipsed the matronly Smith.
TIME gave a rundown on her success in October 1942 under the headline of "DYNAMIC DINAH" (see link)
She was always known as a complete pro, always easy to deal with and a very shrewd businesswoman. NBC offered its three big variety stars, Dinah, Perry Como and someone else (can't recall who it was) the option to get tapes of their shows - poor-quality kinescopes were free but color footage was soimnewhere between $25-35,000, Dinah was the only star who paid for color. And NBC color was far better than any other network - her shows from 1956 - 1963 look like vibrant 1940s Technicolor.
by Anonymous | reply 141 | August 11, 2025 1:39 PM |
Dinah, Janis Paige, Peter Lawford and Gene Barry in color from 1958. Cornball as hell, but the quality of color film looks like it was filmed yesterday.
Thank you, r91 for that fantastic clip of her and Frank.
by Anonymous | reply 142 | August 11, 2025 1:57 PM |
Dinah has hundreds of clips from her television specials, talk shows, and albums on YouTube for those who care to see it.
It could be argued that these old time entertainers live on now in a way they never could in the past.
by Anonymous | reply 143 | August 11, 2025 2:03 PM |
[quote]It could be argued
It could...but why?
by Anonymous | reply 144 | August 11, 2025 3:55 PM |
Moms Mabley on Dinah: They said she's half black but she isn't. She's Jewish but she don't talk about that anymore.
by Anonymous | reply 145 | August 11, 2025 4:22 PM |
No Dinah Shore thread is complete without this.
Apologies if this has already been posted.
by Anonymous | reply 147 | August 11, 2025 6:41 PM |
Lucy wanted to see Dinah, but Gary talked her out of it.
by Anonymous | reply 148 | August 11, 2025 6:43 PM |
Who'd have thought Dinah Shore would get this much attention in 2025?
by Anonymous | reply 149 | August 11, 2025 10:14 PM |
[quote]Shore had Black guests on the 50s when it was quite unusual, esp. with a big sponsor concerned with sales in the South like Chevrolet. Bringing up shows from the 60s makes no sense.
You're wrong about that,
Black guests were actually frequent on 1950s variety shows. As has been discussed above.
[quote[Shore had Black guests on the 50s when it was quite unusual, esp. with a big sponsor concerned with sales in the South like Chevrolet.
What are you talking about? In the 1950s Ed Sullivan had on plenty of black guests and his show was sponsored by Ford Motor Company's Mercury and Lincoln.
by Anonymous | reply 150 | August 11, 2025 10:34 PM |
R149, I don’t disagree but this is DL and Arlene Francis is still a person of interest. They actually had much in common in their always charming and elegant appearance. Except Dinah was much more talented and didn’t kill people with flower pots.
by Anonymous | reply 151 | August 11, 2025 11:21 PM |
[quote]Shore had Black guests on the 50s when it was quite unusual, esp. with a big sponsor concerned with sales in the South like Chevrolet. Bringing up shows from the 60s makes no sense.
It really is disturbing when people who know nothing about our pop culture past, either get it wrong out of ignorance or try to rewrite history.
Dinah Shore?
Hon, take a look at The Steve Allen Show 1956-1960 on NBC. Sponsored by Chrysler's Plymouth division.
During its run, African American guests included:
Sammy Davis (four times
Count Basie (three times)
The Tympany Five
Fats Domino
The Will Maston Trio
Billy Ekstine
Lionel Hampton (twice)
The Harlem Globetrotters (three times)
Olga James
Duke Ellington & Orchestra
Archie Moore
Floyd Patterson
Charlie Shavers
Sugar Ray Robinson (three times)
Pearl Bailey (three times)
The Four Step Brothers (three times)
Diahann Carroll (twice)
Erroll Garner (twice)
Abbey Lincoln (twice)
The Coasters
The Treniers (twice)
Mahalia Jackson
Sam Cooke
Lena Horne
John Bubbles, (twice)
Carmen McRae
Louis Armstrong (twice)
Barbara McNair
Teddy Wilson
Earl Grant
Harry Belafonte & The Belafonte Singers
Eugene Wright
Joe Williams
Clara Ward & Her Gospel Singers
Roy Hamilton
Hank Jones
Earl Hines
Sarah Vaughan
Miriam Makeba
Curtis Fuller
Nat 'King' Cole
And shall I start on the Frankie Lane Show?
I love this clip:
by Anonymous | reply 152 | August 11, 2025 11:57 PM |
r152. Thats very interesting. I'd love to know which TV variety shows were all white. My father told me Kate Smith never had Jewish stars on her show, but I don't know how true that was.
There apparently was an unspoken "rule" in these shows that white performers were never to touch their black guests, and Dinah received criticism for putting her arm around Nat King Cole while he played piano and Eddie Cantor for wiping the brow of Sammy Davis, Jr. with his handkerchief. Both Cantor & Shore ignored the "rule" and Later Cantor was instrumental in Davis conversion to Judaism.
CBS brass in 1963 criticized Judy Garland's touching her guests on her variety show.
by Anonymous | reply 153 | August 12, 2025 1:05 AM |
But she couldn’t sing to save her life.
by Anonymous | reply 154 | August 12, 2025 1:08 AM |
r154: Not the greatest voice by a long shot, but people liked her.
I was surprised to learn that this was a her biggest hit. Ten weeks at #1 in 1948.
by Anonymous | reply 155 | August 12, 2025 1:33 AM |
[quote]There apparently was an unspoken "rule" in these shows that white performers were never to touch their black guests,
Yes, it's true, no touching in a suggestive way, but touching certainly happened. See the link below. And black and white performers were singing and dancing to together in the 1950s variety shows.
Jane Russel and Nat King Cole. Go to 24:00
by Anonymous | reply 156 | August 12, 2025 1:42 AM |
[quote]There apparently was an unspoken "rule" in these shows that white performers were never to touch their black guests,
I guess Perry Como didn't get the message:
by Anonymous | reply 157 | August 12, 2025 2:07 AM |
^ BTW Lena Horne's favorite singing partner was Perry. She was a frequent guest on his shows. Note the great chemistry between them. Lena whose performances could seem cold and detached and even kind of aggressive had a very different demeanor singing with him. They were a great couple together.
by Anonymous | reply 158 | August 12, 2025 2:12 AM |
Re Buttons & Bows, those post WWII years were filled with those kind of silly happy-go-lucky non-romantic, novelty songs like How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?, Put Another Nickel in (in the Nickelodeon), C'mon a My House, Papa Loves Mambo, Shrimp Boats Are a Comin', Wheel of Fortune, and so many more. All the top singers had at least one of them. Teresa Brewer made a career of them.
Buttons & Bows was first heard in the huge Bob Hope/Jane Russell 1948 comedy The Paleface and even won an Oscar for it. And then it was reprsied in the sequel, Son of Paleface, sung by Roy Rogers.
by Anonymous | reply 159 | August 12, 2025 3:23 AM |
As long as Segregation /Jim Crow was the law of the land Sponsors and the suits at all the networks had to enforce the no touching rule and anything else necessary to allow their shows to be seen on markets in the Southern parts of the country. The same was true with movies. In fact there was always the option of cutting out the Black scenes when the movies were shown down south unless the Black characters were subservient.
by Anonymous | reply 160 | August 12, 2025 1:51 PM |
She lost control of her voice but she kept singing.
by Anonymous | reply 161 | August 12, 2025 7:02 PM |
You can see so many great black performances from 1950s TV on YouTube:
I love this one with a very young Leslie Uggams on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows:
by Anonymous | reply 162 | August 13, 2025 1:56 AM |
She had a remarkably varied, long-lived career.
I never knew she failed auditions with Benny Goodman and Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey before going out on her own.
by Anonymous | reply 163 | August 13, 2025 1:31 PM |
DL experts, correct me if I'm wrong.....but weren't most or all of Dinah's few film appearances at MGM in the 1940s cameos in which she'd sing a song and then off she'd go. The studio didn't seem to trust her acting a role.
by Anonymous | reply 164 | August 13, 2025 1:41 PM |
Well, I got somewhat of an answer at the wiki linked just above my post but it only mentions the titles of her films, nothing about what she did in them. And it looks like at least a couple might have been made for studios besides MGM. Was she the belle of the Yukon in The Belle of the Yukon??
by Anonymous | reply 165 | August 13, 2025 1:43 PM |
r164: Her one appearance at MGM was in TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY where she sang "The Last Time I Saw Paris" .
Gypsy Rose Lee was the Belle in the Yukon. Dinah had the ingenue role and sand "Sleighride in July".
by Anonymous | reply 168 | August 13, 2025 1:51 PM |
She also sang "They Didn't Believe Me" in TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY.
by Anonymous | reply 169 | August 13, 2025 2:02 PM |
Robert Altman wanted her for A Wedding but she wouldn't return his calls (or something) and he went with Carol Burnett. One of Dinah's regrets.
by Anonymous | reply 170 | August 13, 2025 4:11 PM |
Dumb Dinah commercials from the 1980s. On my TV constantly at that time.
by Anonymous | reply 171 | August 13, 2025 4:19 PM |
The thing about Dinah that worked for her was that it was always her show, but she tended not to be the one who was the greater performer. Unlike, say, The Judy Garland Show, where they finally went with concert-style shows, because she was the talent and the attraction. Dinah could never have done a whole show revolving around her, concert-style. She was the nice, laid-back hostess who had people on her show like Sinatra and Ella, and she held her own with them, yet she didn't dominate her own show.
by Anonymous | reply 172 | August 13, 2025 6:57 PM |
[quote]She was the nice, laid-back hostess who had...
by Anonymous | reply 173 | August 13, 2025 7:03 PM |
Does anyone know where I can buy a copy of her show Dinah!/Dinah & Friends?
by Anonymous | reply 174 | August 13, 2025 8:26 PM |
The early years of television were filled with ladies like Dinah who could actually hold an engaging and intelligent and spontaneous conversation with other personalities. Conversation was an art. Arlene Francis, Fay Emerson, Betsy Palmer, Kitty Carlisle and the lesser-known Jinx Falkenberg and Maggi (sic) McNellis made careers out of nothing much more than charm and chat.
I don't now if there is a female equivalent to a raconteur, but that's largely what they were. And they knew how to bring out the best in their companions.
by Anonymous | reply 175 | August 13, 2025 8:29 PM |
Wasn't her husband George Montgomery hot?
by Anonymous | reply 176 | August 13, 2025 10:14 PM |
She was pretty much the Joy Behar of her day!
by Anonymous | reply 177 | August 13, 2025 10:18 PM |
Dinah had a variety show in the early days of TV. The chat show came later in the '70s.
by Anonymous | reply 178 | August 13, 2025 11:29 PM |
More George...why did Dinah divorce him? She always seemed to be quite driven. Burt Reynolds said that one of the reasons they broke up was because Dinah was quite the control freak.
by Anonymous | reply 180 | August 13, 2025 11:38 PM |
But even in her variety hour of the 1950s, Dinah knew how to chat up a guest, r178.
by Anonymous | reply 181 | August 14, 2025 12:27 AM |
There's a major street named after her in Palm Desert. It's bit disconcerting to hear "there's been a rear-ender on Dinah Shore" on the traffic report.
by Anonymous | reply 182 | August 14, 2025 12:33 AM |
On what days do they collect the trash on Dinah Shore?
by Anonymous | reply 183 | August 14, 2025 12:36 AM |
Dinah Shore--Bette Davis, All in the Family cast, Jean Stapleton sings, 1978 TV
by Anonymous | reply 184 | August 14, 2025 12:38 AM |
What hasn't been mentioned yet here is her remarkable death which seemed to come out of nowhere. One day healthy, the next day gone, at least as far the public knew. Or had she been quietly ill and suffering and managed to keep it all a secret?
Sort of the same with Florence Henderson.
At least they both avoided ever really growing old and decrepit in the public eye.
by Anonymous | reply 185 | August 14, 2025 12:38 AM |
[quote]What hasn't been mentioned yet here is her remarkable death which seemed to come out of nowhere.
The coroner was unable to determine if it was the shoofly pie or the apple pan dowdy.
by Anonymous | reply 186 | August 14, 2025 12:42 AM |
According to her wiki upthread, besides Sinatra, she also had long affairs with Laugh In's Dick Martin, Eddie Fisher and ROD TAYLOR!!!!
by Anonymous | reply 187 | August 14, 2025 12:47 AM |
OMG ROD TAYLOR.
by Anonymous | reply 188 | August 14, 2025 12:54 AM |
Dinah loved a hairy chest!
by Anonymous | reply 189 | August 14, 2025 12:56 AM |
R189 I guess Sinatra must have been the exception.
by Anonymous | reply 190 | August 14, 2025 12:59 AM |
r185: Loretta Youngs last interview ( in PALM SPRINGS LIFE, December 1995 ) mentions this.
"I remember the pictures of Dinah Shore on the covers of Palm Springs Life. I loved Dinah, I thought she was a darling woman. Big loss. She was warm and kind to everybody. I'll never understand why she felt she had to keep that serious a matter [Ms. Shore succumbed to cancer in 1994] to herself because there were so many people who could have given her comfort. I have a feeling that it was another part of her innate kindness; she didn't want to burden people with her problems."
by Anonymous | reply 191 | August 14, 2025 7:03 PM |
Dinah and Jane Russell perform "The Ladies Who Lunch". She credits Sondheim.
Dinah including him on her afternoon chat show is pretty neat. Dinah is sweet, Jane is terrific.
by Anonymous | reply 192 | August 14, 2025 7:41 PM |
Damn. Jane Russell was excellent. She had just the right level of sarcasm. And she looks like a burnout. Like she's over it. Dinah OTOH, had no energy. No emotion. Just a very melodic voice.
by Anonymous | reply 193 | August 15, 2025 12:08 AM |
She took over on Broadway when Prince sent Elaine out on the tour.
by Anonymous | reply 194 | August 15, 2025 12:32 AM |
I wonder why Jane Russell never played Carlotta in FOLLIES? She would have been perfect.
Did Steve not like her?
by Anonymous | reply 196 | August 15, 2025 12:43 AM |
R184 that's such an odd thing having Bette Davis as a special correspondent to cover All in the Family.
by Anonymous | reply 197 | August 15, 2025 2:12 AM |
I always though Dinah Shore and Doris Day had very similar voices and singing styles.
They both recorded "Sentimental Journey". Doris had a hit with it.
So it's Doris vs. Dinah. Who did it better?
"Sentimental Journey" - Doris Day
by Anonymous | reply 198 | August 15, 2025 2:25 AM |
(Dinah vs. Doris. God bless Datalounge.)
by Anonymous | reply 200 | August 15, 2025 2:29 AM |
Was George Montgomery also gay?
by Anonymous | reply 202 | August 15, 2025 3:45 AM |
R202 I remember reading reports of him being abusive, and being a 'ho. Apparently he was jealous of her, and very overbearing. Maybe he was in the closet.
by Anonymous | reply 203 | August 15, 2025 4:03 AM |
He liked working with wood. He was quite accomplished at it.
by Anonymous | reply 204 | August 15, 2025 4:27 AM |
He beat Dinah? Off with his head!
by Anonymous | reply 205 | August 15, 2025 10:45 AM |
I can’t believe he was abusive. I thought they stayed pals after they split
by Anonymous | reply 206 | August 15, 2025 11:19 AM |
George was the star of a successful TV western that ran for a few years in the 50s. And there's a great What' My Line? clip of Dinah and George appearing together as Mystery Guests somewhere out there........
by Anonymous | reply 207 | August 15, 2025 12:12 PM |
Rosemary Clooney had a similar catch in her voice to Dinah. I'd say Miss Clooney was more comparable than Doris, though a far better stylist than Dinah ever was..
by Anonymous | reply 208 | August 15, 2025 12:14 PM |