Sam Distefano

Early years

Distefano was born on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, in December 1926. His parents were both immigrants from Sicily. His mother was a seamstress at Hart Schaffner & Marx and his father was a meat plant worker at Swift & Company. Distefano had one sister. He was elected editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper at Tilden Technical High School and interviewed President Dwight Eisenhower at the Drake Hotel for the paper when he was 16.

As a teen and young adult, Distefano worked jazz clubs on piano in the Chicago area. He studied time and motion engineering at the IT&T Institute and attended college briefly at the University of Illinois at Navy Pier before being drafted into the military in the early 1950s.

Military service

It was during this period that his lifelong close friendship with jazz pianist Bill Evans began. During the Korean War, Distefano and Evans were stationed at Fort Sheridan and were bunkmates in the same platoon. This enabled Distefano to further develop his jazz piano playing.

Distefano was accepted into the 5th Army Band on trumpet and bass, called upon to perform Taps at many Chicago funerals, assigned percussion parts, and was awarded the National Defense Service Marksmanship Medal for having demonstrated perfect firearms skills and proficiency in combat training.

Education

After serving in the U.S. Army from 1952 to 1955, Distefano moved to Miami and invested in a nightclub named the Crab Shanty, which he renamed the "Stut N' Tut". He performed there on piano with jazz trombonist Carl Fontana.

Performing in and operating the Stut N' Tut enabled Distefano to return to college. Majoring in accounting, he graduated from the University of Miami in 1957 with a bachelor of science degree in business administration.

Early musical career

After graduating from college, Distefano returned to Chicago, where he worked days as an industrial engineer for IT&T and nights as a musician, playing piano and upright bass and substituting Joe Parnello and Larry Novak. He performed in nightclubs such as The Cloisters, The Trade Winds, Mister Kelly's, The London House, and The Living Room. It was in one of these clubs that Playboy founders Victor Lownes and Hugh Hefner saw Distefano perform.

Playboy

Lownes and Hefner asked Distefano to perform with his trio at the opening of the original Playboy Club at 116 E. Walton Street in Chicago in February 1960, where he remained as its musical director.

This launched Distefano's 25-year career with Playboy Enterprises. He was also musical director at their club in Miami from 1962 to 1969.

He was the orchestra leader, conductor, and entertainment director at their country club and resort hotel in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin from 1969 to 1978, where he led his own 32-piece orchestra. Eventually he was promoted to vice-president of entertainment for Playboy's international chain of clubs and hotels. He also served along with producer/director Peter Jackson as executive producer of the "Playboy Fantasy" production show and revue at the Playboy Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey from 1981 to 1983. He was retained as a consultant for Playboy through December 1984. During this period, Distefano also owned, operated, and hosted at Doro's Italian Restaurant and Lounge on Rush Street, Chicago. He appeared on local radio interviews and television interview shows such as WFLD's PM Magazine Chicago.

Las Vegas

After retiring from the Playboy organization in late 1984, Distefano became vice-president of entertainment and special events at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. During his ten years there, Distefano booked entertainment events for the resort, such as world-heavyweight-championship boxing bouts, concerts, headliners, and production shows. The award-winning production Jeff Kutash's "Splash", which ran for more than 20 years in the Versailles Theater, was associate-produced by Distefano and was named "Las Vegas' International Show of the Year" by the Las Vegas Review-Journal for over 10 years in a row.

Distefano appeared on AM Southern Nevada on KVVU-TV and served as a judge on the television series Star Search with Ed McMahon. Distefano's career was the subject of an exhibit in the Las Vegas Museum of Entertainment History at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino, and in 1997 he was inducted into the Casino Legends Hall Of Fame.

Personal life

Distefano married Pam, an airline stewardess for Eastern Airlines, in 1967. They divorced in 1978. Distefano never remarried. They had one son, Michael, also a jazz pianist and drummer, with whom he played music. He won three international poker tournaments in 1988 and 1994. Distefano participated in fundraising events in Chicago and Las Vegas for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, Alzheimer's Association, and Injured Police Officers' Fund. A devout Catholic, he attended Mass regularly.

Distefano developed Alzheimer's in 2003. He died in his sleep on April 13, 2015. He had two funeral services, one in Las Vegas on April 17 and one in Chicago on April 20. He was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Chicago with full veteran's honors.