If you’re lucky enough to visit with Buddy and Gloria Stein, you’ll spend so much time laughing that your insides will feel as if they’ve been whipped up in a blender. Not only are they a delightful couple – married 64 years – but Buddy has been a successful stand-up comic for almost as long and, besides having been an artist, a teacher and a docent for the Scottsdale Center for the Arts. Gloria is his greatest fan. Both are smart, witty and together make up quite a team.
Born and raised in the Bronx, NY, Buddy started doing comedy routines – impressions of actors – at age 15 in local amateur shows. At age 18 he met Gloria, who was then 17. They fell madly in love and soon married. To make a living he worked in his father’s window display company. In time he started his own display business. But that never stopped him from dreaming of being in show business. He loved to make people laugh. So in his spare time he entered amateur contests. He performed on “The Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour” – and won! Over the years Buddy honed his skills and expanded his act, even adding a partner. The duo performed in clubs and hotels in the Borscht Belt, eventually landing a gig on “The Merv Griffin Show.” Finally, they were offered a contract to play the prestigious Copacabana Club, to be followed by a 40- week national tour to open for singer Jerry Vale. This was his big chance! But by then, he and Gloria had children, three boys – two in high school and one in kindergarten. How could he leave home and go on the road for months at a time?
“Gloria is a gem,” Buddy confides. “I’m so lucky to have her. I’ve been in love with her for 64 years.” So Buddy made the choice he’s never regretted. He gave up his dream of becoming a big-time, professional comedian. Ironically, he became a very successful businessman. And because he and his family prospered, he’s been able to continue his stand-up comic activities as a very satisfying hobby.
About 15 years ago a lively bichon frise entered their lives. They named her Molly. She was a 6-week-old puppy when they bought her for their granddaughter Alexis, who lived with them. Molly was a tiny, white blur of hair (not fur) and delightfully excitable. And it didn’t take long for all of them to fall wildly in love with her. Affectionate, cuddly and very intelligent, she wriggled her way into their hearts and became an important member of the family until the day she died, almost a year ago. Now Buddy has written a book about Molly. He calls it Molly and Me: A Love Story. It’s a warm-hearted memoir, revealing how Molly brought so much love, companionship and joy into their lives. Although he wrote it as a catharsis to deal with his own grief at her passing, “I laced it with comedy,” he explains. “I didn’t want it to be a sad book.” Buddy knows that many dog owners will relate to his book.
But that wasn’t enough for Buddy. He wanted to do some good – a mitzvah – to contribute in Molly’s name and memory. “I wanted to donate to some kind of charity that has to do with dogs,” he told me. He felt Molly would have wanted him to do that. After a long search, he discovered the Warrior Canine Connection, which is affiliated with the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C.
Buddy explains that the WCC is an organization that helps veterans suffering from complex traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder. These veterans, in turn, recover their lives as they train service dogs for physically disabled veterans. It offers the emotionally damaged warriors a sense of mission and purpose. They know they’re helping their own buddies and, consequently, they discover they’re helping themselves. And so … Buddy had found his “Mitzvah for Molly.” Now he has arranged to donate all oyalties from Molly and Me to the WCC. He also urges readers to donate directly, if they so choose.
Buddy recognizes that excitable, little Molly could never have been a service dog. In fact, the WCC specifically breeds Labrador and golden retrievers for that role, because they are big and also have calm, gentle natures. Still Buddy feels that Molly would have been happy that, in her name, a mitzvah is being done for our soldiers. To sum it all up, Buddy quotes Roger Caras: “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” Buddy, Molly and the WCC are a case in point.
Joni Browne-Walders is a produced playwright, editor and freelance writer. She can be reached at jonibw@hotmail.com.
