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
Photo of Sabri Andria, The Caravan 27 August 1953. 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.

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

 Ad for Boston's Arabian Nights with Chas. Shagoury, Caravan 21 February 1957; Photo of Nancy Shagoury who kept The Arabian Nights Radio Program in Boston going from the 1960 to 1990; Ad for Arabic Hour in Toledo, Caravan 17 October 1957. Courtesy of Newspapers.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
Location: La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA La Crosse, WI, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alexander Maloof: Guardian and Protector of Syrian Music in America

Image
Alexander R. Maloof (1884-1956)  This photograph of Alexander Maloof appeared in his 1924 Oriental Piano Music by Alexander Maloof: Syrian Popular Folk Songs From Richard M. Breaux collection. One of the most prolific and versatile composers, producers, orchestra leaders, and business owners in the first five decades of the twentieth century was Alexander R. Maloof. Collectors of 78 rpm records have written quite a bit about Maloof. His 78 rpm records are still highly sought after. Much of what has been published about Maloof’s personal and professional life is filled with contradictions about birthdate, death date, and place of death, but it’s our hope to shed some light on the complex life of this father of Arab American music. Depending on what sources one consults, Alexander Maloof was either born in 23 January 1884 or 1885, the second of six children to Abraham and Hanna Maloof in Zahlé, Greater Syria (now Lebanon). The Maloofs immigrated to the Unite
Read more

Albert Rashid: Rashid Sales Company, Al-Chark /the Orient and the Largest Selection of Arabic Records in the United States

Image
Albert Rashid A young Albert Rashid. Southeastern High School, The Aryan Yearbook, 1930, p.61. Courtesy of Ancestry.com  Depending on whether you’re an old timer who purchased your 78 RPM Arabic music discs via mail order in the 1930s from Detroit or you visited one of the brick and mortar locations of Rashid Sales Company on E. 28 th Street in Manhattan or the 191 Atlantic Avenue site in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, or 155 Court Street store in the 1990s and 2000s, Albert Rashid became known for one of three things – Arabic-language film and soundtrack distribution, his Al-Chark or Orient Record label, or his world famous record and music store Rashid Sales Company. By World War II’s end, in Brooklyn, New York, Rashid’s Al-Chark label and Fred Alam’s Alamphon engaged in a friendly but heated competition that rivaled that of Alexander Maloof’ s Washington Street-based Maloof Records  and Albert J. Macksoud’s records in the 1920s. Based on which sources o
Read more

The Many Facets of Louis Wardiny

Image
Elias Louis Nassour Wardiny (Oud, Singer, Producer, Owner) This lone image of Louis Wardini, 6 September, 1935, Indianapolis Star . Louis Nassour Wardiny  (sometimes Ilyas Wardini) was born 5 March 1894 in Beirut, Greater Syria (today Lebanon) to Nassour and Clemence Wardini . Some documents suggest he immigrated to the United States around 1904 with his family and, for part of his life, lived in Little Syria in Lower Manhattan. Other documents mark his arrival in April 1913, coming to the US from Beirut to La Harve and then New York City. Immigration documents note the change of name from Elias to Louis and give his occupation as both bookkeeper and singer at various points. In 1917, when the Victor Talking Machine Company still expressed interest in Arab recording artists, Wardiny debuted with 12 sides on six records. While Arab immigrant market clambered to hear more from Wardiny, Victor executives soon shifted direction away from its Arabic and Greek immigrant
Read more

The Incomparable Kahraman and Naif Agby - The Sun and The Planets

Image
Kahraman and Naif Agby  Olga "Kahraman" Agby, 17 April 1958, Caravan. Naif Agby, El Debke; author's collection. The 78-RPM era overlapped with the first two waves of Arab immigrants to the United States. The first was roughly 1880 to 1944 and the second spanned approximately from 1944 to 1966. While we can situate a few of the musicians on Arab and Arab American 78 rpm records to the first wave, most first wave musicians enjoyed careers that encompassed both eras. Still others, like Sana and Amer Khadaj , Odette Kaddo , Hanaan , and Naif Agby and Kahraman, who recorded on Alamphon, Orient Records, Sun Records, and Alkawakeb, clearly make up the second wave. It is remarkable, although not surprising, that most of these musicians not only knew each other, but performed together live and on record.   Nayeh Ejbeh or Naif Agby was born in Ehden, Greater Syria (now Lebanon) to Wadah Yamin and Joseph Ejbeh on either 22 June or 27 December 1920. He bega
Read more

Mohamed Said ZainEldeen: Fragments in the Life of an Early Columbia Records' Tenor

Image
Mohamed Said ZainEldeen:  Fragments in the Life of an Early Columbia Records' Tenor Mohamed Said ZainEldeen. Photo Courtesy of Richard Z.  There are several early-period Arab American musicians for whom we have so little information we can hardly compose a narrative that provides anything other than the most basic biographical information. Walim Kamel and Zakia Agob are among them. For others, we have slightly more, but still incomplete information.  The tenor   M. ZainEldeen   stands out as one.   We've long had one M. ZainEldeen 78 RPM record and most recently, after we undertook piecing together scraps of his biographical information, we acquired another. As usual, we scoured over immigration documents, U.S. Census data, city directories, and three-quarters of the way through, we located and corresponded with surviving relatives - here's what we found.  Mohamed ZainEldeen was born 1 November 1892 in Homs, Syria. Originally, his name was Zain E
Read more

Fadwa Abeid: An Arab American Singer Finds a More Lucrative Career in the Arab World

Image
Fadwa Abeid or Fadwa Abed Fadwa Abed in 1954 at Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan. Fordson Yearbook (1954), 144. Courtesy of Ancestry.com  Since we launched Midwest Mahjar, rare has been the opportunity to speak to any of the artists who performed during the 78 RPM era. Most are no longer with us. We've communicated with the children of some musicians. Family members we've managed to track down include the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of 78-era Arab American musicians. "Fadwa Obeid" is on a Wiki-list of living Lebanese women singers, but with no birthdate or link to additional information. An Arabic-language Wikipedia entry offers information about the height of her career in the 1970s and makes vague reference to her retirement, but says nothing of her early life, early career, or life in retirement.  Imagine our surprise when researching Arab American singer Fadwa Abeid, we located contact information for her.     F
Read more

Hanan: “Don’t Miss Her Wherever She Will Be!!!”

Image
Hanan/ Hanaan (Jeanette Hayek Harouni) Hanan/Hanaan,  Caravan 12 January 1956. Courtesy of Newspapers.com   Only a handful of Arab or Arab American singers were known and are remembered by a single name. There was Asmahan, Karawan, Kahraman , and, of course – Hanan or Hanaan !            Hanaan or Hanan was born Jeanette Nehme Hayek on 8 November 1929 in Beirut, Lebanon. She was one of five children born to Jacob Hayek and Wadiha Atik Hayek. Ironically, the same year Jeanette’s birth the first Lebanese film, The Adventures of Mabrouk , was released. Jeanette displayed the talents of an actor and singer early on and received classical Arabic music training. Jeanette first traveled to Brazil in 1947 and again in 1948 to perform in concert with Wadih Saffi. Jeanette's mother accompanied her on the trip.  Compare and contrast two of Hanan's four identity documents for Brazil. One gives her birth year as 1922 and the other, the more
Read more

“PRINCE” Albert Joseph: An Arab American Record Shop Dealer in Western Pennsylvania Aides Palestinian Refugees

Image
  “PRINCE” Albert Joseph: An Arab American Record Shop Dealer in Western Pennsylvania Aided Palestinian Refugees Alamphon Record with Albert Joseph dealer/seller stamp. Courtesy of Frank J. Dalton. Back in November 2020, we received a generous donation of about ninety 78-rpm Arabic records from retired dentist Joe Corey, who grew up in West Virginia. Mr. Corey contacted us because his friend, fellow church member, and labor lawyer, David Khorey, came across some of our Arab American musician profiles featured on the Arab America news website. Over dinner, and pleasant discussion about Arab American history, David asked me, “Do you know how people got their records?”   I replied, “Some people ordered records from a catalogue and had them shipped from New York. Also, dealers likely sold records as vendors at regional SOYO meetings, mahrajan, hafla, and regional Syrian-Lebanese club conventions.” He then recalled a well-known vendor from his youth in western Pennsylvania who dressed in t
Read more

Odette Kaddo: Arab music, it gives me Life!

Image
Odette Kaddo Odette Kaddo, 1956. From 23 May 1957, The Caravan.   One of the major differences between first wave and second wave Arab immigrant musicians to the United States is the enormous amount of press coverage Arab expressive culture received in the Arab American press during and after World War II. This is the case for both Arab-language and English-language newspapers targeted at readers of Arab descent. Careful study of Al-Hoda newspaper in the 1910s and 1920s and The Syrian World in the 1920s and 1930s turned up very little information about Arab or Arab American record labels and musicians during this era.  Similar examination of the Arab American press during and after World War II yielded exponentially more about the haflas, mahrajans, phonograph record labels, and musicians popularly known in Arab American communities across the United States. The growth and technological developments in recorded sound after WWII meant that second-wave Ar
Read more