From North Beach to the East Bay (Part III of III): by Satrinya / MasalimaHillary was dancing at a restaurant
in Alameda called the "Casbah International Restaurant".
She danced with the stage name of Zamora. Sam Qutab owned the
restaurant. Sam and Fadil
Shahin had more than angry words over the name "Casbah".
It was alleged that Sam wanted to capitalize on the trade of Fadil's nightclub.
I heard Sam say, "I don't know why Fadil is so mad at me. He should
be happy and tell his customers, 'Please visit my other place in Alameda!" Eventually,
I went to dance at the restaurant in Alameda, after a dancer named Tasha re-emerged
at the Bagdad. I danced at the Alameda place five nights per week.
One of Sam's nephews played the drums
at the club and he was very good.
That year Ariadne held a big recital.
She did not want me to be anywhere near her recital because Rhea and Jamila were
not speaking to each other. The cause of that rift was that the PBS Channel
on television was planning to air a dance class taught by Rhea. It was rumored
that during Rhea's program that Rhea never mentioned her teacher, Jamila,
and that she had somehow taken credit for the entire terminology regarding
dance steps, and zill patterns by saying, "Something I call it is.." There
was the opposing rumor that Jamila just gotten angry because Rhea had taken
on this program by finding and developing it alone, without asking for Jamila's
permission and participation. Whatever the cause, the lines were drawn in
the sand of San Francisco Bay.
Weeks later, when I returned from my
dance tour in Japan, Ariadne was no longer dancing at Sam's Casbah. I asked
one of the patrons what had happed to her and he told me, "Ariadne's
husband came looking for her one night, long after she had left in the company
of another man, and her husband threw her out." After several more months
passed, Sam decided that the business was not what he wanted and he sold
it to someone else. Then it really failed. I heard that it burned down almost
immediately after that.
My mother really liked the way Najia danced! Back then, Najia had her own style of Belly Dance that was a fusion of Turkish, learned from Bert, and gypsy fantasy.
Out of the blue, one evening Sam called
me and told me that a new place was going to open in Berkeley and it was
going to be called "The Casablanca". Sam said that the owner
used to own a restaurant in Alameda, which was down the block from his restaurant.
The owner of the Casablanca was Roland Reghadi, a Moroccan, and he
was fond of telling people, "I am an entrepreneur!" The restaurant
was quite different from any others in the area. It was split into two sections
in the manner of restaurants in Morocco, one side formal French, the other
elaborately tiled Moroccan. Roland was a lady charmer and created his own
mystique. He said that he was French but born in Morocco, a descendant of
the prophet Mohammed, and that his Arabic name was actually "Aziz".
He also claimed that his father, a former multi-millionaire, was relieved
of his assets when the new king of Morocco took over the government. Now
the French government no longer ruled Morocco.
Several times, all the dancers, including
the owner of the Casablanca, would pile into our cars after closing the restaurant
(early in Berkeley) and head out to the Casbah and
the Bagdad in
San Francisco. One Saturday night, Aida was
dancing. She saw me sitting with Najia and Taka. She shimmied up near Roland
for a tip and gave me the "How dare you sit with THEM?" look that
she could do so well. Roland spoke to her, and told her that he was displaying
her picture at his restaurant and that seemed to thaw her out a bit.
I went back to the Bagdad in San Francisco
and found Jad Elias managing
the nightclub for his brother George.
I danced under my new name, "Satrinya Gamal." The first night
I danced, Jad called me Najwa Fouad (the most renowned dancer in Egypt
at the time). I danced sometimes five nights a week along with the new regulars.
About this time, there was a great influx of Middle Eastern nationals in
San Francisco. Some of them were entertainers. There was a very short and
older man at the Casbah who tried valiantly to become a singer. He was certainly
one of the characters of the moment. He had no teeth, but still, he believed
himself to be the best singer since the great Enrico Caruso. He kept
telling us, "I need good musicians to back me up". One evening
while waiting for the Bagdad to open, I heard the best drumming that I had
heard in a long time. I turned to see who was playing and found that there
was a new face in town. The bartender said that the new man was hired and
flown in after the highest recommendation from Prince M. His name was Khalil
Abboud. Immediately Tony boasted to me, "Fadil hired him
because I need a good drummer to back me up!"
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