Greater Syrian Diaspora at 78RPM: Louis Wardini
Louis Nassour Wardini (sometimes Wardiny) was born 5 March 1894 in Beirut, Greater Syria (today Lebanon) to Nassour and Clemence Wardini. He immigrated to the United States around 1904 with his family and, for part of his life, lived in Little Syria in Lower Manhattan.
In 1917, when the Victor Talking Machine Company still expressed interest in Arab recording artists, Wardini debuted with 12 sides on six records. While the Arab immigrant market clambered to hear more from Wardini, Victor executives soon shifted direction away from its Arabic and Greek immigrant performers toward American-born English-language market.
By 1921, Wardini pops up in Louisiana, where he worked as a traveling fresh produce peddler. His notoriety outside the Arab immigrant community was virtually nonexistent and peddling kept money in his pocket and a roof over his head. Budding Arab immigrant record entrepreneurs Alexander Maloof and A.J. Macksoud had taken note of Wardini’s talent and changes to gramophone patent law soon opened up opportunities for these record salesmen to establish their own independent labels. Wardini recorded prolifically on the Maloof label and became one of Maloof best sellers. A few years later he signed and recorded a number of solo projects and duets for the A.J. Macksoud Phonograph Company.
One of Louis Wardini’s/Wardiny’s many releases on Macksoud. From the collection of Richard M. Breaux.Wardini moved to Birmingham, Alabama, home to one of the largest Syrian Lebanese communities in the southern United States at the time where he married Minnie P. Martin in November 1925. Saint Elias Maronite Church had operated in Birmingham since 1910 and Saint George Melkite Church had been newly established in 1921. Not long after their marriage, the Wardinis moved to Detroit, Michigan. Louis and Minnie struggled through the Great Depression as opportunities for Louis to record dried up with a slumping 78 RPM industry. The couple divorced 11 April 1938. Louis was single again and moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana.
He played the annual Daughters of Saint George Sunday Night event in 1935 as the feature of a labor day festival. Wardini married Beulah Rubeck on 28 February 1939 in Indiana; soon after their marriage, the couple traveled to Beirut. Interestingly, Louis and Beulah returned and settled in Erwin, New York. Both owned and operated a restaurant until opportunities arose for Louis to play music and record. In 1940, Wardini headlined with John Fayad, Wadeeh Bagdady, and Violet Thomason, at Saint Maran’s Hall for a benefit concert to help a Syrian Girls dance troupe. While he registered for World War II, he was too old to enlist.
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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