Masika+-Moonlight-+Bakshara

Family background, Immigration, and Birth: Nicholas and Nesrala Bakshara were born in Syria in the early 1850's. In 1868 Nicholas and his two brothers attended The American Mission School In Syria while continuing to produce rugs as they had for generations. At the time the mission school in Syria [|was low on funding] but their purpose was to "educate the natives" and with that they gave the natives a taste of the west. American missionaries came to the schools and brought hints of the Western world with the introduction of the latest conveniences and inventions. They also brought with them a strong revival of Christianity. When Nicholas and his two brothers realized there was more opportunity on the other side of the ocean after the missionaries and their obsessions with modernity [|brought printing presses] to Syria, the very impressed Bakshara brothers were determined to emigrate. After meeting Nesrala at the Sidon Girl's Boarding School, Nicholas soon fell in love with Nesrala and in 1876 while Nesrala was pregnant with Masika, the three brothers and a pregnant Nesrala traveled by donkey to Beirut. Turkish officials made it extremely difficult for citizens to leave the country however Chickry, Nicholas's youngest brother bribed an official. The brothers hopped on small boats and boarded the streamer that crossed the rough Mediterranean Sea until they reach the shore of southern France. From there, they took a train to the northern shore of France were they boarded another ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean and arrive in New York City. Once in New York the family had to[| wait 3 days to board the ferry] that would take them to Ellis Island. At Ellis Island the Bakshara's were mistakenly classified as Turks and after Nersrala was given a medical examination due to her pregnancy the family went to brooklyn. Nicholas took to the road as one of the very first Syrian peddlers and sold fabric up and down the eastern seaboard. In 1877 Masika was born and grew up on Washington Street in Lower Manhattan, when it was known as "[|little Syria.] "

Growing up in "Little Syria:" When Nicholas saved enough money he started his own cafe. Although Syrian women were not allowed to visit the cafes, unless it was to quickly purchase a pastry, Masika would love to listen to the Oriental Orchestra which played occasionally in her fathers shop. Since she was such a beautiful young girl, and often attracted American and European travelers to the shop at Nicholas's cafe, he would allow her to stay often 3 days of the week! [a note from Marli: I found [|this New York Times Article on Little Syria] very interesting (especially the behavior of the Syrian men)]

Scouting for the Fair: While growing up in Little Syria, by the time she was only 15 years old, preparation for the World's fair had begun. For the Midway section of the fair scouting for all sorts of people were takin g place. [|Frederic Thompson]  advertised in the show business trade papers for midgets and giants to act as Moon Selenites. Gaston Akoun, Manager of the Midway's "Streets of Cairo," hired some dancers in Paris. On one of his trips across seas to search for his Moroccan dancers, Gaston Akoun decided to stop in "little Syria" to see if there were any dancers there he could hire. When meeting for a coffee break in Masika's father's cafe with Thompson, who would later go on to build Coney Island, Masika caught Gaston's eye.  At The Fair: At 16 years old, performing under the stage name Moonlight, Masika Bakshara performed in “A Street in Cairo” exhibition on the Midway at the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. “A Street in Cairo,” modeled off the Rue de Caire at the 1889 Paris Exposition, was the most popular attraction on the Midway. Dancing along side “[|Little Egypt] ” (Farida Mazar Spyropoulos) and Ashea Wabe, Masika danced as part of the exotic exhibit for over a year. Although “Little Egypt” stole the show and made belly dancing popular, Masika “Moonlight” proved to be more famous with the night crowd at the Fair and met many of the Fair’s important visitors, many of whom she would remember and see later on on her belly dancing tour of the United States under the watchful eye of “[|A Street in Cairo’s] ” producer, Gaston Akoun. When Masika began working by day during the Fair at small booths where tourists could buy exotic goods she did not know that she would become one of the few selected women dancers that toured the United States performing variations of belly dance. During the fair she met Sol Bloom and danced in his show titled "The Algerian Dancers of Morocco."

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Life after the fair and on to Los Angeles: While at the fair Masika meets Pietro Vincenzo who tells her of a position he will get managing the vaudeville shows at the Grand Opera House in Los Angeles. He invited Masika to perform because he entices her with promises of good salaries. Pietro takes the job and moves to LA and Masika follows as soon as the fair closes. Although most of the performances there are successful and welcomed with opened minds, some reactions were similar to some of the reactions at the fair. Critics would say the strange music of a foreign tambourine and the hideous yelling of non-American girls was disgusting and that their bodily contortions were unrefined and even repulsive. From Pietro's page: "As the Orpheum theatre circuit expands and is incorporated into a huge commercial circuit, censorship rules grow stricter, and Pietro faces more criticism from managers of the Orpheum Circuit about his prized belly dancers. He is also upset about the loss of unique vaudeville in the large national tours, and his job becomes monotonous. On top of that, he senses the beginning of vaudeville's slow demise with the growing popularity of motion poictures (Alexander Pantages owned a circuit of theatres, including one in Los Angeles, which began incorporating motion pictures into his Vaudeville shows as early as 1902)" The continuous criticism did not make life in Los Angeles as fun as it could have been. She was constantly harassed because news traveled fast and in 1896 when one of her fellow belly dancers from the fair, Ashea Wabe, was caught in a the scandal of Herbert Seeley's Fifth Avenue bachelor party and she was often associated with Ashea, or confused with her because they looked alike. Ashea Wabe became front-page news after a rival dancer reported that Wabe was going to dance nude at the party and it was raided by the vice squad. For all this negative attention she decided to face the problem and return to her home in New York. A change in coasts: On the train back to new york she was approached by Broadway's Oscar Hammerstein the I, he noticed something special about her and asked her to appear in a parody of the Seeley dinner on broadway to play the character of Ashea Wabe. Maskia quickly accepted, from Los Angeles she had heard a lot about broadway.

Traveling, touring, and men: When Masika works on Broadway she meets Miroslav Schweinsteiger. Miroslav fights very hard for the introduction of football in the United States as many people from the press believd it would be a failure. Eventually, the league is formed and Miroslav is named Executive Vice President by the owner, Charlie. They decide to name the team the Decatur Staleys(one of 11 teams). Miroslav is the main advocate for the team and the league as he spreads the popularity of the sport across America. He travels with the team to places like Rochester,Buffalo, Akron, Detroit, and Cleveland. He lives this football oriented life (expanding the league) and lives in the beautiful city of New Orleans in the offseason. The two meet after Mirsolav attends one of the Broadway shows that Masika perfoms in. Mirsolav at the time is 25 and Masika is 20. Because Masika is not accustomed being provided for, she instantly falls in love with the life of traveling and eating at restaurants and attending theater and film.

Time table: Early 1850’s || Nicholas and Nesrala were born in Syria || 1868 || Nicholas and his two brothers attended The American Mission School In Syria  || 1876 ||  Nesrala was pregnant with Masika, Beirut à Mediterranean Sea à shore of southern France à northern shore of France à At Ellis Island. || 1877 || Masika was born and grew up on Washington Street in Lower Manhattan “Little Syria” || 1878 || Nicholas saved enough money he started his own cafe  || 1982 || Masika is 15 Gaston Akoun decided to stop in "little Syria" to see if there were any dancers there he could hire  || 1983 || Masika is 16 performing under the stage name Moonlight, Masika Bakshara performed in “A Street in Cairo” exhibition on the Midway at the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago  || 1984 || While at the fair Masika meets Pietro Vincenzo tells her of a position he will get managing the vaudeville shows at the Grand Opera House in Los Angeles  || 1896 ||  one of Masika’s fellow belly dancers from the fair, Ashea Wabe, was caught in a the scandal of Herbert Seeley's Fifth Avenue bachelor party  || 1897 || On the train back to new york she was approached by Broadway's Oscar Hammerstein I, who invited her to play the part of Ashea Wabe. Masika at the age of 20 meets 25 year old Miroslav in New York || 1898 || At a Rutgers vs. Columbia University Miroslav proposes ||

Bibliography: (I still have to convert the format) [] [] [] [] [] [] [] http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E00E3DA1E30E733A2575AC2A9659C946297D6CF http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9C06E2DB1739E43BBC4C53DFBF66838F679FDE
 * Reclaiming the Land of the Bible: Missionaries, Secularism **

Ussama Makdisi The American Historical Review, Vol. 102, No. 3 (Jun., 1997), pp. 680-713 (article consists of 34 pages)
 * Reclaiming the Land of the Bible: Missionaries, Secularism, and Evangelical Modernity **