A popular radio and television performer for over 40 years, Dinah Shore was known for the warmth of her personality and for her sincere, unaffected stage presence.
Television favoured her natural, relaxed style, and like Perry Como (to whom she was quite often compared) Shore was one of the medium’s first popular singing stars.
Even though by her own admission, Dinah Shore did not have a great voice, she put it to good advantage by enunciating lyrics clearly and singing the melody without distracting ornamentation. The result was the very definition of “easy listening”.
By the time Dinah Shore first appeared on television, she was already very well-known as a big band singer and radio performer.
She was also appearing in the best nightclubs, making movies, and selling approximately two million records per year.
The Dinah Shore Show first appeared on television in 1951 as a twice a week programme on NBC. The 15-minute show was broadcast on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 7:30 P.M.
The programme was produced by Alan Handley, who made a special effort to make the musical production numbers interesting. The imaginative backdrops he provided for her songs were inspired by travel posters, New Yorker cartoons, history, literary classics, and Hollywood.
Dinah was accompanied by Ticker Freeman, who occasionally performed piano solos, backup singers the Notables, and then the Skylarks, and the orchestras of Vic Shoen and Harry Zimmerman.
In 1956, Shore began a one-hour programme on NBC, renamed (to incorporate the sponsor’s name) as The Dinah Shore Chevy Show.
The show was extremely popular and its theme song, See the USA in your Chevrolet, and Shore’s famous farewell kiss to the television audience, remain television icons.
The high production values of her 15-minute programme continued on the 60-minute show, and the line-up usually contained two or three guests from the worlds of music, sports and movies.
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show was produced in Burbank, California and went off the air in May 1963.
After that time, Dinah appeared in a number of specials and later did a series of interview shows in the 1970s including Dinah!,Dinah and Friends, Dinah and Her New Best Friends, and Dinah’s Place.
Dinah Shore died of cancer in February 1994. She was 76.
Dinah Shore
The Skylarks
The Notables
The Even Dozen
Tony Charmoli Dancers
Nick Castle Dancers
Harry Zimmerman Orchestra
Frank DeVol & his Orchestra
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