Greater Syrian Diaspora at 78RPM: Andrew Mekanna

posted on: Sep 30, 2020

Tracking down Andrew Mekanna in written sources feels nearly impossible at times. The practice of anglicizing an immigrant’s name at either the time of arrival or sometime down the line on the path toward naturalization complicates the process of writing biographies. Yet when record collectors are lucky enough to locate an A.J. Macksoud 78 RPM disc it is likely to be one recorded by Louis Wardiny or Andrew Mekanna. So, who was Andrew Mekanna and why are documents related to his life in the United States so difficult to find? The anglicizing of his name and the various spellings that consequently resulted can lead a researcher down several rabbit holes.

Andraos Elias Moukanna aka Andrew E. Mekanna or Andrew Mckenna (Mckanna) was born 17 April 1898 in Beirut, Syria (now Lebanon).  He came to the United States 12 July 1920 by way of Cherbourg, France aboard the SS Imperator and landed in New York City. Little Syria in lower Manhattan, however, was not his final destination. Moukanna, and eleven of the twenty-nine Syrians on board the Imperator, listed Wheeling, West Virginia as their final destination. The passenger list of the Imperator gives us incredible insight into literacy and linguistic diversity with which Syrians entered the United States by 1920. Most spoke and read at least Arabic, but six passengers stated that they could read Arabic and English, five noted they were literate in Arabic and French, and at least one listed Arabic, English, and Turkish as languages he could read. Moukanna understood Arabic and French and listed his occupation as a “clerk.” He also noted that his Uncle  Nicholas Moukanna, not his parents, were his closest relative.

In the 1920s, Charleston, Parkersburg, Huntington, and Wheeling had become home to Syrian Lebanese immigrants to West Virginia. Syrians arrived in the 1890s, and in Wheeling they established Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church in 1906. They labored, not in the coal mines, but as peddlers turned merchants. By noting his experience as a clerk, Moukanna positioned himself for employment in one of several dry goods or apparel stores operated by one of his countrymen in Wheeling.

Just a few years after his arrival, Moukanna returned to New York City. While in New York, he recorded at least twelve songs including: Macksoud #522 Ma Odshy Maak, Macksoud #922 Habiby Tabiby, Macksoud #1000 Lasamto Sagra Azooly, Macksoud #1018 Ya Raab El Ali Shlom, Macksoud #1100 Raaytoo Manaman, Macksoud #1122 Ana Raet Rohy Bibostan, and Macksoud #1318 Nahmo Kawad Keman El Harb in the 1920s on A.J. Macksoud’s record label. Abraham J. Macksoud and his brothers ran first their record store and, later, record label from 80 Grennwich Street, 77 Washington Street, and 88 Washington Street in New York’s Little Syria for over twenty years. Violinst Naim Karacand and oudist Toufic Moubaid accompanied Mekanna on several recordings.

Interestingly, the next time Mekanna appears in a government document is 1928, he’s returned from Beirut and Malta working as a messboy onboard a ship named the BlueTriangle. The ship’s printed manifest listed the entire crew as “American”, but noted four of these were ethnic “Greeks”and the each of the remaining crew was French, Spanish, and English. Although the printed ship’s manifest listed Mekanna as “English” it notes in writing in the margins that he had been temporarily discharged for illness in Beirut. Was working as a messboy a way for Mekanna to visit home inexpensively? How do we account for the ten years he seemed to have shaved off his age? By 1929, Mekanna moved to the west coast and produced and acted in a number of dramatic plays in Los Angeles’ Syrian American community. In September 1929, he directed and appeared alongside Marie Haiek in the Italian play, “Charlotte.” The play’s script had been translated into the Arabic language. Mekanna was a practicing Melkite Catholic although in 1930 he appeared in another Arabic-language production, the five-act “A Victim of Despotism” put on by the Maronite Church in Los Angeles to benefit Our Lady of Lebanon Church. He co-starred in the play with Toufik Simon and Linda Lebbos. Music and theater reflected critical developments of Arab American cultural history that were part of post-Nahda movement that included the new Pan-Arab American journalism as seen in the pages of The Syrian World magazine and in the writing and poetry of Ameen Rihani, Kahlil Gibran, Mikhail Naimy, Afifa Karam and others. It was a Mahjari Arts Movement rather than just a literary movement.

While traveling around the US, he met Selma Michael from Douglas, Alaska in the late 1920s and the two had a child, Lila, on 30 June 1932. Why Andrew and Selma waited six years to marry is anyone’s guess? The couple finally married 4 June 1938 in Los Angeles, California. Andrew became a naturalized citizen on 19 December 1940, some seven months after he and Selma divorced. Selma and her parents maintained custody of Lila.

In 1942, Mekanna was a restaurant owner in San Francisco’s Syrian American community and became good friends of theater owner and manager, George Naify, and the Rev. Toufic N. Corey. The Naify family established the popular T & D Jr. Enterprises movie theater chain throughout northern California. Moukanna officially changed his name to Mckenna on 6 July 1942.  Never one to stay anywhere too long, he then headed back south to Los Angeles. The largest of California’s Syrian-Lebanese communities.

By the late 1940s, the Mckenna’s owned and operated a grocery market on Hope Street from 1948 until Andrew’s retirement, although they changed residences numerous times. With his return to Los Angeles, he married Odetta D. Gannage Asher on 16 August 1952. Three years later, for six months from March to September he traveled to France, Syria, Lebanon, Italy, Turkey, and Egypt. Upon his return to Los Angeles, he performed in a gig for the Lebanon Syrian Club of Arizona’s ninth annual mahrajan with Joe Sfier on 6 May 1956. The Club also booked Danny Thomas for a performance that night.  After a few years, Mckenna and Odetta had a daughter, Helen Mckenna (Hutchinson).

For almost the next thirty years 1956 to 1985, tracking Mekanna by his even-further-anglicized Mckenna becomes extremely complicated and confusing. Use of his birthdate, but more often, his birthplace or his presence in an Arab American community remain the best means to trace his footsteps. Andraos E. Moukanna died 26 October 1985 in Sherman Oaks, California. Saint Anne’s Melkite Church hosted his funeral services and he’s buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Los Angeles.

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