Greater Syrian Diaspora at 78RPM: A.J. Macksoud

posted on: Mar 24, 2021

By: Richard Breaux/Arab America Contributing Writer 

What do you do when you find several dozen 78 rpm records all in Arabic and you can neither read, nor speak the language? You research the musicians and record labels and write about them.…at least that’s what Arab America contributing writer, Richard Breaux did. The result is bound to teach you something about Arab American history and heritage in the first half of the 20th Century. Arab America highlights some of the well-known and lesser-known Arab American musicians profiled in this series. This week’s article features Arab American music legend, A.J. Macksoud. 

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, pink, grey, white, and a red and gold. Some label variations include the same lion and sun (much smaller in size) set inside asymmetric, 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 variant displays a man on a camel riding toward two pyramids, with two palm trees in the distance, the sun, and the address 89 Washington Street, New York at the label’s top. All were produced for A.J. Macksoud Phonograph Record Company in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s.

We’ve had much to write about Alexander Maloof and his Maloof Phonograph Records label. Maloof the music teacher, record label founder, songwriter, and former resident of New York’s Little Syria community on Rector Street in the 1920s eventually became Macksoud’s neighbor in 1930- Maloof was at 92 Washington and Macksoud at 88 Washington. We know much less about Maloof’s Washington Street neighbor and fellow record label owner and businessman, A.J. Macksoud.

Abraham Joseph Macksoud (1878-1938) was born, according to the only government document that identifies his birthdate with any certainty, on 29 August 1878 to Suzanne (Susie) Macksoud and Joseph in Greater Syria. He reportedly immigrated to the United States around 1898 or 1900 (according to the 1920 and 1930 US Census), became a naturalized citizen, the same year his father died, in 1904, and through 1925 mostly lived with his mother and his older brother, Gabriel in Brooklyn. He married a Syrian woman named Fander Macksoud in 1926 (who only shows up in the 1930 United States Census). In total, Susie Macksoud had six children. She had one daughter named Jebdey and five sons or the so-called Macksoud Brothers – Gabriel, Elias, Abraham, Joseph, and Albert who ran a host of businesses in lower Manhattan including a camera shop, printing business, and their most lucrative venture – kimono manufacturing and sales. The brother’s first cousins, and later their children, also helped run the family businesses. Some of the cousins and children had the same first and last names, but different middle names. In 1906, the Brooklyn Eagle declared Elias and Joseph Macksoud “kimono kings” and “the wealthiest Syrians in America.” If not the wealthiest Syrians in America, the Macksoud Brothers were definitely some of the wealthiest businessmen in New York’s Washington Street-centered Little Syria. All of the Macksoud businesses operated under the moniker “Macksoud Brothers and Company” and in 1917 most, including Abraham J. Macksoud listed their residence at 162 or 164 Congress Street in Brooklyn.

On the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge was another Arab immigrant community similar to that on Washington Street that would, by 1940, overtake Little Syria in lower Manhattan in population. As noted earlier, from 1904-1917, A.J. Macksoud lived at 162 Congress along with the other Macksouds who also listed 162 or 164 Congress in Brooklyn as their residence.  From 1920 to 1927, Abraham and his mother moved to 199 Clinton Street in Brooklyn and in 1930 the Census noted he lived at 141 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn. This was his last known address in 1933. It’s likely that Macksoud took the Brooklyn Bridge to and from Manhattan, although the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan became an option by 1915.

A.J. Macksoud’s earliest documented business address was 80 Greenwich Street in Manhattan. As early as 1907, A.J. Macksoud dealt in Arabic language photograph records from a host of labels which came to include Columbia, Victor, Baida (later Baidaphon), Odeon, and later Maloof and his own Macksoud. Advertisements for Macksoud’s phonograph store appeared in several Syrian American business directories published by Salloum A. Mokarzel, publisher and founder of Al-Hoda newspaper and Dr. Nagib Abdou’s more comprehensive and Syrian diaspora focused directory, Dr. Abdou’s Travels in America. Macksoud seems to have remained at the 80 Greenwich address until 1912 when he possibly opened two locations – one at 89 Washington Street and another at 52 Broadway. According to music historian and record re-issue producer Ian Nagoski, A.J. Macksoud paid for advertising in “every 1915 issue of Najeeb M. Diab’s Meerat-ul-Gharb (Daily Mirror or Mirror of the West).” These ads listed the 89 Washington Street address. Macksoud’s 1918 World War I Draft registration card lists him as “self-employed” at a “Phonograph store” living at 162 Congress in Brooklyn and working at 52 Broadway.

Before he recorded singers on his own label, Macksoud created a custom label that consisted of dubs of Arabic music back home. Early recordings of Zaki Mourad on Macksoud exemplify this and sported a label printed with the 89 Washington Street address. Many of the musicians who recorded on the Macksoud label in the 1920s recorded elsewhere, however, some were exclusively recorded by Macksoud. Louis Wardiny, Salim Doumani, AssadDakroub, Naim Karacand all appeared on the label as did Andrew Mekanna, and WadeehBagdady.

Macksoud conducted steady business, but things didn’t always run smoothly for A.J. Macksoud. In 1922, he filed a protest with the United States Treasury Department’s Customs Service when he paid duty on “243 phonograph records examined at the appraiser’s store and found broken.” The tariff rate per the 1913 Revenue Act required “phonographs, gramophones, graphophones, and similar articles, or parts thereof” be taxed “25 per centum ad valorem.” Customs officials cited the same law’s procedures on the abandonment of perishable goods in Section II paragraph “X” to decide against Macksoud. As written, the law allowed importers ten days after receipt to liquidate and abandon “shortage or nonimportation caused by decay, destruction, or injury to fruit or perishable articles imported to the United States whereby their commercial value is destroyed….” While officials agreed that 78 rpm were non-perishable, they argued “no effort was made to abandon” the merchandise to the Government according to the law’s procedural practices. As the importer, Macksoud had to bear the burden of the loss. Sending fragile 78s by post and parcel plagued sellers and customers then as it does now.

Even sorting out where Macksoud’s shop or business operated becomes difficult to confirm. Macksoud seems to have been at 80 Greenwich from 1907-1910. Then he spent one or two years at 19 Rector Street. By 1912, he opened a space at 89 Washington Street, but moved to 52 Broadway in 1917. While every variation of his label except one read “77 Washington Street” as does Macksoud’s advertisement in the 1923 Talking Machine World, his often-spotted decorative gold and black dealer’s sticker always had 88 Washington Street embossed on it. This was his business address from 1930 to 1933. A short article in the Talking Machine World combined with a few listings in the New York City directories may shed some light on why occasionally Gabriel, Alex, and Albert Macksoud appear in connection with A.J. Macksoud Phonograph Company and the business had two addresses from 1917 to 1922.

The first of these appeared in the 1918 New York City directory. “Macksoud Abr J phonographs 52 Bway h162 Congress Bkn” tells us the obvious about Macksoud’s business and home address, but the last entry under the Macksoud surname reads “Macksoud & Co (Gabriel & Alex Macsoud) phonograph 89 Washn.” Alex G. Macksoud had the same business address and occupation in the 1920 and 1922 directories, but Gabriel appeared as a diamond broker also working at 89 Washington. Abraham was not listed at all in the 1920 directory, but in the U.S. Census for the same year, he showed up as an independent and self-employed Victor Talking Machine dealer.