Yousif Hatem - Uncovering Life Fragments of an Elusive and Exclusive Alamphon Records' Singer

Yousif Hatem as seen on an Alamphon Records sleeve.
Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection.

Some of the most elusive Arab American musicians are those who recorded at one time or another for Farid Alam Al-Din’s Alamphon Records. Started in Manhattan’s Little Syria, but mostly associated with either its 208 State Street, 123 Court Street, or 182 Atlantic Avenue addresses in Brooklyn, New York, Alamphon Records tend to be not very sought after by collectors. The label itself turns up frequently and collectors consider them to be relatively common, as 78 rpm labels go. Previously, we’ve explored the stories of some of Alamphon’s most well-known artists including Amer & Sana Kadaj, Elie Baida, Toufic Barham, and George Berbari; however, several other Alamphon musicians remain virtually unknown outside certain record specialists – George Farah, Mahgoub Elsayed, Salem Amran, and Wafa Nageeb. The singer Yousif Hatem falls in the latter category.

Yousif Hatem, Alamphon #2046-1 &2. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection.
https://youtu.be/NDr9v4poWDo

Midwest Mahjar only has a handful discs by Yousif Hatem. We even have duplicates of Alamphon #2046 “Arourah” 1-2 and #2051 “Alin Elmalka.” Our friend and record collector, Frank Dalton, has the most extensive collection of Yousif Hatem 78s on Alamphon, but Frank neither had any biographical information on Hatem, nor had he seen a photo of Hatem. At the close of 2021, we purchased a rare Alamphon Records paper sleeve from a Canadian seller. The sleeve contained photographs of Joe Budway, Naim Karacand, Philip Solomon, and another unknown musician on one side, and the same unknown artsist, Mike Hamway, Naim Karacand, and Yousif Hatem, on the reverse.  The photo sent us back to newspapers and Ancestry.com to see what we could find. Since Alamphon Records pressed shellac from approximately 1940 to 1960. We eliminated any Yousif Hattem who died before World War II and any born after 1940. We were unlucky. Then we considered spelling variations and soundex matches for Yousif and Hatem. Finally, a number of Arab immigrants anglicized their names, so when we tried Yousif as Joseph? We got lucky. 

Full side of Alamphon Records paper sleeve. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection.

Yousif Hatem went by the more anglicized Joseph Hattem in his daily life, but as Yousif Hatem on Alamphon Records. Born to immigrant parents Sam and Margaret Joseph Hattem on 7 May 1922 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Yousif Hattem was the fourth of the couple’s six US-born children. Margaret arrived in the United States in around 1913 and Sam immigrated roughly twenty years prior. Throughout much of the 1920s and into the 1930s, the Hattems lived at a few different addresses on Oak Street including 258A and 313. Sam labored at a Lawrence cotton mill, an industry scores of Syrian-Lebanese immigrants worked in throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Instead of working on the factory floor, however, Sam’s job was to maintain and inspect the company’s trucks. We don’t know the circumstances surrounding Sam’s passing, but he died in December 1932. The family faced an uncertain future, but the older children took on jobs to help their mother pay rent and other expenses. The next few years the children dug in, worked and attended to their education. The family regularly attended Saint Anthony’s Maronite Church in Lawrence, founded in 1903. 

The story of Syrian and Lebanese people in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in the early 1900s, complicates what we know about Arab people in the northeast. Approximately, 15000 Syrians lived in the entire state of Massachusetts by 1907 and some 5000 of these lived in Lawrence. At the time Lawrence had a larger Arab population than Boston, Massachusetts, and reportedly had "the 2nd largest Syrian Colony in the United States." Some Arab immigrants and Arab Americans peddled, owned dry goods or grocery stores, or maintained a degree of autonomy through self-employment, but hundreds more worked in the city's textile mills. Lawrence, too, had its fair share of photographers, real estate brokers and owners, and a few physicians. As noted above, Sam Hattem worked in the cotton mills until his death in 1932. Yousif was ten years old at the time.

The point when Yousif took interest in singing remains unclear, it could have been while attending school or from hearing music around the family home. We don't know if the Hattem's owned a phonograph, but they did not own a radio in 1930. Music was not Yousif's sole interest as he also expressed and demonstrated interest in cooking. One of his first gigs was at the Little Red Schoolhouse Restaurant in Andover, Massachusetts. The outbreak of World War II influenced Yousif to enlist in the US Army where he served as a cook before being honorably discharged. Sadly, Yousif’s mother, Margaret Hattem, died in 1943. Yousif Hattem returned to Andover and cooked at the Thatched Roof in North Andover and the Paradise Restaurant in Lawrence. Over the next few years, Hattem explored his other creative side and recorded for Alamphon Records. His discs seemed to have sold reasonably well and #2051 “Alin Elmalka” was his greatest success. We don't know any of the men or women background singers heard on his cuts, but the voices are similar to those singing chorus on other Alamphon sides.

World War II Draft/Registration Card for Joseph Hatem. Courtesy of Ancestry.com

In addition to his venture into music, Yousif managed to get married and divorced. Finding the time to maintain his work schedule and music career proved unmanageable. Unlike other Alamphon musicians such as Amer and Sana Kadaj, Philip Solomon, Naim Karacand, and Mike Hamway, who balanced music and small businesses, Yousif found the income generated by cooking to be much more steady and consistent. Music simply could not sustain Hattem like owning a restaurant could-he then opened Stretch’s Steakhouse. 

Yousif Hatem, Alamphon "Alin Elmalka." #A2051-1 &2. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection.
https://youtu.be/I29l2VTUs8M
Yousif Hatem, Alamphon. "Alboud," #A2044. https://youtu.be/i6NPKpSciJ8
Yousif Hatem,  Alamphon "Nihna Ettahadna," #A2045. https://youtu.be/4umo_rFis6I
Yousif Hatem, Alamphon "Nesity," #A 2053 1 2 https://youtu.be/156zCHytplI

If Yousif worked the hafla and mahrajan circuit on weekends, while working as a cook during the week, little documentation attests to this fact. We are utterly surprised at the relative absence of certain Alamphon singers like Yousif who seemed to have all but eluded the mainstream and Arab American press. Given his output of over ten singles on Alamphon Records we presumed he would appear in the pages of the Caravan newspaper on occasion. 

By 1953, Yousif gave love and marriage a second chance when he married divorcee-Helen Upton Godin.  Helen grew up in Lynn, Massachusetts, and worked as a waitress. On November 13, 1953, Yousif and Helen wed in Salem, New Hampshire. In 1954, Yousif and Helen resided at 46 Cedar Street in Lawrence. The couple remained in New England less than a year before relocating clear across country to Los Angeles, California. 

Shortly after their arrival in California, Helen and Yousif settled in the Woodland Hills neighborhood and started a family. They had Robin in 1955, Jeffrey in 1956, and Barry in 1957. With three sons born in rapid succession, Yousif and Helen had their hands full. The home was busier than ever, and Yousif soon found good-paying, steady work to cushion the expense of three new arrivals.

Oh Boy Frozen Foods hired Yousif as general manager in 1957. The job matched Yousif's interest in the food industry with the rise of newly conceived idea in the frozen food industry - frozen ready meals. Hattem remained at Oh Boy from the late 1950s until his retirement date. Once an Alamphon star, he virtually disappeared within the Syrian Lebanese communities in southern, California, along with older generations of stars like Constantine Souss. In North Hollywood, California, Helen and Yousif attended Saint Anne Melkite Church. Dating back to 1909 when it was the Syrian Missionary under Rev. Gerasimos Sawaya, Saint Anne Melkite Catholic Church is one of the oldest Arab American churches in the Greater Los Angeles area. 

Yousif and Helen Hattem in 1981. Courtesy of Jennifer Cody.

In January 1997, Yousif fell ill. He was not absolutely sure what was bothering him, but expressed enough concern he thought his pain needed medical attention. Yousif Hattem died February 15, 1997 at Kaiser Hospital in West Hills, California. By this time, the Hattem children were all married with their own families. Also surviving Hattem was Helen, his wife and partner of forty-three years.

What strikes us as most intriguing about Yousif Hattem's obituary, and those of other singers and musicians like him, is that there are no mention of his previous careers as musicians, recording artists, or anything connected to music. This was true for over a dozen of the earliest Arab American musicians from the 1910s, 20s, and 30s and contemporaries of Hattem from the 1940s and 1950s. Even the official obituary for Fadwa Abeid mentioned nothing of her singing career (there are several detailed tributes released by fans), and it was much more internationally known than Hattem's stint in music. Whether their families knew nothing of these earlier musical careers, chose not to mention them, or presumed this information was irrelevant or known to everyone, remains unclear. On a more practical level, maybe the cost of printing a more detailed obituary cost too much; we will never know for sure. What we know is that Yousif Hattem and his fellow Arab American musicians of the 78 RPM era left us these incredible pieces of sonic material culture capable of transporting us through time and back. For this we are forever grateful.

Richard M. Breaux

© Midwest Mahjar