Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 28, 1994 TAG: 9402260061
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BARRY KOLTNOW
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And it's a shame that some other people will remember her only for being that lovable TV hostess with the Tennessee twang who urged us all to see the USA in our Chevrolets.
It's certainly a shame if some folks remember her only as the late-blooming sex symbol who dated Burt Reynolds. Heaven forbid if that's her legacy.
Indeed, Dinah Shore, who died last Thursday of cancer at 76, was all those things. She also was a film actress of moderate talent (even she admitted that she wasn't very good).
She was a well-known singer in her day who garnered nine gold records and became a favorite among soldiers in World War II. Most important, she was a TV pioneer who broke hallowed ground for every woman who followed her into the medium.
But she was more important than a list of her talents and accomplishments. She gave us more than that. She was a shining example of a sadly bygone era. She was a celebrity from the old school. She was a nice person. She was a warm person. She was a caring person. She loved her fans. She seemed grateful. She appeared just a little bit bewildered by all the fuss being made about her. She was a class act.
She was not a Roseanne Arnold, who conducts war, not business, on her own set. Or a Shannen Doherty, who has lost touch with reality. Or even a Madonna, who feels it necessary to re-invent herself every time she fears she's losing her audience.
Sure, it was a different world when Dinah became a celebrity. It was the 1950s, and no one is asking to return to those days. But there was something sweet and innocent about that time, and Dinah Shore was a shining reflection of her time.
A hot singer in the 1940s, during which she sang for three years on Eddie Cantor's network radio show, Shore was given her own TV show in 1951. The twice-weekly, 15-minute show ran for six years and was followed by a seven-season run of her immensely popular variety show.
At the end of the variety show, she would throw her audience a big kiss, and nobody ever called it corny. Calling Dinah corny was, well, it was un-American or something.
She won eight Emmys during her multifaceted career, which never was touched by scandal. Even though she ran her own show, nobody wrote books about her behind her back. Her image was as pristine as her smile.
Even when Reynolds, who was then more famous for posing in Cosmopolitan magazine than he was for being a movie star, starting shooting off his mouth about how sexy Shore was, America didn't seem to mind. Somehow, nothing sleazy could be attached to America's reigning sweetheart. Not even Burt Reynolds.
It wasn't long before people forgot about the Reynolds and Dinah thing and returned to just loving Dinah. That's what America did since the first time it met her. America loved Dinah.
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