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At 99, Rey Baumel Shares His Good Life Secrets
Latin music, humor and family go a long way for this multitalented entertainer
Rey Baumel performed Latin music with his wife Lynn Stevens, who performed as Lynita, after World War II. He also drew the caricatures for liner notes of an album he produced and recorded at Miami's Criteria Studios. At left, a 2020 portrait of the musician and comedian.
Courtesy of Rey Baumel
Anyone who celebrates 99 birthdays has done a lot of living. But Rey “Mambo” Baumel of Miami may have fit in more than most.
Born Marvin Baumel in July 1925 in Brooklyn, he moved from New York to Miami Beach with his parents and brother in 1938. There, he fell in love with Latin culture, became fluent in Spanish, and had a career as a Latin drummer and band leader.
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Next, he worked as a Playboy Club comedian and an actor. You can catch him in two Frank Sinatra films, 1967's Tony Rome and its sequel, Lady in Cement. He followed with four decades as a comic conference speaker known as The Genuine Authentic Fake, impersonating and spoofing everyone from doctors and lawyers to undertakers.
Rey Baumel sports a Peter Max tie back in 2020.
Courtesy of Rey Baumel
Along the way, he married Lynn Stevens, a USO singer he met shortly after World War II. The two performed together for many years — she used the stage name Lynita. The couple had two children and three grandchildren.
The Rey Mambo Combo at The Latin Room at the Pan American Hotel in Miami circa 1947. That's Rey Baumel in the front. Standing in the rear are Jack Barcena, left, Eddie “Coto” García and Arsenio Rodriguez.
Courtesy of Rey Baumel
All of that history makes Baumel the rare fellow who can share stories about working with Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Josephine Baker. These days, he enjoys streaming music on his iPhone, talking with other Mac users and watching Jimmy Kimmel and other comedians on YouTube. Plus, he’s working on a memoir.
Baumel spoke with AARP about life as a near-centenarian.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
If you had to pick one reason that you're still thriving at 99, what would it be?
That's difficult because I don't think there is one reason. But if I picked one thing, it would be a combination of two things: music and humor. I’ve been fortunate to have been a professional in both.
These days, what are you looking forward to when you wake up each morning?
Going to the bathroom! However, once I'm up … I go directly to my iPhone, my iPad. I put on my Apple watch and check on stuff. And then I meditate. So that’s what gets me up. I’ve also been blessed with a great family. The first thing I do actually is text my daughter that I’m still alive. I text her a little icon that says “up.”
What would you tell your 20-year-old self today?
I think if anything I would say, "keep being good to yourself and others."
Would you say the same thing to your 50-year-old self?
Yeah, pretty much. "Enjoy life, be good to people …" I would say this to my 99-year-old self, too.
What’s your exercise routine?
A: Unfortunately, this summer was so hot that I didn't do it, but I normally walk three days a week, an hour each time, a two-mile walk in the park, and it's just beautiful. I really miss it, and I'll get back to it if the weather gets civilized. I still do chest flies with a two-pound weight in each hand, 80 each time. I haven’t done yoga in a while, but I did, for 10 or more years.
The liner notes from an album Baumel produced and recorded at Miami's Criteria Studios. He drew the caricatures of himself and wife Lynn.
Courtesy of Rey Baumel
Is there one food you can't live without?
I don't know if you’d call it food. The product is called Kozy Shack, and it's chocolate pudding. When I was a kid on Coney Island, I’d come home from school. I’d have spaghetti, which I love, and then my mother would give me chocolate pudding. It’s the exclamation point at the end of dinner.
What's the most interesting thing you’ve learned lately?
I think basically that there is still so much I don’t know.
What’s your social life like these days?
It’s not much because I'm not out walking. When I’m walking there’s a little community out there, not including the squirrels and the birds. I meditate with a guru once a week. And then there’s the Mac users' group. That’s a Zoom call once a month. I’ve been very active in my church community, but now I do it virtually every Sunday. I’ve been a member of the congregation for over 75 years. Oh, and there's a group that I’m a part of that’s been together, I think it’s got to be 15, 16 years. We share the fact of having lost a loved one to cancer … It’s called The Merry Widows. (Baumel’s wife, Lynn, died of cancer in 2008.)
After meeting just after World War II, Baumel and his wife Lynn performed together for many years. RIGHT TOP: Baumel as a member of a Puerto Rican show orchestra called the Khaki Kaballeros in 1945; RIGHT BOTTOM: Lynn performing with Baumel's band in 1953 at Nippersink, a Wisconsin summer resort.
Courtesy of Rey Baumel
You're hosting a dinner party for four guests. They could be anyone living or dead. Who would you choose?
My wife of 59 years, because she was so much a part of me and such a wonderful person. Not only beautiful to look at, but beautiful to talk to. Such a wonderful attitude. My brother (the late violinist and conductor Herbert Baumel). He was my mentor. Another person would be a musician I never met, but was always fascinating, and happened to be a colleague of my brother’s when they went to the Curtis Institute of Music together: Lenny Bernstein. He was an amazing talent. And finally, somebody I really to this day enjoy and was privileged to follow at the Chicago Playboy Club as well: George Carlin. I mean, you look at a George Carlin special and boy, it’s like he gave it today. That quartet sitting at dinner would be sort of chaotic but, hey, chaos is so nice every once in a while.
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