Dinah Shore

February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994

Wanna see a lot of lesbo action on the internet? Type Dinah Shore into your search engine. Man. Her golf tournament has to be THE lesbian gathering of all time. I’m not sayin Dinah was a dyke – and I’m not saying her heritage was partly black either. But both were big time rumors. Who cares? Well, we do, I guess. Her 6 year relationship with Burt Reynolds (he was 20 years younger than Dinah) is enough to cast any doubt on her heterosexuality.

I remember when I was a kid, I heard the expression, “That is funnier than Dinah Shore shit.”  I thought that was the funniest thing in the world.  I repeated it incessantly. The first time, my mom and dad laughed.  Of course I had to do it over again and again.  It became seriously unfunny, but it still makes me smile.  Like when people erase eyes out of magazine ads, and make the models cross eyed?  I think that is hysterical, even now.  Another humorous way of getting away with swearing when you are a kid:  pretend you have a friend named Kay and say, “If you see Kay, tell her I said hi!”  I love that.  So juvenile, and yet really really funny.  To me.  Think about it.  Anyway.

I forgot :  Dinah on Pee Wee’s Christmas special.  It was terrific.  Her singing the “12 Days of Christmas” over and over and over again.  It was very funny, and showed that she had a great sense of humor about herself. Still the best hour of television in history.

Dinah grew up in Nashville and went on to become a very successful radio personality, and recording artist. Originally named Frances, she sang the song “Dinah” (blow your horn) on a radio show, and the announcer mistakenly called her Dinah Shore. She didn’t like her real name so she stuck with that one, and went on to become a star. Who can ever forget “Shoo Fly Pie”? Me, I suppose. But when you start talking “See the USA in your Chevrolet”, I’m there. But I know her best from her talk show in the 70s. If we only knew how many of those guests would be dead now, I certainly would have paid more attention. Like those Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts? I hated them when they were on, but now I’m buying the tapes coz they are so historically important. Wouldn’t you just love to see Dinah chatting away with Gloria Swanson one more time? I know I would.

She lived in this house in Beverly Hills, just off Sunset, with her three servants.

The day I took these pictures, I snapped one, but was sort of disappointed that the gate was shut.

Next thing I knew, the gate opened and an RV drove out.

Still, the view of the house is no better, but at least it’s a different view.

In Spring of 1993, she became ill and was taken to St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica complaining of stomach pains.

It was then that she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She stayed out of the public eye pretty much, receiving treatment, but not successfully. On February 24, 1994, Dinah died in her home with her daughter Melissa and son John at her side.

She was 76 years old.

She was cremated that day, and divided into three portions. 25% went to Hillside Memorial Park, 25% went to Shirley Shore, and the remaining 50% went to Murray Niedorf. Way to go Murray. I liked you best, you can have more of me.

View her grave.

Burt Reynolds said after her death, “Hollywood has lost its greatest and only real angel. Dinah is what God meant when he strived to make perfection.”  Puhleaze.

Findadeath.com friend TransAm writes in:  Here’s something I found. Some comments from Burt Reynolds on Dinah Shore. Not of much importance.

Are you sorry you and Dinah never married?
Yes.

There were stories at the time that you asked her, and she said no, she didn’t want to grow old in your arms.

Yes, and when she was really ill, I called her, and said I’d heard. And she said, “I’m great. I’m playing golf, and it’s all fine. Don’t come by.” And she passed away about a week or two later. She was the most amazing woman.

Shortly after her funeral, I went to Hillside Memorial Park, for a sightseeing adventure. There were tons of flowers in front of Dinah’s crypt – which is typical of any funeral. The funny thing  was that the wall wasn’t marked with a name plate yet.  No, it was marked with one of those DYMO punch label thingys. I was laughing so hard, the entire time I was peeling it off her crypt.

Trivia: During her lifetime, she won 10 Emmy’s. That’s more than any person in TV history. She bought 3 stars on the Walk of Fame.

More: Dinah didn’t know squat about golf when they started her tournament. Her big thing was tennis, but the network didn’t want a tennis game, so she took a crash course in golf.

March 2002 even more from Findadeath.com friend Bill Murray (of course it isn’t): Frances Rose Shore aka “Dinah” was actually born and raised in Winchester, TN a bit south of Nashville. There is a ‘Dinah Shore Blvd.’ running through the Winchester town square. Next time I am through there maybe I’ll snap a pic of this for you if you are interested.

A few years ago a friend of mine bought an old building on the square in Winchester and was told that Dinah’s dad used to have a business in the street level of this building and the family lived upstairs. During the renovation process there was an old iron clawfoot bathtub upstairs that my buddy let me carry home as a souvenir. Those things weigh a ton… It took four of us to carry it out of there. I have now installed this tub in my own bathroom. 🙂

If you are interested I think the old Dinah Shore “shitter” is still there !

It would be a holy grail – S.