Midwest Mahjar: The Recorded Sounds of the Arabic-Speaking Diaspora in the United States at 78 RPM

Mme. Marie Bashian Bedikian A publicity photo with printed stage name, likely used to sign autographs. Courtesy of Gina A.  (Granddaughter of Marie Bashian Bedikian). Our interest in 78 rpm records of the Syrian/Lebanese diaspora stem from the three estate sales-worth of records we located here in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and the one estate of records from Janesville, Wisconsin. What is fascinating about Janesville and La Crosse compared to, say, Milwaukee or other cities in the United States is that there were few if any co-existing Greek or Armenian communities in La Crosse or Janesville. They were, with one or two exceptions, Arab American communities that existed in much larger German American or Norwegian American communities. Some of the musicians on Arab and Arab American 78s identify as culturally Arab, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druze, but we had not come across any Armenian or Armenian American 78s or artists from among the ov...

Chasing Little Syria's A.J. Macksoud and his Phonograph Record Company A.J. Macksoud Phonograph Company Trade Mark.   You’ve seen his most common label before – a male lion rests on the ground, head up, looking off into the distance. A magnificently brilliant, rising sun with one eye visible, peeks from behind this king of beasts. The symbol of the lion and the sun are as old as ancient Egypt itself, but in this case the adapted iconography represents the Christian Saint Mark, the evangelist and apostle, believed to have established the Orthodox Coptic Church at Alexandria. Color variations of the label include: a black, pink, gold, white combination; a red, white, gold, pink; a pink, grey, white, and a red and gold.  Some label variations include the same lion and sun (much smaller in size) set inside a symmetric, mosaic archway supported by four pillars (two) on each side. Most are printed with the address 77 Washington Street, New York, but a much rarer var...