The Songs by Dinah Shore Radio Program

Background

Dinah Shore's meteoric rise throughout the entertainment industry was one of the 20th Century's great success stories. An instant hit over Radio, Dinah Shore quickly rose to prominence in Television and Film as well. Beginning her singing career shortly after graduating from Vanderbilt University, her first exposure to a Radio audience came over New York station WNEW, in a series of weekly, 15-minute features between 1938 and 1940.

While steadily increasing her popularity with one record hit after another, Dinah Shore got her first major boost from Eddie Cantor and his Time To Smile program between 1940 and 1942 and with frequent appearances on the long-running Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street with Paul LaValle during the same period. She'd also appeared over The Revuers during the same period while getting yet another boost from Xavier Cugat during 1940.

By 1941 Dinah Shore embarked on a long-running series of her own programs over three different networks and for six different major sponsors:

• 1941 Songs By Dinah Shore for Bristol-Myers' Sal Hepatica and Minit-Rub
• 1942 In Person: Dinah Shore for Bristol-Myers' Mum Deodorant
• 1943 The Dinah Shore Program for Birds Eye Frosted Foods
• 1944 Birds Eye Open House Starring Dinah Shore
• 1946 The Ford Show for Ford Motor Corporation
• 1948 Call For Music for Philip Morris
• 1953 The Dinah Shore Show for Chevrolet

Throughout the entire period of headlining her own starring vehicles over both Radio and Television, Dinah Shore continued to make hundreds of guest appearances on other programs as well as performing in hundreds of AFRS and AFRTS programs of the 1940s and 1950s. And indeed her frequent appearances before military audiences both stateside and overseas endeared her to a generation of G.I.s and their families. Dinah Shore continued to be a favorite of G.I.s. for the remainder of Dinah Shore's life.

Radio's contribution to Dinah Shore's popularity began with the very inception of her career. While recent Vanderbilt University Sociology grad coed Frances Rose 'Franny' Shore launched her singing career over local Radio stations throughout the South, it was when she came to New York in 1938 that famous New York disk jockey Martin Block began referring to Miss Shore as that 'Dinah Girl' owing to her popular rendition of the song 'Dinah.' The moniker stuck and Franny Shore adopted the name 'Dinah Shore' throughout Radio and the record industry.

Bristol Myers gives Dinah Shore the nod over NBC-Blue

Having regularly appeared over local New York radio stations for the previous three years, Dinah Shore had become one of Radio's hottest properties--but could she carry a Radio program on her own.

Her poise, quick wit, and growing comfort before a live audience--while holding her own with entertainment legend Eddie Cantor--convinced long time Radio sponsor Bristol Myers to take a chance on the young singing sensation. It would also seem apparent that Eddie Cantor himself had become one of Dinah Shore's most influential promoters.

NBC-Blue premiered Songs by Dinah Shore on November 2nd 1941 supported by Paul LaValle and his Orchestra and popular announcer Harry Von Zell. Virtually ensuring that Dinah would get off on the right foot, Eddie Cantor appeared on the premiere heaping lavish praise on the young songstress and her talent. The Paul LaValle support was a familiar one to Miss Shore owing to their long association on the Chamber Music of Lower Basin Street series over The Blue Network.

An almost instant hit, Songs By Dinah Shore ran for twenty-six weeks in a light, fast-paced 15-minute format. The fifteen minute format of Songs By Dinah Shore offered the young sensation the opportunity to repeatedly feature several of her most popular hit songs of the era, as well as several popular standards. Most of the fifteen minute episodes managed to present from six to eight vocal or instrumental numbers.

Dinah Shore's first headlining showcase over Radio became the first of seven lead vehicles for Dinah Shore over the following fifteen years. Bristol Myers clearly appreciated Dinah Shore's talent as well, almost immediately launching yet another Dinah Shore showcase, In Person: Dinah Shore over The Blue Network for another 52-weeks.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the log of the RadioGOLDINdex and newspaper listings.

What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'otr community'--none. But here's how we did it--for better or worse. Here's how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here are the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled downloads. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you're free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts.

We ask one thing and one thing only--if you employ what we publish, attribute it, before we cite you on it.

We continue to provide honest research into these wonderful Golden Age Radio programs simply because we love to do it. If you feel that we've provided you with useful information or saved you some valuable time regarding this log--and you'd like to help us even further--you can help us keep going. Please consider a small donation here:

We don't pronounce our Golden Age Radio research as 'certified' anything. By the very definition, research is imperfect. We simply tell the truth. As is our continuing practice, we provide our fully provenanced research results--to the extent possible--right here on the page, for any of our peers to review--or refute--as the case may be. If you take issue with any of our findings, you're welcome to cite any better verifiable source(s) and we'll immediately review them and update our findings accordingly. As more verifiable provenances surface, we'll continue to update the following series log, as appropriate.

All rights reserved by their respective sources. Article, log, and independent research results copyright 2011 The Digital Deli Online--all rights reserved. Any failure to attribute the results of this copywritten work will be rigorously pursued.

[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]