The Arabian Nights Radio Programs: The Connection Between the Decrease in 78 RPM Production and Arab American Radio Beginning with the Great Depression
The Arabian Nights Radio Programs:
The Connection Between the Decrease of 78 RPM Production and Arab American Radio's Beginnings During the Great Depression
Photo by Midwest Mahjar |
Prior to the Great Depression, 78
RPM record sales boomed and a handful of Arab American musicians such as
Alexander Maloof, Fedora Kurban, and others appeared on radio for special one-night
programs. In October 1929, the combination of inflated stock values, over
speculation, and the resultant stock market crash sent the U.S. economy and
global markets tumbling to unforeseen depths.
Wealthy people lost millions, eventually 1 in 4 US Citizens could not
find gainful employment. Among the industries hit hardest was the phonograph
record industry. Record companies sold
over one hundred million records in 1925, but within seven years, they sold
only six million and several record companies went belly-up. Companies like
Paramount Records in Grafton, Wisconsin, went bankrupt and laid all its employee
off. Rumor has it that disgruntled
employees threw records and masters into the nearby river in a fit of rage,
anger, disgust, and distrust. Others used 78 rpm shellac for fuel to keep warm
during the brutal winter months. For a time, the Victor Talking Machine
Company halted record production, tried its hand at cheaper, dime
store-competitive labels like Blue Bird Records, and invested its resources in
radio manufacturing and radio programing. Arab American record label owner,
Alexander Maloof, similarly watched as sells of records on his Maloof
Phonograph label plummeted. Singer Fedora “Fadwa” Kurban recorded the last
songs, seven double-side records on the label in March and at least three
double-sided song in June 1932. The June recordings, according to music
researcher and discographer Dick Spottswood, were “marked ‘chapel’ in the
Gennett files, and may have been used for a special funeral parlor series.” No
located documents marked and noted the demise of Macksoud Records, but
Macksoud, too, went out of business as it disappeared from the New York City
directory by 1933.
The decline in demand for all
records did not squelch the insistent plea for Arab American music. While some
Arab Americans made return visits to Beirut, Damascus, Cairo, Jerusalem, and
smaller cities and towns. Record recording, manufacturing, and distribution
took an equally hard hit in Europe and the Middle East as well. Mainstream
record companies jumped into the radio production and programming to fill
audience requests. Radio existed as a much less expensive form of entertainment
than phonographs, phonograph records, or live theater. One should not confuse Orientalist programs featuring Arab kitsch as Arab American radio. Cincinnati's WLW hosted a shot-lived program "Arabian Nights" in 1924. As did Chicago's WGN Radio from 1926 to 1928, this program, however, was not Arab American, but featured "English dances, Chinese melody and songs of Old Spain." In the US, a wealthy
Syrian immigrant to America and business man named S. N. Ayoub floated the idea of a
radio program targeted at the Arab American population. The program would “keep
the Arab population of New York City abreast of news, music, social events, and
general happenings of interest to them.”
Salim N. Ayoub was born 1 January
1878 in Damascus, Syria. By the age of 20, he worked as a steamship and travel
agent. Ayoub became a U.S. Naturalized Citizen 30 October 1905. When Arab
immigrants in Boston established Saint John of Damascus Syrian Orthodox Church,
Ayoub helped organize the first Orthodox Church Society and served as the group’s
President and treasurer. Ayoub first tried his hand at linen sells both
wholesale and retail, then he had a business where he manufactured dresses,
aprons, and bathrobes. As pilot for the broadcast, Ayoub bought six radio spots
for Arab-language programing.
Photo of Salim N. Ayoub, business and the the brain behind the first regularly scheduled hour-long Arab American radio program. Boston Globe 3 May 1952. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
The show’s pilot aired from WCNW
studios, but the program still needed on-air hosts/announcers. Audience
members who tuned in for the pilot series, when asked to select an announcer/
Master of Ceremony for the program, chose community organizer and activist, Joe
Beilouny, and publisher Sabri Andria. Both announcers immigrated to the United
States from Syria. Beilouny from Aleppo in 1909 and Andria from either Damascus
or Aleppo in 1907.
Joseph Beilouny was born 7
September 1892. In Aleppo, Beilouny studied
music and languages (Arabic, English and Turkish). Fearful he’d be drafted into
the Turkish Army, his mother and father (an international antiques and art
dealer) sent him to the United States in 1909. Two of the largest concentrations
of Arab immigrants in the United States were lower Manhattan’s Little Syria around
Washington Street and Syrian community in Brooklyn, along the Atlantic Avenue corridor
in the Boerum Hill and Brooklyn Heights neighborhoods. Joe first resided with
his uncle and aunt at 171 Court Street and worked as a peddler. In the summer
of 1912, he moved with his parents and three younger siblings at 139 Pacific. In
1913, police arrested him for selling lace and other articles without a peddler’s
license. A year later, a judge ordered Beilouny to pay a $250 fine for a third-degree
assault. Initially, Beilouny was jailed and the judge set bail at $1,500. Life took a turn for the better for Beilouny’s
after 1915, when Gabriel Beilouny established Beilouny & Sons Antiques. As Joe turned his life around, he served on the Aleppo Relief Committee and booked Naim Karacand and Constantine Souss for a relief charity concert in January 1919. The
family business thrived for the next 14 years, then the Beilouny’s sold their gallery and Joe
entered at hotel and Broadcast business when he became one of two host for the
Arabian Nights Radio Program.
Photo of Joseph G. Beilouny, The Caravan 10 April 1958. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
The prospective audience selected Sabri
Andria to work alongside Beilouny on the Arabian Nights Radio Program. Sabri Andria was born in Damascus or Aleppo,
Syria to Andria Andria and Sada Helal on 24 December 1883. He reportedly
studied to become a Syrian Orthodox priest, but eventually chose a different
path. Sabri arrived in Boston 12 December 1909, lived at 369 Elm Street, and took
up work as mill operator. He managed a store for a fellow Arab immigrant until
1918. He then sold gramophones after World War I for the Columbia Graphophone
Company and worked as a publisher before the pilot program audience chose him
to accompany Joe Beilouny on the radio.
World War II Draft cards for Sabri Andria and Joseph Beilouny show they're employed by WCNW as an announcer and musical director. Courtesy of Ancestry.com
The pilot proved to be an enormous success
and maintained a basic format that offered political news, social affairs, and
music. Called “Arabian Nights,” after the English translation of the One Thousand and One Nights collection of Arabic folktales, the program aired every Tuesday and included segments
on “local and world news, engagements and marriage notices, and accounts of
social events, generously interwoven with Arabic music, both folk and popular.” Around 1945, the show moved from WCNW in Brooklyn to WWRL in Queens, but remained in the same time slot. They broadcasted the show from WWRL's Studio B. Often Arab American musicians starting their careers or Arab musicians on tour
in the United States appeared on the broadcast. Listeners in most of New
Jersey, Connecticut, Long Island, and, of course, New York’s five boroughs. Successful
appearance here could lead to bookings at mahrajans, haflas, or after World War
II, recording dates on Alamphon, Orient Records, or Arabphon Records which resumed production of 78s after the War (although technically Alamphon contracted with the US Department of State to provide music for the Voices of American Radio Program in North Africa). Other
performers like Leila Mazloom and Najeeba Morad had their own record labels. Most often the program used music recordings, but it employed an ensemble consisting of Naim Karacand on violin, George and Mike Hamway on tambourine and derbakke, and Emile Kassis on oud. In 1955, the regular soloist who accompanied the ensemble was Jeanette "Hanan" Hayek Harouni.
Ad for The Arabian Nights Radio Program in Brooklyn. Note its after Sabri Andria died so only Joe Beilouny is director. Caravan 19 June 1958. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Word has it that by the 1940s,
listeners tuned in from as far away as Detroit, Chicago, and Kansas City, but
the show’s early popularity gave birth to regional programs with similar
formats but more local hosts and entertainers. For example, in Boston Charles
Shagoury founded a radio program of basically the same name, “The Arabian
Nights Program of Boston” in October 1937. By 1961, Shagoury’s daughter, Nancy
Shagoury, produced and directed the show. Detroit, too, in 1949 created the
Middle East Melodies Radio Hour directed and produced by Joseph and Josephine
Faddol. Although born in Lebanon, Josephine’s parents did not teach her Arabic.
She reportedly learned the language in order to co-host the show in Detroit
with her husband on WLBJ. For a short time, another young Lebanese American radio announcer named Kemal "Cassie" Kasem worked across town at WJBK. Toledo’s 1560 WTOD hired Joseph K. Younes to direct
its “Arabic Hour Music and News.”
By the 1940s, 78 RPM recordings took the place of live musicians, especially as radio studios modernized.
By the 1940s, 78 RPM recordings took the place of live musicians, especially as radio studios modernized.
We don't have any indication whether the American Federation of Musicians strike of 1942-1944 had any great impact on Arab American record labels or Arab American musicians and consequently the Arabian Nights Radio Programs in New York or Boston. Most Arab American musicians already played on smaller novelty labels rather than the giant commercial labels. Alamphon was definitely up and running in 1943 and promoting musicians like George Berbari, but it was contracted with State Department. Karawand, an even smaller label, also recorded a few artists with ensembles. Documentary evidence makes it unclear whether George N. Gorayeb's Sunset Film Corporation had started pressing Arabphon Records, but most of these were dubs from Lebanon and Egypt anyway.
Nancy Shagoury, took over the Boston Arabian Nights Radio Program from her father. Roslindale High School Yearbook (1961), 39. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
When WWRL’s New York Arabian Nights
Radio Program celebrated its 20th Anniversary on 21 June 1953, over
1000 people turned out to the Knights of Columbus Hall in Brooklyn to join in
the festivities. Performers that night included Naim Karacand, Amer & Sana
Kadaj, Russell Bunai, Joe Budway, Philip Solomon, Fathalla Abyad, and EddieKochak and his Orchestra. Over the years, too, these performers in addition to
Anton Abdelahad, Karawan, Hanan, and Kahraman appeared on the program. The 25th Anniversary celebration on 11 May 1958 drew 1300 people.
Ad for 25th Anniversary celebration for Brooklyn's The Arabian Nights Radio Program, Caravan 1 May 1958. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
As time progressed, 78 RPM records gave way to 45 RPM and 33 1/3 LP records. Most programs went off the air between 1963 and 1983 as their various hosts died or retired. Sadly, Sabri Andria died in July 1956 and his sudden illness and subsequent death shocked and saddened Brooklyn’s Arab American community and listeners of the original Arabian Nights Radio Program in New York. The program aired on 1600 WWRL through 1963. Joe G. Beilouny passed in October 1964. Josephine Elias Faddol hosted and directed Detroit’s “Middle East Melodies” until 1981 which even had a brief stint on WXON television in the early 1970s.
Coupon to Middle East Melodies TV show, Detroit Free Press 6 December 1973. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Long after 78s had passed from the
scene, cassette tapes peaked and compact discs (CDs) brought us a step closer
to the rise of MP3 files and streaming, Boston’s “Arabian Nights” faced an
uncertain future when its WDLW-AM went off the air and became WRCA-AM in November
1989. Nancy Shagoury still produced the program. Most other programs had been
long gone, but Nancy Shagoury Aaraja moved the show to Boston’s AABA (American
Arabic Benevolent Association) in 1991.
After all these years and different
hosts, including Tom Jabaily, the AABA continues to support the “Arabian Nights
Radio Program.” It airs on Saturday mornings from 10:00AM to 11:00AM on 1550
WNTN - https://aabausa.org/aaba-radio/.
Richard M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
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