Greater Syrian Diaspora at 78RPM: Salim Doumani

posted on: Mar 3, 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 on this series. This week’s article features Arab American music legend, Salim Doumani. 

Next to Louis Wardini, few Arab American musicians in the 1920s managed to record on both Alexander Maloof’s label and A.J. Macksoud’slabel – except Selim Doumani or Salim Doumani. Although not the first Arab or Arab American to record vocally in the US for an Arab American market (Wardini first recorded in 1916 and Doumni recorded by 1922), Doumani was certainly among the first handful to record. Richard K. Spottswood’s Ethnic Music on Record: Mid-East, Far East, Scandinavian, English Language, American Indian, International, Volume 5 notes that Doumani recorded some thirty discs for Maloof Records between 1920 and February 1924. Many of these were longer songs that needed to be recorded on two sides. Doumani’s is the voice we hear recorded on one of Maloof’s most popular songs “America Ya Hilwa.”

We made several attempts to uncover information about Doumani and to confirm that the Salim Doumani we located was the same person who recorded on Maloof Records, but we kept getting false hits and nothing to confirm Doumani’s identity – until now.

Locating Salim Doumani’s identity and his story was like finding a needle in the proverbial haystack. A lone article appeared in an Arab American English-language newspaper published in Brooklyn, New York that announced, “Salim Ad-Doumani, Famed Singer Dies.” No article or story about Doumani appeared in the same newspaper before or after the September 1955 piece. A general search across newspaper sources turned up the one single result we already located. According to the news story, Doumani “died late last month of a heart attack at his home in Delray Beach, Florida. He was 57 years old.” Doumani had been in the United States for 33 years and was “the first Arabic professional singer in this country. He achieved nation-wide recognition through his bookings at various haflis and church affairs, and international recognition through his records which have total over one hundred different tunes.” Finally, the article mentioned that Doumani’s father-in-law Rev. Ibrahim Zain, served as one of three ministers to preside over his funeral.

BINGO! We had enough information to go on, yet tracking Doumani down proved to be a daunting task. If the information in the article turned out to be accurate, here’s what we knew:

Doumani recorded Arabic records, immigrated to the United States around 1922, his estimated year of birth was 1898, he was likely Syrian or Lebanese, he last lived in Delray Beach, Florida, and his father-in-law was a minister.

An Ancestry.com search turned up several people named Salim Doumani with some variations on spelling. Most had arrived in the United States too early, if the sole article was correct. But he showed up in no census, no city directories not even the Delray Beach, Florida directory for 1955, 1954, or 1953. How was this possible?

Despite the marriage, when Rev. Abraham Zaine moved from Boston to Canton, Ohio to take on ministerial duties the Doumani’s followed him, his wife, and Julia’s three younger siblings. The 1922 Canton, Ohio city directory lists Julia Doumani as a resident. Connections between Rev. Abraham Zaine and Alexander Maloof led Salim to record first with Maloof Records between 1920 and 1924, then with Macksoud Records. During his first Maloof recording #201 M451 & M452 he teamed up with Naim Karakand on violin, but unknown musicians played the oud and the qanun. For two other recordings on 11 August 1922, he performed a duet with an unknown artist simply listed as

Madame Marie.

Meanwhile, Julia, who traveled back and forth between Rhode Island and Ohio, gave birth to their first child Zicky Doumani Essa in 1923. Salim Doumani moved to Delray Beach in 1924 after recording for Maloof and Macksoud where he anglicized Salim to Samuel or Sam and ditched Doumani for the more Anglo-sounding Simon. He was now Sam Simon. Julia had three more children, Angela in 1925, Lilian in 1926, and Helen in 1928. The children all used the surname Simon, and Zicky changed his first name to Richard. Because Salim, now as Sam Simon, sang at so many haflis, family events such as weddings, and community dinners and benefits in need of entertainment, Richard Zicky Simon dreamed of becoming a professional singer himself – but he did not.

Whether the Simons experienced any of the discrimination or problems with police that Syrians encountered in other cities in Florida or throughout the country remains unclear. About 440 miles north of Delray Beach in Lake City, Florida, Syrian grocer Nola G. Romey and his wife Fannie got into a confrontation with a non-Syrian police chief. In an effort to curtail the conflict between Romey and the police chief, Mrs. Romey brandished a pistol and shot at the Chief John Baker. He returned fire and killed Mrs. Romey. Nola Romey was jailed and local vigilantes took him from the jail and lynched him.

Sam and Julia operated a general and dry goods store from the time they settled in Delray Beach until the 1928 Hurricane damaged their store beyond repair. The Simon’s reinvested in a vegetable and fruit grocery store which they ran until the 1960s. By 1930, Julia took regular summer trips to Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit her mother, father, and siblings. Sam’s brother, Alexander Simon, married Julia’s younger sister, Linda. Julia spent much of her time raising the children and organizing civic events through various women’s groups. Sam ran the store and became actively involved with the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Kiwanis Club. For example, when the local chapter of the club celebrated the Kiwanis Internationals anniversary in January 1932, Sam “sang and played several numbers” as a part of the entertainment. Two years, later he performed for Kiwanis Club members again. This time he performed “My Heart is Open to You,” “The Sheik of Araby,” and “America, You’re Beautiful” in Arabic. In 1939 and 1940, Sam sang at the wedding ceremonies for his sisters-in-law and when Antiochian Archbishop Antony Bashir visited the Eastern Orthodox Churches in nearby Palm Beach in 1939 assistance in “the singing of the Liturgy [included] Samuel Doumani and Michael Merhige, Syrian ecclesiastical musicians, and the Holy Trinity choir.” Note in this instance the news article used Sam’s anglicized first name, but his birth surname.

The 1940s witnessed the marriage of Sam’s daughters and Richard served in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Sam and Julia continued to remain active in Civic groups and operate/manage the fruit and vegetable store at 220 E. Atlantic. Sam entered the hospital after experiencing “diaphragm seizures and a severe foot infection”in April 1954.  Sam, too, began to suffer from diabetes. In a little over a year’s time, Sam had a heart attack at his home and died 21 August 1955. Julia lived until 1992.

Despite his early fame with Maloof Records and Macksoud Records, newspapers in Palm Beach, Miami, and Delray Beach barely reporter Samuel Simon’s or Salim Doumani’s death. Back in Brooklyn, however, one person ran a short story in the Arab American press about Salim Doumani’s pioneering role in Arab American music.

Richard M. Breaux is an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse from Oakland, California. His courses and research explore the social and cultural histories of African Americans and Arab Americans in the 20th Century.

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