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The Jewish Mom Behind Frank Sinatra’s First Big Hit

JL;DR SUMMARY Ruth Lowe, a Canadian Jewish woman, is the hidden force behind Frank Sinatra's first big hit with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, "I'll Never Smile Again." 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 CultureJewish MusicHistoryBillboardFrank SinatraRuth LoweI'll Never Smile AgainPut Your Dreams AwayGrammy Hall Of FameTommy Dorsey

Places mentioned

Toronto, Ontario, Canada
"Ruth Lowe was born in Ruth Lowenthal in Toronto, Canada."
Chicago, Illinois, United States
"In her 20s, she met Harold Cohen, a Chicago music publicist, and fell in love."
New York, United States
"At the time, Ruth was collaborating with two music writers in New York, Jewish composers Paul Mann and Stephan Weiss, and they got together for an all nighter, one that produced the song Put Your Dreams Away."

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This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 84936
Cairo Source ID 33
Retrieved 2026-06-16 05:31:02 UTC
Curated 2026-06-16 08:31:03 UTC