Ruth Brown

Ruth Brown

They called Atlantic Records "the house that Ruth built" during the 1950s. Ruth Brown's regal hit-making reign from 1949 to the close of the '50s helped tremendously to establish the New York label's predominance in the R&B field. Later, the business all but forgot her. She was forced to toil as domestic help for a time but she returned to the top. Her status as a postwar R&B pioneer and tireless advocate for the rights and royalties of her peers is recognized worldwide. She was born in 1928 and ran away from home in 1945 to pursue music. She was introduced to the fledgling record company Atlantic. En route to NYC, Brown’s leg was seriously injured in a serious auto accident. This delayed her debut record for nine months. When it was finally cut, it became a hit. Her music then was regularly on the R&B charts. She appeared in the 1955 groundbreaking TV program “Showtime at the Apollo”. Then her popularity waned. After raising her two sons and working a nine-to-five job, Brown began to rebuild her musical career in the mid-'70s. Her comedic sense served her well during a TV sitcom “Hello, Larry” and in John Waters' 1985 sock-hop satire film Hairspray. She won a Tony Award in the 1989 for her Broadway appearance. She recorded for Fantasy Records in the ‘80s and ‘90s and hosted NPR’s "Harlem Hit Parade" and "Blues Stage." Brown's nine-year ordeal to recoup her share of royalties from all those Atlantic platters led to the formation of the nonprofit Rhythm & Blues Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping others in the same frustrating situation. Ruth Brown was still alive and publicly performing when Blues Chapel debuted. Sadly, she passed away on November 17, 2006 after a heart attack and stroke.