Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner and actor Cliff Robertson were among the friends of Mel Torme who paid tribute to the pop and jazz singer at memorial services in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Torme, who died Saturday at 73 of complications from a stroke he suffered in 1996, was born to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents on Chicago’s South Side. In an interview some years ago, the singer recalled that he and his family would sit on the front stoop after Sabbath dinner and sing for the neighbors.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.