Dinah Shore

Dinah Shore, born as Frances Rose Shore on February 29, 1916, was an eminent American singer, actress, television personality, and the chart-topping female vocalist of the 1940s. She emerged as a recording artist during the Big Band era and achieved further success a decade later in television, chiefly as the host of a series of variety programs for the Chevrolet automobile company. After failing auditions for the bands of Benny Goodman and both Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Shore decided to launch her solo career which paid off with a streak of eighty charted popular hits, ranging from 1940 to 1957. Apart from featuring in a handful of films, she had a four-decade-long career in American television where she hosted her own music and variety shows from 1951 through 1963 and two talk shows in the 1970s. TV Guide ranked her at number 16 on their list of top 50 television stars of all time. Her style was often compared to other subsequent singers from the mid-to-late 1940s and early 1950s, like Jo Stafford and Patti Page.

Born to Russian-Jewish immigrant shopkeepers in Winchester, Tennessee, Shore made an early stir in the music industry by making her radio debut on Nashville's WSM radio station. After moving to New York City to audition for orchestras and radio stations, she was given the name Dinah by a disc jockey who couldn't recall her name, which became her stage name. She was eventually hired as a vocalist at the WNEW radio station where she sang with Frank Sinatra. During the 1990s, Shore was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and she died of its complications at her Beverly Hills home on February 24, 1994, aged 77.