Chasing Little Syria's A.J. Macksoud...
Chasing Little Syria's A.J. Macksoud and his Phonograph Record Company
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| A.J. Macksoud Phonograph Company Trade Mark. |
You’ve seen his most common label
before – a male lion rests on the ground, head up, looking off into the
distance. A magnificently brilliant, rising sun with one eye visible, peeks
from behind this king of beasts. The symbol of the lion and the sun are as old
as ancient Egypt itself, but in this case the adapted iconography represents
the Christian Saint Mark, the evangelist and apostle, believed to have established
the Orthodox Coptic Church at Alexandria. Color variations of the label
include: a black, pink, gold, white combination; a red, white, gold, pink; a
pink, grey, white, and a red and gold.
Some label variations include the same lion and sun (much smaller in
size) set inside a symmetric, mosaic archway supported by four pillars (two) on
each side. Most are printed with the address 77 Washington Street, New York,
but a much rarer variant displays a man on a camel riding toward two pyramids,
with two palm trees in the distance, the sun, and the address 89 Washington Street, New York at the
label’s top. All were produced for A.J. Macksoud Phonograph Record Company in
the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s.
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| The First A.J. Macksoud Phonograph Co. label featured mostly dubs of Baidaphon 78 discs. Notice the 89 Washington St. address. |
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| Variations of the A.J. Macksoud Phonograph Company lion label. All had the 77 Washington Street address. This was the business address from 1923-1929. All from Richard M. Breaux collection. |
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| Archway mosaic supported by four pillars label came in brown & gold, light blue & dark blue, and green & gold variations. Notice the smaller lion with the rising sun trademark and the 77 Washington Street address. From Richard M. Breaux collection. |
We've had much to write about Alexander Maloof and his Maloof Phonograph Records label. Maloof the music teacher, record label founder, song writer, and former resident of New York’s Little Syria community on Rector Street in the 1920s eventually became Macksoud's neighbor in 1930- Maloof was at 92 Washington and Macksoud at 88 Washington. We know much less about Maloof's Washington Street neighbor and fellow record label owner and businessman, A.J. Macksoud.
Abraham Joseph Macksoud (1878-1938)
was born, according to the only government document that identifies his
birthdate with any certainty, 29 August 1878 to Suzanne (Susie) Macksoud and Joseph in Greater Syria.[1] He reportedly immigrated to the United States
around 1898 or 1900 (according to the 1920 and 1930 US Census), became a naturalized
citizen, the same year his father died, in 1904, and through 1925 mostly lived with his mother and his older brother,
Gabriel in Brooklyn. He married a Syrian woman named Fander Macksoud in 1926 (who only shows
up in the 1930 United States Census). In
total, Susie Macksoud had six children. She had one daughter named Jebdey and
five sons or the so-called Macksoud Brothers – Gabriel, Elias, Abraham, Joseph,
and Albert who ran a host of businesses in lower Manhattan including a camera
shop, printing business, and their most lucrative venture – kimono
manufacturing and sales. The brother’s first cousins, and later their children, also helped run the family businesses. Some of the cousins and children had the same first and last names, but different
middle names. In 1906, the Brooklyn Eagle declared Elias and Joseph
Macksoud “kimono kings” and “the wealthiest Syrians in America.” If not the
wealthiest Syrians in America, the Macksoud Brothers were definitely some of
the wealthiest business men in New York’s Washington Street-centered Little
Syria. All of the Macksoud businesses operated under the moniker “Macksoud
Brothers and Company” and in 1917 most, including Abraham J. Macksoud listed
their residence at 162 or 164 Congress Street in Brooklyn.
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| World War I Draft Registration Card for Abraham J. Macksoud, dated 12 September 1918. He's self-employed at his phonograph shop at 52 Broadway and lives ar 162 Congress in Brooklyn with his mother, Susan Macksoud. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
On the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge was another Arab immigrant community similar to that on Washington Street that would, by 1940, overtake Little Syria in lower Manhattan in population. As noted earlier, from 1904-1917, A.J. Macksoud lived at 162 Congress along with the other Macksouds who also listed 162 or 164 Congress in Brooklyn as their residence. From 1920 to 1927, Abraham and his mother moved to 199 Clinton Street in Brooklyn and in 1930 the Census noted he lived at 141 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn. This was his last known address in 1933. It’s likely that Macksoud took the Brooklyn Bridge to and from Manhattan, although the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan became an option by 1915.
A.J. Macksoud’s earliest
documented business address was 80 Greenwich Street in Manhattan. As early as 1907, A.J. Macksoud dealt in Arabic language photograph
records from host of labels which came to include Columbia, Victor, Baida
(later Baidaphon), Odeon, and later Maloof and his own Macksoud. Advertisements
for Macksoud’s phonograph store appeared in several Syrian American business
directories published by Salloum A. Mokarzel, publisher and founder of Al-Hoda
newspaper and Dr. Nagib Abdou’s more comprehensive and Syrian diaspora focused
directory, Dr. Abdou’s Travels in America.
Macksoud seems to have remained at the 80 Greenwich address until 1912 when he possibly
opened two locations - one at 89 Washington Street and another at 52 Broadway. According
to music historian and record re-issue producer Ian Nagoski, A.J. Macksoud paid
for advertising in “every 1915 issue of Najeeb M. Diab’s Meerat-ul-Gharb
(Daily Mirror or Mirror of the West).” These ads listed the 89
Washington Street address. Macksoud’s 1918 World War I Draft registration card
lists him as “self-employed” at a “Phonograph store” living at 162 Congress in
Brooklyn and working at 52 Broadway.
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Advertisement for A.J. Macksoud Phonograph Co. at 80 Greenwich Street, New York in 1907. From Dr. Abdou’s Travels in America and Commercial Directory of the Arabic Speaking People of the World (1907). Courtesy of the Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at North Carolina State University. https://lebanesestudies.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/items/show/13912#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0
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| Abraham Maksoud and Alexander Maloof listed one before the other in the S.A. Mokarzel & H.F. Otash, Syrian Business Directory (1908-1909). Courtesy of the Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at North Carolina State University. https://lebanesestudies.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/items/show/11374#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0 |
Before he recorded singers on his own label, Macksoud created a custom label that consisted of dubs of Arabic music back home. Early recordings of Zaki Mourad on Macksoud exemplify this and sported a label printed with the 89 Washington Street address. Many of the musicians who recorded on the Macksoud label in the 1920s recorded elsewhere, however some were exclusively recorded by Macksoud. Louis Wardiny, Salim Doumani, AssadDakroub, Naim Karacand all appeared on the label as did Andrew Mekanna, and Wadeeh Bagdady.
Macksoud conducted steady
business, but things didn’t always run smoothly for A.J. Macksoud. In 1922, he filed
a protest with the United States Treasury Department’s Customs Service when he
paid duty on “243 phonograph records examined at the appraiser’s store and
found broken.” The tariff rate per the 1913 Revenue Act required “phonographs,
gramophones, graphophones, and similar articles, or parts thereof” be taxed “25
per centum ad valorem.” Customs official cited the same law’s procedures on
abandonment of perishable goods in Section II paragraph “X” to decide against
Macksoud. As written, the law allowed importers ten days after receipt to liquidate
and abandon “shortage or nonimportation caused by decay, destruction, or injury
to fruit or perishable articles imported to the United States whereby their
commercial value is destroyed….” While officials agreed that 78 rpm were
non-perishable, they argued “no effort was made to abandon” the merchandise to
the Government according to the law’s procedural practices. As the importer,
Macksoud had to bear the burden of the loss. Sending fragile 78s by post and
parcel plagued sellers and customers then as it does now.
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| In 1922, Macksoud was forced to a tariff on broken 78s because he did not "abandon [them] to the Government." A.W. Mellon, United States Department of Treasury Decisions Under the Customs and Other Laws, Volume 41 (January-June 1922), 568. |
Even sorting out where Macksoud’s shop or business operated becomes difficult to confirm. Macksoud seems to have been at 80 Greenwich from 1907-1910. Then he spent one or two years at 19 Rector Street. By 1912, he opened a space at 89 Washington Street, but moved to 52 Broadway in 1917. While every variation of his label except one read “77 Washington Street” as does Macksoud’s advertisement in the 1923 Talking Machine World, his often-spotted decorative gold and black dealer’s sticker always had 88 Washington Street embossed on it. This was his business address from 1930 to 1933. A short article in the Talking Machine World combined with a few listings in the New York City directories may shed some light on why occasionally Gabriel, Alex, and Albert Macksoud appear in connection with A.J. Macksoud Phonograph Company and the business had two addresses from 1917 to 1922 .
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| Notice in 1918 the city directory lists Abraham Macksoud in the phonograph business at 52 Broadway, while Gabriel and Alex did the same at 89 Washington Street (a well-known Macksoud address). Gabriel, Alex, and Abraham have the same residential address. New York City Directory, 1918. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
Finally, two articles in the1923 Talking Machine World mentioned Macksoud. One maintains, “Mr. Macksoud making prompt deliveries to the dealers” and the other notes that the Euclid Music Co. “secured wholesale representation for the foreign records imported by Macksoud, of New York.” Taken together, it seems that although Abraham Macksoud served as the primary owner of the record company, his family worked as dealers at different locations. Furthermore, Abraham had to establish relationships with other businesses to sell records to Arab American communities outside of New York’s Little Syria.
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| Ad for A.J. Macksoud Records including on his own label. Notice the 77 Washington Street Address in 1923. |
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| Advertisement and short article from Talking Machine World Magazine, 15 October 1923, p. 168 and 51. Courtesy of https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Talking-Machine/20s/Talking-Machine-1923-10.pdf |
Susie Macksoud died in July 1934. Abraham J.
Macksoud died 18 June 1938 and was buried 20 June 1938. They both lay in the
Saint John Cemetery in Queens.
Two years after Macksoud's death, construction began on the Battery Tunnel in October 1940. Completed in 1950, Washington Street's Little Syria fell victim to this and other urban renewal projects.
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| A.J. Macksoud, 88 Washington Street Dealer sticker, used from 1930 to 1933. |
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| A.J. Macksound moved to 88 Washington Street by 1930. The Syrian American Directory Almanac (1930). Courtesy of the Khalil Gibran Digital Archive. https://www.kahlilgibran.com/digital-archive.html?category[0]=1&category_children=1&own=0&tag[0]=almanac |
[1] We
cannot confirm whether he is the same Abraham Macksoud who entered the US in 1889
and was naturalized in 1898 with a 3 November 1877 birthdate or the Abraham
Macksoud who entered in 1893 and applied for Naturalization in 1899 with a 20 November
1877 birthdate. One has to attribute the overall confusion and difficulty with
tracking these individuals to the fact that neither most immigration officials,
nor most Census takers would have spoken Arabic.
Map of A.J. Macksoud business addresses https://drive.google.com/open?id=1S9XnYRRKiCcJ3-bReZCFpT5v3Ju6S5ok&usp=sharing
Thanks to Robert K. Shirer, PhD, who traded his copy of the first Macksoud label with me.
Richard M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
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