Which may explain why just a few of her closest pals—Angie Dickinson and Barbara Sinatra among them—knew that Shore had been suffering from ovarian cancer for nearly a year. When she died at her Beverly Hills home on Feb. 24, at 76, her ex-husband, actor George Montgomery, 77, their daughter Melissa Ann Hime, 46, and their adopted son, John David Montgomery, 40, were at her bedside. Last week former President Gerald Ford joined Rosemary Clooney, Kirk Douglas and other members of Hollywood's old guard at a memorial service for Shore. "She taught me that a voice can have a smile," said Clooney. Ten days earlier, Shore's former lover Burl Reynolds had eulogized her as Hollywood's "greatest and only angel. Dinah was the most wonderful friend I ever had."
Shore's popularity was remarkable. At her dinner parties, where she was renowned as both hostess and chef, one of her guests, humorist Art Buchwald, recalls, "she'd put very interesting people together, like Wayne Rogers, Esther Williams, Irving Lazar, Ben Bradlee." Notes her pal Marianne Tatashore: "Dinah was a Democrat through and through, yet she numbered the Reagans among her friends and was their guest at the White House." She adds, "It made you feel good just to be around her." Barbara Sinatra fondly recalls when she and Shore, in the '50s, would venture onto a Palm Springs golf course under a blazing desert sun. "We used to put on our bikinis," she says, "play a hole, then jump into someone's swimming pool with our golf gloves sticking out of the water."
Shore's spirit was lyrical. "I know I'm gushy," she once said. "I guess it's a carryover from my cheerleader days." One of two daughters of Samuel Aaron Shore, a Nashville department store owner, and his wife, Anna (who died when Frances Rose was a teenager and Bessie, her other daughter, was in her 20s), she had been a cheerleader at Hume-Fogg High School and later at Vanderbilt University. But Frances could also warble. So she headed for New York City and sang "Dinah" in her audition at a local radio station, WNEW. That got her a new name and a job singing for $5 a week with a promising young crooner, Frank Sinatra, then 22, who dubbed Shore "The Dixie Flyer" and began a lifelong friendship with her.
Shore's bluesy style quickly lifted her into the ranks of the popular singers of the day—Helen O'Connell, Margaret Whiting, Jo Stafford. In 1940 she recorded her first hit, "Yes, My Darling Daughter," and her 1942 recording of "Blues in the Night" sold a million copies.
Shore's songs expressed an intensely romantic nature. "She fell in love with George Montgomery when she first saw him in The Cowboy and the Blonde in 1941," recalls her longtime publicist Charles Pomerantz. They married in 1943. and Shore herself embarked on a film career (Up in Arms in 1944).
By her own estimate, though, Shore was "not photogenic" enough for the big screen. But she was just perfect for television, which played to her girl-next-door vitality. "Live TV has that little element of human fallibility," she once said. "If you make a mistake, you can use that old hambone and capitalize on it." General Motors capitalized on Shore, and her Dinah Shore Chevy Show spawned the theme song heard round the land, "See the USA in Your Chevrolet."
Shore's interests widened. She took up golf because Colgate wanted her to sponsor a tournament—and the Dinah Shore Classic became a fixture on the LPGA tour. Her marriage to Montgomery, however, was not so enduring. In 1962 the couple divorced. Another marriage, to contractor Maurice Smith in 1963, lasted less than a year.
Shore never wed again—but she certainly loved once more. In the '70s, she fell hard for Reynolds, 19 years her junior, after he appeared on her show. "They were good for each other," says Pomerantz. "She had a boyfriend, and she lost a lot of weight. And in return," he adds, "Burt got class. He's never found anybody else like Dinah." Nor did Dinah ever find anyone like Burl. "He was the love of her life," says Minnelli. "When he left her for a younger woman, Sally Field [in 1976], she was devastated. But you'd never know it from her demeanor."
Putting heartbreak aside, Shore threw herself into her talk show career. She stayed fit playing tennis and golf. Then, about a year ago, according to Barbara Sinatra, Shore began complaining of stomach pains. "Even after she told us about her illness," says Dickinson, "she felt she would get well."
Tatashore was the last friend to see her alive. "Dinah was conscious to the end," she says, "but she wasn't in any pain. It was a peaceful death." On March 1, some of Shore's inner circle held a private wake for her at their favorite eatery, Jimmy's, in Beverly Hills—on what would have been Dinah's 77th birthday. "We had a birthday cake with one candle," Dickinson recalls, "and we never blew it out. We kept her place open at the table."
MARK GOODMAN
DORIS BACON in Los Angeles
- Contributors:
- Doris Bacon.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
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