Music By Joseph Moshay: A Lebanese American Musician Who Became a Society Orchestra Leader to Hollywood’s Rich, Famous, & Powerful
Music By Joseph Moshay: A Lebanese American Musician Who Became a Society Orchestra Leader to Hollywood’s Rich, Famous, & Powerful
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| Joe Moshay from the 1954 Pacific Syrian American Guide. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. |
At Midwest Mahjar, we are entering our fifth year of blogging about Arab American and Arabic-language musicians and music in the United States. Much of our work covers the first six decades of the 20th century and the 78 RPM era of recording, production, and music consumption. Most of the artists we’ve featured recorded primarily in the 78 RPM era and sang exclusively or primarily in Arabic; we’ve highlighted a few exceptions. Capital Records pop singer Virginia Atter and surf guitarist Johnny Barakat come immediately to mind. Both Atter and Barakat also released music on 45 RPM, not 78 rpm. While conducting research on a rare 78 RPM record by Hana Wakeen and Dave Bonnesar, we encountered the story of an Arab American Hollywood society orchestra conductor, violinist, and banjo player named Joe Moshay. As it turns out, one of Joe Moshay’s sons married Dave Bonnesar’s daughter and both obliged my curiosity and shared stories of both their fathers and other musicians of Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian, Iranian, and Armenian descent with me back in July 2022. This month we will take a look at the life, career, and music of orchestra leader to the stars – Joe Moshay.
The son of Syrian immigrants who came to the United States in 1902 and settled first in Norfolk, Virginia, Joseph S. Moshy was born 1 December 1908 to Solomon and Zahia Harfush Moshy. Zahia birthed her children George and Mary in Jezzine, Greater Syria (now Lebanon), and her other children Julia, John, and Joseph in New York or Virginia. Solomon owned and clerked at a small dry goods store which shows up in Nageeb Abdou’s 1908 Syrian World Directory as “S.M. Mosher” owning a dry goods shop at 306 Church Street in Norfolk. Approximately 2000 Arabic-speaking people lived in the Old Dominion with significant populations in Roanoke, Richmond, and Norfolk. Immigrants to Virginia from Greater Syria began arriving in the 1890s. A sizable number of Syrians in Virginia self-identified as Maronite and discussion about a parish and church began around 1902 in Richmond and 1913 in Roanoke. The opening of Saint Anthony Maronite Church in Richmond and Saint Elias Maronite Church in Roanoke both occurred in approximately 1916. Norfolk, however, did not have an Arabic-language church.
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Zahia Moshy, Joe Moshay's mother, on her Declaration of Intent listed all her children. Their various residences reflected the family's movement from Lebanon to Virginia
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In April 1919, Solomon and Zahia Moshy packed up their home with children in tow (except Mary who wed a man named Walter A. Coggins in 1915) and moved some 3700 kilometers to Mexico City. Mexico City emerged as a prime destination for Arabic-speaking people leaving Greater Syria and Egypt in the first decades of the 20th century, even Mayer Murad spent time in Mexico City before immigrating to Brooklyn and recording for Maloof Phonograph Records and Columbia. Much of United States and Europe were in the process of recovering from the World War I, in the thick of the Influenza Epidemic, or both; Mexico stood in the latter years of its revolution, and over the next ten years, Canada, the United States, and Mexico all passed restrictive legislation concerning immigrants. The Moshys, interestingly, arrived in Mexico City within a week after Mexico president’s Venustiano Carranza’s military Colonel Jesus Guajardo assassinated Emiliano Zapata. Nevertheless, word had it that a number of Maronite merchants from Jezzine including Julian Slim Haddad, who owned and operated El Estrella de Oriente dry goods store, began to do quite well for themselves. Solomon resumed life as a merchant and the children attended school and worked for the family business. Joe Moshy attended the Conservatory of Music in Mexico City and studied violin, playing on the instrument Solomon purchased for a single peso.
Joe’s interest in violin developed into a life-long passion for music, orchestra, the violin, and even the banjo, even as he left the conservatory and relocated to Los Angeles with his parents.
Business propositions for Solomon did not pan out in Mexico City, and at the suggestion of friends he knew in Norfolk, moved to Los Angeles. When the Moshy family returned to the United States in March 1923, Solomon told immigration officials he wished to remain in the US permanently, but had no intention of becoming a citizen. Besides at least three of the Moshy children were natural-born US citizens under provisions of the 14th Amendment. One of Solomon and Zahia’s daughters, Najla or Julia Moshy, married one of Julian Slim Haddad’s relatives, and lived most of her life adult life in Mexico. The Moshy family embodied what historian Sarah M.A. Gualtieri calls "Arab Latinidad." In her Arab Routes: Pathways to Syrian California, she writes "thousands of Syrians in Southern California who formed part of a Latin American migration stream, whose identities point to the multiethnic makeup of the nation ...and also carried with them the cultures of the Middle East." This was certainly the case with the Moshys. By age 15, Joe Moshy took private violin lessons with the Russian-born violin player and future radio star Calmon Luboviski. To pay for his lessons, young Joe secured a paper route for the same outfit his older brother George worked for and networked to establish connections to pursue more regularly. In 1928, he caught his first break and along with a six-piece orchestra played at Morey’s Old Time and Modern Dance Hall. He was only twenty years old, a full-time truck driver for the Los Angeles Herald-Express newspaper, and on the verge of career in music more fruitful than he could imagine when for its New Year’s Eve event Joe assumed the position of leadership of Morey’s house band. He fronted the ensemble at Morey’s in the first years of the Great Depression through 1936.
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| The 1930 US Census shows Joe Moshy as musician and orchestra leader. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
Maronites who settled in Los Angeles in the 1890s grew a substantial enough community that in 1923 they established Our Lady of Mount Lebanon Church. In 1925, Father Paul Meouchi from Jezzine [and Solomon Moshy’s second cousin] became parish priest. He had served in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and in Indiana before his arrival in Los Angeles. He was priest at Our Lady of Mount Lebanon until called to be the Archbishop of Tyre in 1934.
With steady gigs at Morey's, Joe made another decision that would impact his entire life – he married Josephine Zlaket on 7 December 1933. Josephine Zlaket’s personal story is such that it’s virtually impossible to know much about her life before marriage. Josephine Zlaket was born 3 October 1916 in Colfax County, New Mexico to Syrian parents named George Najib Zlaket and Mable Zlaket. Mable died in 1918 and by 1920, Josephine and her sister Wedad [Helen] lived at the Queen of Heaven Orphanage in Denver, Colorado. It seems their father had difficulty caring for them, although he eventually became a successful department store owner in California's San Fernando Valley later in life. The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart operated the Orphanage from 1904 to 1921 at one location and then a new Orphanage from 1921 until 1967 at a second location. Some 160-317 girls took up residence there waiting for adoption, until reclaimed by family, or until they aged out of the system. Josephine Zlaket made her away to Los Angeles and in 1933 she wed Joe Moshy at Our Lady of Mount Lebanon Maronite Church. Sadly, two years later Solomon Moshy’s funeral took place at the same church.
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| Josephine Zlaket and her sister were residents at the Queen of Heaven Orphanage in 1920. Courtesy of the Denver Public Library Digital collection. |
In the late 1930s, Moshy’s Orchestra played regularly at the Cinnabar Restaurant at the Hollywood Plaza Hotel. Located at 1637 North Vine Street, it was the social center of the Hollywood film and music industry. This period saw Joe play the Beverly Hills Club, Mark Twain Restaurant on Wilshire and Camden, and by the late 1940s at the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove, and Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The dawning of the 1930s witnessed Joe and Josephine Moshys emergence as a young family. Paul arrived in 1935, Walter in 1936, and Raymond in 1939. Although Joe Moshy did not teach his children Arabic, he was multilingual also speaking Spanish and English.
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| World War II draft card. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
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| Ad for Joe Moshay performance at the Ambassador Hotel. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
No one could have predicted the star-studded group of singers, performers, and actors who would appear at the Macombo Club when it opened in 1941. Depending on the might, audiences might catch a performance by Nat King Cole, Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como, Sammy Davis Jr., Billy Eckstine, Peggy Lee, Eartha Kitt, Hazel Scott, Danny Thomas, Edith Piaf, or Joe Moshy. Of course, the Macombo became most notable in 1955 when Marilyn Monroe pulled some strings so that Ella Fitzgerald could perform. World War II slowed down the growth of Macombo’s reputation as a celebrity hangout. Other places Joe Moshy appeared with or without his orchestra included Elmer’s Fireplace on Sunset Boulevard in March, 1946, and Fashions on Parade in the French Room at the Ambassador Hotel and the Palm Springs Tennis Club in 1948. Charity events for the Altadena Boys’ and Girls’ Aid Society in May, 1949.
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| Ad for Elmer's featuring Joe Moshay. Los Angeles Times, March 30, 1946. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
As the story goes, while performing as a regular at the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove, the Grove’s creator, John Brown, suggested Moshy add an “a” to his surname making it “Moshay.” The suggestion stuck and from that point on Moshay became the preferred spelling used by Joe, his children, and his businesses.
If an already soaring career as a violinist, orchestra leader, and banjo player wasn’t enough, Joe Moshay transformed guitar and banjo playing in the late 1950s and early 1960s with the invention and patent of the nylon guitar pick. According to Paul Moshay, it all started in 1957 when he brought a three-inch nylon bar to his father from Paul’s job producing plastic parts as bearings for various instruments and machinery. While discussing nylon’s durability and other properties, Joe asked Paul about nylon’s suitability for a banjo picks. Existing banjo picks wore quickly and Joe hoped to find something with greater durability and more longevity. Paul made the first couple nylon picks for his dad, cutting, sanding, shaping, and then he and his dad experimented to nylon sheets of varying thicknesses. In addition to nylon, Joe developed the so-called “Skin Grip”pick. He test-marketed his design about guitar and banjo players who were also Musicians Union #47 members and after patents, the rest is history.
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| Moshay pick design for patent and Moshay Guitar picks. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. |
Joe Moshay mostly played standards written and composed by other musicians like Paul Whiteman, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and others. He composed a few of his own tunes including "Josie" dedicated to and written for his wife Josephine. He released Joe Moshay and his Debutant Ball Orchestra: Continuous Music for Sophisticated Dancing and Music by Moshay: The Bachelor's Ball on LP. The latter of these was pressed on Joe Moshay's own Preview Records label.
The Los Angeles Times became one of several institutions to celebrate Joe Moshay’s over thirty years in the music industry, proving music for film, and the socio-cultural experience he and his wife provided for friends, associates, collaborators and colleagues including “the bestest Lebanese cuisine this side of Beirut.” To be sure, in July 1962, the Los Angeles Times proclaimed Joe Moshay and Barney Sorkin the most sought-after orchestra maestros in Southern California. Clients hired Moshay because he kept business relationships totally professional. He did not casually mingle with clients or those invited to his working gigs. “Music is my business. Not my social life. I never mix the two,” Moshay once remarked. He became so well known that when Hatton Restaurant completed its new Mar Haba Room in 1962, the restaurant mentioned “Danny Thomas, Joe Moshay, and Dr. George Fakehany” to lend authenticity to the quality of their Mediterranean food. Weeks later the Balboa Bay Club booked Joe Moshay and his orchestra to perform at its annual Christmas Tree Ball.
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| Joe Moshay, Josephine Moshay, Rosemarie Thomas, & Danny Thomas. Belleville News 17 April 1957. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
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| Although Joe Moshay did not play traditional Arabic music at the Mahrajan, his company "Music by Moshey" supplied the "American Dancing" music for this 1964 event. |
One of the several fundraisers Moshay regularly supported and performed for included the Maronite Guild of Our Lady of Mount Lebanon Church. Although he never played the oud, his company did not manufacture risha picks, and his children did not formally learn Arabic, Moshay's connection to the Maronite church and its mahrajan served to "renew his Syrianess" and as Sarah Gualtieri reminds us, "served as a framework for organizing Arabic-, Spanish-, and English-speaking Syrian into a Pacific place." Music by Moshay supplied the American dancing music for several of southern California's mahrajan in 1953, 1959, and 1964. One occasion musicians like Amer Kadaj, Joe Budway, and Sami al Shawwa headlined these events. Moreover, as Maronite Patriarch, former Our Lady of Mount Lebanon priest Rev. Paul Meouchi returned to the United States and met with President John F. Kennedy on 29 August 1962, visited San Antonio, Texas, and stopped to visit his third cousin Joe Moshay and his family in Los Angeles on 19 September 1962 [Seven years prior, Father Meouchi had been raised to the position of Patriarch of Antioch and in 1967 Meouchi was created a cardinal by Pope Paul VI].Of course, two crowning events in Joe Moshay’s career in the second half of the 1960s included directing music for the permanent docking celebration of the HMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California in 1967 and performing at the Governor’s Ball in April 1967 for Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
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| Maronite Patriarch Rev. Paul Boutros Moeouchi visited President John F. Kennedy in 1962. Robert Knudsen. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. |
Watch 8mm home movie of Rev. Paul Boutros Moeouchi's visit with Joe & Josephine Moshay in 1962.
Despite his age and longevity in the music scene and changes to popular music, Moshay played at numerous and varied sets of social events. Joe Moshay played the four-day Chinese New Year celebration at the then famous Madame Sylvia Wu’s Garden in Santa Monica in 1970. There was the San Marino Area Chapter of the National Charity Leagues Debutante Tea in 10 June 1972 where organizers hired Moshay to play the tea’s background music. Two months later, Moshay and his Orchestra opened the new Grand Ballroom at Disneyland’s Hotel for the Orange County Philharmonic Society’s officers and director’s dinner. Both Joe and his son Ray Moshay secured gigs as alternating bands for the Daniel Freeman Hospital Auxiliary party in December 1973. The occasion also marked Joe Moshay’s sixty-fifth birthday. Toward the decade’s end, the Palm Spring Pathfinder’s Ball, to benefit the city’s Boys Club and a Pathfinder Boy’s Camp, brought Joe’s Orchestra just over two hours east to aide in raising funds. Similarly, Joe Moshay’s Orchestra returned to the desert-resort town to entertain at the local WAIF chapter’s ball to support children orphaned by war find adoptive parents. Finally, Joe headlined the star-studded events hosted by old friends Danny and Rosemarie Thomas for Saint Jude’s Hospital. Guests included Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor, Sammie Davis, Jr., Carol Burnett, Tony Martin, Art & Lois Linkletter, and all the way from Dallas, fellow Lebanese American Joseph M. Haggar, Sr. of the Haggar Clothing Company. Haggar hailed from Jezzine, Lebanon, just like Joe Moshay’s parents.
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| Released in 1959, one of Joe Moshay's two LPs Continuous Music for Sophisticated Dancing The popular songs he recorded subtly reflect his interests in US and Latin American-influenced music. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. https://youtu.be/qk8fyFJvnDg |
One of the events to capture and draw the attention of much of Arabic-speaking California's attention was the 1971 visit by Fayrouz. One of Lebanon's greatest singer pack the L.A. Shrine auditorium with 5,700 adoring fans. A who's who of Arabic-speaking Southern California supported this stop on her nine US-city tour. Joe and Josephine Moshay volunteered to be among those looking to make this stop by Fayrouz as hospitable as possible. Additional stops included San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Detroit, New York, and Boston. Fayrouz returned to Los Angeles and the Shrine Civic Auditorium again for a 30-October-1981 concert.
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| Fayrouz performed in Los Angeles in 1971 and 1981. Although not financial donors, newspapers noted the role of the Moshays and other who offered support for the concert stops. Los Angeles Times, 25 October 1981. Courtesy of Newpapers.com |
Joe Moshay slowed down in the 1980s and eventually turned Moshay Guitar Picks and Music By Moshay over to his son Ray. Ray became a drummer in his father's group beginning in 1960, and eventually fronted his own orchestra, then started his own group - Preferred Stock. In fact, the Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church mahrajan in 1967 feature Odette Kaddo, Toufic Bahram, and Husny Zaim at Maple Leaf Park in La Puente. Over the years, Joe also worked as a studio musician for Columbia, MGM, Paramount Pictures. Ray Moshay recalled visiting the set of 20th Century Fox's 1951 film With a Song in My Heart.
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| Ray Moshay started with his father's orchestra as a drummer and went on to led his own orchestra. He now owns Moshay Pick Co. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. |
Joe Moshay retired around 1994 give or take a few years. Guys Joe once played with in the Moshay Orchestra like John Silva the trumpet player passed on in 1995. One of Joe Moshay's closest friends and long-time collaborator and accordion player was the late Frank T. Messina (1918-2012). Frank also led Frank Messina and the Mavericks at one time. In March of 2004, Joe Moshay passed away at 95 years old. He forever changed the face of music and complicate our ideas what constitutes Arab American music, who plays it, and under which circumstance whoever plays it.
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| 1954 Ad for Music by Moshay from the 1954 Pacific Syrian American Guide. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. |
Special thanks to Paul Moshay, Donna Moshay, and Ray Moshay
Richard M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
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