GREEK: "GYPSY TANGO" Marika Papagika "Bat Wing" Victor 72976 EE- circa 1920
$
26
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Description
(THIS WEEK’S AUCTION features what is for me, substandard photography! It was cloudy all week, so I had to shoot indoors. So live with it, already!)
I DIDN'T EXPECT MUCH when I went looking for a picture of MARIKA PAPAGIKA, who surely was one of those obscure immigrants who left no trace of their existence except a record or two. Shows what I know! Miss Papagika was so successful as a singer, that with her husband Gus, she opened a nightclub and flourished in New York, presumably as the Texas Guinan of Greece! Here's a short bio, written by Con Kalamaras, evidently from Egypt, as recently as last December:
One of the first generation of Greek women singers to be heard on sound recordings, Marika Papagika was born on the island of Kos on September 1, 1890. Her family moved to Egypt, probably Alexandria, when she was young. She began her career in this country, working in nightspots that catered for the large resident Greek community.
It is likely that she made her first recordings here as well. Around 1915 she emigrated to the USA where she continued performing and recording. By the mid-1920's she and her husband Kostas ['Gus'], a cembalo player, had their own club in New York. She regularly worked with the fine violinist Athanasios Makedonas. Marika's versatile repertory included folksongs, 'light', European-style songs, but she became a noted exponent of the Smyrnaic style of the rebetiko tragoudi.
A tragic, tough but colorful life! So here's MARIKA PAPAGIKAS singing two Greek Rebeticas: "GYPSY TANGO (from the Opera 'The Godson')" and "TURN AND LOOK AT ME," probably a slice of her life!
This original 1921 "Bat Wing" Victor 79276 is in nice EE- condition. Label tears on both sides, which provoke tears of my own!
PHOTOS: 1) Marika Papagika in color 2) A 1921 Victor Greek Catalogue with the same picture 3)
*****
These records come from my private collection, which I have been accumulating since 1967, and now am downsizing! My highest priority in these eBay auctions is to give you the best possible idea of a record’s true condition and aesthetic value. I always post at least four clear images, showing the record fore and aft, a close-up of the label, and the whole disc, warts and all. If my purple prose won’t cut it, the pictures will! Shipping is done with expert care. Your record will brave Media Mail in a stout corregated box, between four sheets of cardboard and a couple of “packers.” I hope you are amused by these descriptions, and by the quality of service being offered.
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