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How a Jewish mother from Flatbush became America's most recognizable Italian on TV

JL;DR SUMMARY Fran Lopate, a Jewish mother from Flatbush, became famous in the 1970s for her portrayal as an Italian mamma in Levy's Rye Bread's iconic advertising campaign. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish HeritageNew YorkStereotypesAdvertisingCultural DiversityAmerican HistoryFran LopateLevy's Rye BreadHoward ZieffItalian Portrayal

Places mentioned

Flatbush, New York, United States
"Fran Lopate, a 53-year-old former Garment District worker and Jewish mother of four from Flatbush, Brooklyn, was an unlikely model."
Brooklyn, New York, United States
"Fran Lopate, a 53-year-old former Garment District worker and Jewish mother of four from Flatbush, Brooklyn, was an unlikely model."
Carroll Gardens, New York, United States
"sitting with his brother, the noted writer Phillip Lopate, in the living room of Phillips brownstone in Carroll Gardens."
New York, United States
"Decades later, her son, the longtime radio host Leonard Lopate, who died Tuesday at age 84, remembered what it was like to see posters of his mother across New York."
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
"Their mother Fran Beslow was born into a middle-class Jewish immigrant family in Boston in 1918."
Williamsburg, New York, United States
"We were very poor, Leonard said of their childhood in Williamsburg, not far from where Henry S. Levy opened his bakery in 1888."
Manhattan, New York, United States
"Then in the late 1950s, she got a job as a bookkeeper at M. Lowenstein and Sons, a Manhattan fabric company, which produced an employee musical revue."
New York City, New York, United States
"Anthony and Joseph Colombo (at left) march with others during the Italian Unity Day Parade, New York City, 1970."
The Bronx, New York, United States
"For the Forward, I tracked down his identity: Joseph S. Attean, a Native American living in the Bronx."
Queens, New York, United States
"But it is besides the point. The previous year, he had founded the nations first Italian-American studies department at Queens College."
Binghamton, New York, United States
"This month, the Binghamton AA baseball team called themselves the Spicy Meatballs in honor of the local Italian-American community"

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Retrieved 2025-08-08 05:30:45 UTC
Curated 2025-08-08 08:30:40 UTC