Passport photo – Sobhi Aziz Lammam
Left to Right : Sobhi Lammam with Abdul Halim Hafez and Kamel Saffian ( others unidentified )
Helena , a singer , was employed by a radio station in Cyprus , Sharq-el-Adna , covertly run by the British government from Jaffa , Palestine , that was broadcast in Arabic from 1941- 1956 . In the intervening fifteen years , its mainly Arab staff , loosely supervised by a small number of British personnel , broadcasted a mixture of music , drama , discussion , educational and religious programs , albeit with a subtle British slant to its news .
Halim Rumi , father of famous Lebanese singer , Majda Rumi , worked as a musician at this station and composed a few songs for Ms . Kasapoglous .
Helena Amorfia Kasapoglous Lammam
Georges was the fourth of five children – Diana , Mary , Antoine , and lastly , Elias , all named after saints from the Bible . In 1961 , the doctor told his laboring mother , “ please not today ” as it was late at night yet notably , Georges was the only boy born in the Beirut hospital that day midst 13 girls !
In the early days of Georges ’ life , the Lammam family lived in Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut , eventually moving to the mountains into an abandoned mansion that the villagers thought was haunted . Fairouz once made a movie in which the house was part of the set , and ghost stories abounded . The Lammam family was offered this house , isolated on the top of the mountain , rent-free . There were 15 bedrooms and many other large rooms . The children were so afraid at night that they moved into one room . On one warm evening , bats flew in the open window creating all kinds of noise – and mistakenly , the children turned on the lights sending the bats into frenzy . Their parents told them to hide under the blankets and don ’ t open your eyes – as they eventually managed to get the bats out of the room .
Soon they moved further into the Druze village called Aynab , in a smaller more normal house where the Lammams were the only Christian family . The village was populated by two extended families that welcomed them and the Lammams became good friends with everyone in the village . In 2004 , Georges went back to Aynab to visit some of these very neighbors .
22 The Belly Dance Chronicles � January 2021