PIONEERRESPOND
Setrak MECHIAN <1877> - ....
| aka | S. Mechian |
| nationality | Egyptian |
| occupation | |
| birth | ..... <1877>, ........., SYRIA, ASIA MINOR |
| baptism | |
| death | ................ |
| burial |
PARENTS
| father | Panos MECHIAN b. ............. |
| mother | ................ b. ............. |
| children |
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LIFE
6 Tarih: 05/Te/1322 [= 18 Oct 1906] Dosya No:408 Gömlek No:95 Fon Kodu: ZB.: Beyrut'ta gramofon ticaretiyle ugrastigi ve ticaret maksadiyla Dersaadet'e geldigi belirtilen Mersinli Strak veled-i Panos'un tüccardan olmadigi ve usulsüz bir tezkire ile seyahat ettigi anlasildigindan geri gönderildigi.
"In Beyrouth there are two other talking machine shops, one of which belongs to an Armenian who is the agent of Odeon [= Setrak Mechian] and the other to the Syrian singer [= Farajallah Baida] who approached you to have the Records made for him. .............. . The Odeon agent is a real scoundrel and Blumenthal has lately told me that he has turned him off because he has been selling the copied Records. This Armenian told me himself that the best business was the selling of copied Records and I am afraid that if this matter is not stopped in Turkey it will extend over the remainder of the territory under Turkish dominion."
(source: Letter from Karl Friedrich Vogel (Cairo) to Theodore B. Birnbaum (London), dd. 25 June 1908. Courtesy of EMI Music Archives)
"Fabrik Setrak Mechian. - Mechian is an Armenian, a former client of ours and Odeon in Beyrouth. He started the copying business in Syria and afterwards came to Egypt opening together with another client of ours, also an Armenian, a sort of Factory. His idea is to have always the first all novelties. For the present he is not dangerous, as he has not enough CAPITAL and SAVOIR FAIRE. By parcel Post I send you one of his records. I visited his establishment, which consists in a recording room, a stock room and a ground floor room containing two hydraulic presses. He is ready to record for everybody at a rate of 10 sh. the record. Mechian told me that his cost price for one double-sided record amounts to about 3 to 3½ Piastre."
(source: Letter from Karl Friedrich Vogel (Cairo) to Alfred Clark & Sydney Dixon (Hayes), dd. 7 Oct 1911. Courtesy of EMI Music Archives)
In 1922 S. Mechian had a phonograph/gramophone shop (outlet) in Mersin, Turkey (in: Annuaire Oriental, Oriental Directory. Commerce, industrie, administration, magisture. 1922 (p. 1343)
Setrak MECHIAN (50y; married) merchant
SS "BERENGARIA"
dep.: 7 May 1927, Cherbourg
arr.: 13 May 1927, New York
home address: S. Mechian, 16 rue Abdel Aziz, Cairo, EGYPT
going to visit: (Friend) H. [M.] Tashjian, 160, E 27th St, New York
Mechian S., Sprechmaschinen-Handlung: Mersina [= Mersin] (22.000 Einw.) Asiatische Türkei - Turquie Asiatique - Asiatic Turkey (on p. 1121 of Paul de Wit's Welt-Adressbuch der Musikinstrumenten-Industrie, Teil II: Europa (ausschließlich Deutschland, Österreich und Tschechoslowakei) und übrige Erdteile (Paul de Wit, Leipzig 1926/27)
Stelios TZOULAKIS (b. ............ - d. ...............)
spouse: Josephine ANDO (b. 5 Nov 1894 (?), ......... - d. ............)
- son: Georges St (= Stelio) TZOULAKIS (b. 7 Jan 1919, Alexandria, EGYPT - d. .................)
Georges St. TZOULAKIS visited in 1958 Rio de Janeiro, BRASIL (Temporário-turista - Greek nationality) dentist FOTO!
married on 12 May 1959, Arlington, Virginia, USA:
Marguerite D. LIAPIS (30y; divorced) (b. 18 Mar 1929, Alexandria, EGYPT - d. .............)
NOTES
- Record Industry and Egyptian Traditional Music: 1904-1932 by Ali Jihad Racy (in: Ethnomusicology , Jan. 1976, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Jan., 1976), pp. 23-48. Now published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for Ethnomusicology. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/850819
- Arabic Records by M. S. Kinnear (in: The Talking Machine Review No. 68, p. 1881 (June 1984)
- Paul de Wit's Welt-Adressbuch der Musikinstrumenten-Industrie, Teil II: Europa (ausschließlich Deutschland, Österreich und Tschechoslowakei) und übrige Erdteile (Paul de Wit, Leipzig 1926/27)
- EMI documents
- Pictures of SETRAK MECHIAN labels and record sleeve (in: The Talking Machine Review No. .., p. 1590-1591 (......)
- Nationalism, Nationalization, and the Egyptian Music Industry by Michael Frishkopf (in: Asian Music Vol. 39, Number 2, Summer/Fall 2008 (University of Texas Press. E-ISSN: 1553-5630 Print ISSN: 0044-9202)
- Musiciens et Poètes en Egypte au Temps de la Nahda by Frédéric Lagrange (Doctoral Dissertation, UNIVERSITE DE PARIS VIII A SAINT-DENIS Dec 1994)
- I ichografiseis Ellinikon Tragoudion stin Aigypto by Aristomenis Kalyviotis (in: SYLLOYES No. 137 of Sep 1995, pp 751-768) (in Greek)
- I ek peráton diskografia grammofónou by Dionysis Dim. Maniatis (Athens, 2006), pp. 151 (F. S. Mechian) and 263 (Lion)
- I ichografiseis tis Etaireias Mechian Records of 22 Nov 2007 (in Greek)
- Annuaire Oriental, Oriental Directory. Commerce, industrie, administration, magisture. 1922 (p. 1343)
- Ordinary Egyptians. Creating the Modern Nation through Popular Culture by Ziad Fahmy (Stanford University Press. Stanford, California, 2011)
- www.amar-foundation.org
COMPANIES & LABELS
PHOTOS
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.jpg "Klik voor een schermvullende weergave") |
| Spoken message (recorded ca Dec. 1914) by Second Lieutenant Henry Miller Lanser (1890-1916) (Courtesy Australian War Memorial) |
.jpg "Klik voor een schermvullende weergave") |
| Spoken message (recorded ca Dec. 1914) by Second Lieutenant Henry Miller Lanser (1890-1916) (Courtesy Australian War Memorial) |
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| THE NIGHTINGALE — STELIO TZOULAKIS Mechian Records Factory Cairo (7 inch) Αγαπούλα (βαλς) (Γιαννακοπούλου-Σακελλαρίου Σακελλαρίδη. by Σοφία Βεμπο (#1) |
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| In May 1927 Setrak Mechian (Cairo) went to visit H. M. Tashjian (New York) |
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| Illegal copy of 1908 Gramophone Company recording (original matrix no.: 106p). See THE MECHIAN DISCOGRAPHY |
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| Sleeve of a 18 cm Mechian record |
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THANK YOU
Peter Endendijk
Nicole van Os
Maria Kapkidi (co-researcher RP)
Toon Pennings
Nikos Dionysopoulos
Gert Borg
Kostas Bournas
Will Sumits
Aristomenis Kalyviotis
Jerome Moncada
Ilias Barounian
Rainer Lotz
Janine Kinnear
Kamal Kassar
Jennifer Selby
Recep Altinay
Peter Laurence