Alec Feldman was born in the Ukraine, perhaps Cherkassy, but nothing definitive is known except that he was, as his son, Jacob, put it, "an orphan." Whether he knew his parents, who then died, or never knew them, and grew up on the street or in an orphanage or in some other manner, is not known. He did go to sea, sailing all around the world, including to the continent of Africa. He settled in Paulsboro, New Jersey, and raised a family there, with another UIkrainian immigrant, Katie Mogulefsky, whose named had been changed at Ellis Island to Mogul. They later divorced.

Alec worked for a time selling and installing jukeboxes, a new phenomenon, in diners. It is said that the Mafia took over that particular industry, pushing Alex out.

Alec loved to watch, and bet on, horse races. Since Bowie, Maryland, the town in which his son, Jack, settled for a long while, had a track, Alec sometimes visited... but he wasn't good at temporal matters. As his daughter-in-law, Ada, put it, "He'd say he was coming Monday and show up Friday, and have no idea why you were upset. 'Friday, Monday, what's the difference?'"

When he visited Jack and the family in 1968, he sat down and watched TV with his granddaughter, Gail: "The Monkees." He was baffled by that show. "I don't understand it," he said. He won her admiration forever by not adding, "It's crazy," or "That's bad." He simply stated that he hadn't understood it. In 1968, that's not what most grownups were saying about teenagers' concerns.

Toward the end of his life, Alex lived in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and was employed as the operator of a kiddy-car ride at the Million Dollar Pier. Although his granddaughters were already teens, he was disappointed that they were not interested in a free ride (the cars were designed for the two-to-six set).

Alec wore a pacemaker but in the end his heart disease was too much for him and he collapsed in the bathroom of his Atlantic City rooms.