James "Popeye" Maupin was born in Cincinnati in 1917. He always said his father had been a 6'8" Liberian Prince who played in the original Harlem Globetrotters. As a child, Popeye played the drums and danced on the streets of Cincinnati as people walking by would throw coins. However, he would say that his show biz career really began, when there was a notice in the paper one day that if someone would wrestle a bear at the Emory Auditorium he would be paid $100.00. Twelve year old Popeye, already over 200 pounds, took the challenge and won the $100.00 The next year he rode a Brahma bull bareback at Crosley Field for $300.00.
Before WWII, he went to New York, became a Lindy Hopper, and was then hired to dance in the chorus of the Broadway show "Helzapoppin." A conscientious objector during WWII, he served two years in prison. He lost his eye in a construction accident. During the late 40s and into the 1950s, Popeye ran the Cotton Club in the West End for the Newport mob. It was one of the most famous black clubs in the country, holding more than 1,000 dancers per night. Every big band coming through the Midwest, had to go through Popeye, who got a piece of the action. When the government closed down the Cotton Club, Popeye managed the Sportsman Club in Newport. Like the original Cotton Club in New York, the mob wouldn't allow Blacks in the Sportsman Club. However they entrusted Popeye to run it.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Popeye reinvented himself, embraced the hippie lifestyle, and move to Mt. Adams, where he was identified as the Mayor of Mt. Adams and the grandfather for all the hippies passing through Cincinnati. Whenever he was asked how old he was, he would respond, "Two days older than dirt." In the early 1970s, I took Popeye into Rich & Ellie Goldman's 5th Floor Recording Studio, with Wilbert Longmire on guitar, Wayne Yeager on organ, John Young on bass, Grover Mooney on drums and Jimmy McGary on sax. We recorded an outrageous Longmire tune, "Sumpin' T'eat," "Nightlife," and "Cherry Red." Candidly, I can't tell the difference between that cut and this one. . . . Popeye singing "Cherry Red".
In 1972, I brought him to New York to become Popeye Arlens for the Arlens Department Store chain. He toured the country with his band, dressed like the Sultan of Kurdistan, and re-opened all the Arlens' stores across the country. In the 1980s, he moved to Los Angeles, lived in Hollywood and sang in all the clubs. He also became best friends with David Carradine. Around 1991, Popeye had a severe heart attack, and was brought back to life by medics with electric shock. In 1993, as his diabetes grew more severe, doctors told Popeye that he might lose his legs, he moved back to Cincinnati. Sadly, he was hospitalized and had his legs amputated. Soon thereafter, his heart finally gave out.
Popeye was the most lovable, funny, big-hearted Santa Clause of a personality anyone would ever meet. On July 26, 1993, Popeye's funeral was presented at Southern Baptist Church, at Reading Road and Lexington. Reverend James Milton presided.
I loved Popeye and will forever miss him.
Doug Yeager.
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