Constantine Souss: a Palestinian Pioneer of Arab American Records




 Constantine Elias Souss

(singer, oudist)


Constantine Elias Souss (also Souse, Sooss) was born 16 June 1887 or 1891 in Jerusalem, Palestine. He first traveled via Haifa to the United States in 1903 and sought residency in 1910.  Whether he had any formal music training remains unclear. He lived in  Charleston, West Virginia, Detroit, Michigan, Brooklyn, New York, Fall River, Massachusetts, and later in Los Angeles, California. Nearly every city he lived in was or became home to fairly sizable Greater Syrian populations.

Remarkably, West Virginia had 3,200 residents of Syrian descent and 300 of these resided in Charleston. Documents don't reveal whether Constantine moved directly to Charleston or if he lived somewhere else in the United States before he settled here. Souss appears in the 1913 Charleston Directory living at 204 Truslow. Just that January, his Jerusalem-born wife named Betty gave birth to their son, Louis, in Charleston.

The automobile industry grew exponentially during the early 1910s, attracting southern workers and newly arrived immigrants to Michigan and Ohio. Constantine moved to Detroit in the 1910s and for a time worked in an automobile plant. While living in Detroit he was arrested on charges of public drunkenness, though this seemed to be his only time in trouble with the law. Immigrants and refugees from the Ottoman Empire flocked to New York, Massachusetts, and Michigan. Souss followed their lead and never lived in the southern United States again.


Souss recorded these two Victor sides during his 10 October 1917 recording session. Victor #69770 A and 69770 B. From the collection of Richard Breaux. https://soundcloud.com/user-356929609-75127210/constantine-souss-rahna-nesid-victor-a
Constantine Souss, Victor #73053 AB "Deleel El Hob": https://youtu.be/iVudW5-VbjA


 C. Soos Columbia #E4602 85077 "Ya Maleeh Al Lama" Part 1 & 2:  https://youtu.be/47jvmmCZgm4
 C. Sooss Columbia E4434 "Zainat Ya Zolof 1" 85206 85207 https://youtu.be/C_rH0c2EUo0

The circumstances that led Souss to record with Victor or Columbia remain uncertain. Souss recorded his first songs on 2 June 1917 with the Victor Talking Machine Company. In total, he cut about fourteen different songs for Victor between June 1917 and October 1917 and nine songs for Columbia Records in 1919 and 1920. During the 8 October 1917 Victor recording sessions, Naim Karacand on violin, Abraham Halaby on oud, Shehadi Ashkar on qanun, backed Souss. He also performed two songs for the Maloof Records label 4 April 1923. His career in the 1910s paralleled that of Louis Wardiny, although Wardiny recorded extensively more for Maloof.

In 1919, Constantine Souss, listed under the spelling "Soos" performed with Naim Karacand at an Aleppo Relief Committee fundraiser, 20 January 1919, The Brooklyn Eagle. Courtesy of Newspapers.com

In January 1919, when the Aleppo Relief Committee of Brooklyn's Masonic Temple hosted a dance and music fundraiser, Naim Karacand supplied the music and Constantine Souss sang among a host of other speakers, dramatic presentations, and performances. One of the organizers of this event, Joseph Beilouny, went on to host the Arabian Nights Radio Program from the 1930s to the 1960s. Souss also ran a record store Pacific Street in Brooklyn in 1920.

Arab and Arab American songs meant to be played at haflis and mahrajans often extended the three minute or just over 3 minute time limit a single side of 78 rpm allowed. It was common to have one song labelled as Part I and Part II. For example #W517 an #W515 "Aseedeh." From the collection of Richard M. Breaux. https://soundcloud.com/user-356929609-75127210/constantine-souss-aseedeh-pt-1

Constantine and Betty separated by either divorce or her death at some point in the 1920s and he remarried to Mary Karam on 5 July 1927 in Brooklyn, New York.  Within three years, he and Mary were no longer together either. Although we can't account for Mary's death, in the 1940 U.S. Census, Souss claimed to be a widower. Was this a reference to Betty or Mary? Souss continued to perform off and on in the 1940s and 1950s from his base in Fall River, Massachusetts. Work outside music, however, seemed increasingly difficult to come by.



Souss moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a cafe cook, and officially became a naturalized citizen in 1953. At least three songs in two parts, "Aseedah Parts 1 & 2," "Moowal Bagdadi 1 & 2," and "Tatuah Part 1 & 2" seemed to have been recorded on a personal label pressed by Hollywood Music City Records. He disappears from the public record for eight years, with no trace in the mainstream or Arab American press in Los Angeles such as The Star News and Pictorial or the Lebanese American Journal. According to Social Security documents, Souss died 3 September 1961 in Los Angeles.

Louis Souss, Constantine's only son, served in World War II in the United States Army Air Corps from April 1943 to February 1946. Although Constantine listed Louis as his son on his naturalization documents, Louis did not list Constantine as his next of kin on his World War II draft card. We do not know whether the two were estranged from each other, but Constantine seemed to always know his son's whereabouts. Louis married, worked as a millwright, and had two sons, one of which preceded him in death. Louis died in Wayne, New Jersey in March 1998.



Richard M. Breaux


© Midwest Mahjar
Location: La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA La Crosse, WI, USA

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