Mel B. Kaufman (sometimes Kaufmann on sheet music covers) had one of the more unusual sidelines, or actually primary job, for a musician of his time - that of undergarment salesman. Born in New Jersey to a Canadian father, cigar wholesaler Jacob M. Kaufman, and a Louisiana born mother, Ida Bernd, Mel was the oldest of six siblings, including Ferdman (12/1881), Jesse (12/1884), Arthur (12/1886), Elisa (4/1889) and Oscar (9/1891). He spent the first part of his life growing up in New Jersey before the family moved to Manhattan in the early 1890s.

Even at age 21, still living with the family, Mel was already apprenticing in the retail end of clothing for a local factory. His father was listed as a commercial traveling salesman in the 1900 census. The 1905 New York State census showed him living in Manhattan with his new wife May M. Zenn, also a musician whom he had married on Christmas Day, 1904, and working as a traveling salesman of dry goods. The clothing business must have been somewhat lucrative, as in the 1910 census, even before Mel started having his compositions published, he was shown sharing his Bronx residence with May and their son Max Zenn (9/1/1906), as well as May's brother and sister, the latter a bookkeeper , in addition to a servant. At that time Kaufman was listed as selling kimonos on the road. His 1918 draft card also showed cloth/ing as his primary occupation, although he now lived in Manhattan proper. According to the 1915 New York State and 1920 Federal enumerations he had not dropped out from his primary line of work - selling undergarments - a musician who kept his day job - but now had only with his wife and son to care for, plus May's sister Cecelia, although she was still gainfully employed.

There is a case to be made for Mister Kaufman's body of work. While he composed only one piece that could be termed an authentic rag, Muslin Rag, in a large body of his work he was able to capture the essence of the one-step, elements of ragtime, and even some novelty ideas, and simplify them to the point where the average pianist could catch on very quickly. The clever titles which begat simple covers also added to his marketability, at least in the 1910s, as he did not sell so well after that time. While not as full sounding as instrumentals by some of his peers, particularly in the left hand, Kaufman still allowed access to the joys of playing dance music to a lot of people who were being faced with increasingly difficult ragtime, and now jazz and novelty piano arrangements. He also actually composed into many of the themes represented in the titles and on the covers, such as the popular Me-Ow which yowled out for, and eventually got, lyrics. One of his more popular pieces, Stop It, has been a circus standard for decades.

Kaufman started out self-publishing his works and advertising them in trade papers. Some made it into print under the logo of established publishers, such as Shapiro Music Publishing in New York who put out his first known piece, Big Ben. By 1918 he had been picked up by publisher Sam Fox in Cleveland, Ohio, and late in 1919 signed an exclusive agreement with that firm. It may have been due to that cat piece of his. On the unexpected hit status of Me-Ow, there was some buzz on that as printed in The Music Trade Review of February 22, 1919: "Sam Fox, of the Sam Fox Pub. Co., who has been spending the last two weeks in New York, in a recent talk with The Review stated that the success of "Me-ow," one of the featured instrumental one-steps from his catalog, was an accident. Now everyone in the trade is familiar with accidental hits, but once a number is a success there are few publishers who will admit that the merit of the piece was not clearly foreseen before its publication. Mel Kaufman is the composer of the number and its almost instantaneous popularity is due to a great extent to the novelty of the melody. The orchestras take particularly to it and as a dance number it is much in demand."

Similar praise was accorded to Stop It in the July 31, 1920 edition of The Music Trade Review: "Mel B. Kaufman, the well-known composer and writer of popular songs, whose work has recently been made conspicuous by his 'Me-ow' and 'Taxi,' which were among the biggest of the past season's popular numbers, has just written a new musical novelty. His latest number, which is a song and one-step, is entitled 'Stop It,' which is said to be one of the cleverest things he has ever written. The words of the song are by Harry D. Kerr, who has been responsible for the lyrics of many other numbers in the Fox catalog. It is being published by the Sam Fox Publishing Co., Cleveland, O. Although 'Stop It' is quite new, it has already been hailed as a big favorite by professional musicians, particularly the orchestras, and by not a few singers... It promises to be one of the favorites of the Fall season."

There is one confusing case concerning a piece that was likely Mel's, but only through a sideways attribution. Joseph C. Smith's Orchestra recorded a piece titled Who Did It on 25 June, 1919. In the Victor ledger there is a note that "Kaufman's name is not to appear as composer." Other mentions make it clear this is Mel Kaufman, so this may have been a ghost-written work for Smith's group, accompanied by a payoff in order to give Smith credit, not an uncommon practice around this time. The recorded piece certainly resembles similar works by Kaufman from that time, so is possibly his only unattributed composition.

May Kaufman showed up often in the 1920s as an accompanist or performer in New York City and as far off as Albany. She also was heard on early radio broadcasts starting in 1922. Whether she worked with Mel directly in public remains somewhat of a mystery, however as he often sang in public it is a possibility. May was often introduced as "Mrs. Mel Kaufman, accompanist, wife of the great composer." In 1921 or so, Kaufman's exclusive contract with Fox either ended or was broken, as his works appeared under the labels of various New York publishers.

There is a dearth of compositional ouput from mid-1921 through 1924, which might be explained in part by a letter written by Kaufman and published in the Christian Science Monitor of September 3, 1927. In this article, which was obtained by musician and historian Andrew Greene, Mel indicates that he had been suffering from maladies of the heart and gall bladder, and had also been a long time addict of cigarettes and gambling. These problems had kept him largely bedridden for several months prior to July of 1922. As doctors seemed to be making no headway concerning the gall bladder and chronic tonsillitis, among other ailments, he turned to the Christian Science Church, highly popular with musicians and artists during that time, for faith healing. As relayed by Kaufman in the letter:

As a contributing member of ASCAP, which he joined in in 1924, one could imagine that Kaufman might have given up garment sales for composing and/or arranging, but that fact can't be established for certain. There was a surge of works in 1929 that indicate either he may have tried going into music full time after retirement, or perhaps just submitted a number of pieces that had been sitting around for a while, possibly composed during his earlier medical trials. Few of these saw more than minimal circulation, particularly in relation to his late 1910s hits. The 1930 census showed him to still be an underwear salesman, and his son Max was still living at home, working in advertising. Cecelia was still living with the couple, working as an accountant with an advertising firm, possibly the same one that Max was working with.

Melville Kaufman died relatively young at 53 of causes potentially related to his heart and gall bladder. He was survived by his wife May, son Max, all of his siblings and his father. A rather substantial quantity of his songs, lead sheets, one steps and a few orchestrations were copyrighted by May in 1934, with some in 1935 and 1941. A couple of his works were even published posthumously. Many more probably did not make it that far, so we may never know the full extent of his musical talent. However, a number of his earlier commercial works were routinely used in sound films from 1928 into the 21st century, with Me-Ow winning as the most frequently heard in as many as 45 different features, shorts and cartoons. Buster Keaton's 1929 film Spite Marriage used at least ten Kaufman numbers, unofficially making him the composer of the score. A century and more after his initial pieces started making the rounds, Andrew Greene and his Maryland-based Peacherine Orchestra are regularly featuring them in concert and on a 2015 CD release, Step with Pep, with original and new orchestrations, and Stop It remains in the repertoire of circus bands everywhere.