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Badia Masabni:
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Most people are familiar with or have heard of Badia Masabni’s Casino Opera. Many are under the impression that it was her only casino, or that it was the first such club in Cairo. People know it as the place that launched many careers, a place where many a dancer, singer and musician entered looking for their first big break. But what most people don't know is that Badia Masabni actually had at least five different clubs at different times and the Casino Opera was the last one she opened. Badia had three nightclubs in Cairo, another in Giza City and yet another in Alexandria. She also operated at least two theaters where she staged many plays as well as a movie cinema that was part of her nightclub complex. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This is a photo of Badia Masabni. Her first sala on Emad El Din Street opened its doors on November 4, 1926 shortly after her separation from her first husband, actor/playwright Naguib el Rehani. It was located in a building right between the Majestic Theater and the Semiramis Theater and she called it Sala Badia Masabni. This nightclub had previously been called The Sendex and it had been up for sale for quite some time. The owner of the Sendex club was asking 7,000 Egyptian pounds for it, and Badia offered him 5,000 pounds. He agreed and she bought it. Sala Badia Masabni was certainly not the first club in the area. There were many other nightclubs, salas and bars on Emad El Din street as well as several popular theaters, and the street was already well known for its very active night life. Emad el Din street at the time, was controlled by mobster type thugs whose main income came from offering "protection" to the businesses that operated there. |
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Badia Masabni's First Club:
Sala Badia
The first week it was open, Sala Badia Masabni featured entertainment only by Badia herself along with a male singer. She was practically a one-woman show. She sang, danced, and acted. The only other entertainer at her club was a singer named Gamel Azit. They were accompanied by a four member musical group. ABOUT THE PHOTO: The flyer in the photo to the right advertised the grand opening of Sala Badia. A translation is available. There were no raqs sharqi dancers at Badia's club when it first opened its doors. In fact, there weren't any dancers at all until the following year. Badia's main focus was on singing and acting, not on raqs sharqi. The week after its grand opening, a play was added as well as two more male singers. This remained the basic layout of the entertainment at the club until the following year. |
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During the 1927/1928 season Badia added several more singers. For the first time she included a few dancers. Among them were Layla, Shafika and the then-famous Turkish dancer Afranza Hanem. Afranza began dancing at Badia's club on March 31, 1927 and soon became one of Badia's first star dancers. For weeks prior to her arrival at Badia's club, announcements were made in the newspaper that Afranza was on her way to Egypt. Badia, like other club owners in the area, employed several Turkish dancers at her club in the early days. ABOUT THE PHOTO: The advertisement to the right appeared in Al Ahram on March 10, 1927, on page 6. It promotes a show at Sala Badia. A translation is available. |
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Badia’s club soon gained fame for being innovative and for inventing dances that quickly became popular. Out of Sala Badia came such novel dances as the “Body dance”, the “Gazelle dance”, the “Sport dance”, the ‘Village dance”, and the “Peacock dance”. She also made the Charleston popular and soon other clubs were copying these dances too. Badia was also a talented impersonator and her sketches often included impersonations of famous singers of the time. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This advertisement appeared in Al Ahram on June 1, 1928 on page 6. A translation is available. |
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The Alexandria Summer Club
In the summer of 1928 Badia opened another casino in Alexandria in El Selsela. She called it Sala Badia. It not only had a café and a garden area as most casinos did, but it was also on an ocean front location with a spectacular view of the sea. Her star dancer Afranza Hanem traveled with her to the Alexandria club and was the featured dancer there. Sala Badia in Alexandria opened its doors on June 16, 1928. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This advertisement promoted the grand opening of Badia's club in Alexandria. It appeared in Al Ahram on June 16, 1928, on page 6. A translation is available. |
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Sala Badia in Alexandria remained open for the rest of the summer season, presenting its last show on September 8, 1928. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This advertisement promoted the final show for Sala Badia in Alexandria. It appeared in Al Ahram on September 8, 1928, on page 6. A translation is available. |
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It should be pointed out that although these clubs were called “casinos” they were not Las Vegas style gambling establishments. No gambling went on at the Cairo casinos. "Casino" was just the popular term for a club which typically had a seating area as well as an outdoor garden and café. A sala, on the other hand, might be just an indoor nightclub with no outdoor open area or garden for the guests to sit in. Sometimes the terms were used interchangeably.
Focus on Theater Plays
After the 1928 summer season had passed, Badia returned to doing theater shows with her estranged husband Nagib El Rehani and they produced and participated in six theater plays during 1929. During this year she had little time for her Cairo nightclub and her attention was focused mainly on her plays.
New Cast at Sala Badia
In 1930, Badia turned her full attention back to her Emad El Din street Sala Badia, adding more singers and more dancers to the entertainment lineup. Among the new crop of dancers were Bouthania, Nadira, Khayriya and the Lebanese dancer Beba Ezz el Din who would soon become a major thorn in Badia's side.
In Giza City
Around this same time, Badia decided to rent a portion of another club called the Fantazio which was part of the English Bridge Club in Giza City, so named because it stood near the English Bridge (sometimes called the Blind Bridge, later named Al-Galaa Bridge) that extended over the Nile. The initial opening of this new club was in May of 1930. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This advertisement promoted the grand opening of Badia Masabni's third nightclub, which was located in Giza City. It appeared in Al Ahram on Thursday, May 8, 1930. A translation is available. However, Badia had something much grander in mind and she promptly set out to renovate the place. |
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The following year Badia's modern summer club re-opened its doors in its newly remodeled state complete with a movie theater called Cinema Badia on June 1, 1931. The cinema showed the latest films of the time, and the complex also boasted a theater called Theater Badia where new plays, monologues and dances were regularly presented. The nightclub itself, where food and drinks were served, was called Cabaret Badia. (Badia and others did use the word "cabaret" in publicity flyers.) This was the club's second grand opening. This newly remodeled Giza City entertainment complex was known both as Badia's Garden and as Casino Badia. It didn't function year round, however, and it was meant to serve only as an alternate summer location during the very hot Egyptian summer months, much as Badia's Alexandria casino by the sea had been used as a summer club. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This advertisement promoted the grand re-opening of Badia Masabni's third nightclub, which was located in Giza City, following its renovation. The ad appeared in Al Ahram on May 7, 1931. A translation is available. |
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Hiring Tahia Carioca
During the early 1930's several artists came to work with Badia. Taheya Carioca came to work with her in 1933 after having worked with Soad Mahasen for some time at Soad's club. Soad retired to Lebanon after selling her very famous nightclub and Badia "inherited" Taheya Carioca.
On Tour
Badia also continued to work in what was her first love, the theater, and she travelled outside of Egypt several times touring various Middle Eastern countries with her plays. Because she was touring quite often, Badia turned over the management of her Emad el Din street sala to her nephew Antoine who was also the husband of her adoptive daughter Juliet. This had been an arranged marriage between the two and it was no secret that Antoine and Juliet didn't like each other. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This photo shows Juliet Masabni, the adoptive daughter Juliet, who was also known by the stage names of Laila el-Chakraa and Laila el-3amrya. |
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Badia's Cinema Career
In 1935, Badia publicly announced her retirement from the theater as well as from her casinos. She now planned to dedicate all her time to cinema, and her interest had now shifted from being a theater actress to being a film actress. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This publicity ad for Badia's retirement appeared on Tuesday September 10, 1935 on page 3 of Al Ahram. A translation is available. Badia's very first film was Malikat el Massareh (Queens of the Theaters), which was released in 1936. Unfortunately, however, it flopped at the box office and was slammed by movie critics. This was in stark contrast to the rave reviews for Oum Kulthoum's new film released the same month, Wedad. Badia had invested twenty thousand Egyptian pounds of her own money in the film. Badia came out of retirement after less than one year and she returned to producing theater plays and returned to her nightclubs. |
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Beba Ezz el Din
Antoine not only managed Badia's clubs, but also held a power of attorney that Badia had given him. Toward the end of 1936, Antoine unexpectedly sold Badia's Emad El Din street club to his mistress Beba Ezz el Din behind Badia's back. Beba proceeded to fire most of the artists that Badia had working there, among them Taheya Carioca. Beba Ezz El Din had been a poor Lebanese girl who had come to Egypt with Badia in the late 1920's. She had worked at Badia's club as a dancer for a time. But Beba's ambitions were huge, and she was not satisfied with being a dancer working at a club. Now she owned Sala Badia, and together with Antoine she took over the management of the club. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This photo from 1937 shows Beba Ezz el Din reclining on an assuit shawl. |
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One of the first things Beba did was to post guards at the entrance to prevent Badia from entering. Badia was stopped at the door of her own club and not permitted to enter. This betrayal from the two people she had helped the most caused Badia to go into a profound depression — especially because it came on the heels of the failure of her film and she was teetering very close to bankruptcy. Badia even attempted suicide. In mid-1937 Beba Ezz El Din, who still called her newly acquired nightclub Sala Badia, restructured the entertainment lineup of the club. She presented her own entertainers and her own troupe called Troupe Beba, cashing in on Badia's famous name and on her reputation. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This flyer promotes the March 1937 opening of Sala Badia under Beba Ezz el-Din's ownership. A translation is available. Later, Beba would separate from Antoine and would eventually come back to Badia begging for forgiveness which Badia generously granted. Later, however, Badia subsequently fired Beba for her rude and snobbish behavior towards the public. |
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Badia Regroups
In the latter part of 1937, Badia, who now found herself without a club, rented the prestigious Brentania theater and presented several shows there. She also re-opened her Giza City club once more on May 1, 1937 for the summer, with a well publicized grand inauguration. Badia then travelled to Lebanon and Syria before returning to Egypt and taking a well deserved break. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This advertisement appeared in Al Ahram newspaper on April 30, 1937 to promote the re-opening of Badia's summer club in Giza. A translation is available. |
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In an interview for Al Ahram newspaper in 1938, Badia announced her plans to open a brand new club on Emad El Din Street on December 8 of that year. For this purpose she had rented the prestigious Majestic Theater next door to her first sala and she was in the process of remodeling it. She briefly mentioned that Beba now owned her previous club but Badia politely refrained from talking about the theft outright. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This shows the newspaper interview with Badia Masabni that appeared in Al Ahram on Saturday, December 3, 1938 on page 14. A translation is available. Her new nightclub at the Majestic Theater opened its doors as scheduled on December 8, 1938 and Badia proudly called it Casino and Cabaret Badia. Taheya Carioca came to work with her once more and she was there to perform on the opening night. This new casino served as Badia's club during the 1938/1939 winter seasons. It functioned as a casino until midnight where people could go with their families to enjoy family-oriented entertainmnent and food. But then from midnight until morning it functioned as a cabaret with entertainment directed towards an adult public and where alchoholic beverages were served. |
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The week before Badia inaugurated the brand new Casino Badia, her next-door neighbor Beba Ezz El Din hastily changed her club's name from Sala Badia to the more appropriate Sala Beba. It is reported that while Badia's club attracted a high-class clientele which included military officers and their famlies as well as high profile personalities, Beba Ezz El Din's club next door attracted a lower class of clientele, unruly soldiers and drunken patrons, especially after the war began and the streets overflowed with soldiers. Beba's club was known for being a place where drunken brawls often broke out. She eventually closed the club and went to Alexandria. ABOUT THE PHOTO: On October 31, 1939, Al Ahram featured two advertisements, one above the other, for rival salas. The top ad promotes Badia Masabni's new club, and the bottom ad promotes the club Beba Ezz El Din wrested away from Badia three years earlier. A translation is available. Badia continued to manage her new Emad el Din Street sala in the winter and her Giza City club in the summer. During this time she hired new dancers and she formed a brand new dance troupe with Badia herself as the dance instructor. Taheya Carioca was also a member of this dance troupe, as she was already a well known dancer throughout the Middle East and her presence gave the troupe more prestige. Taheya had flown in from Syria by airplane (a relatively new method of travel) just to join Badia's troupe. Things went well, and being the astute businesswoman that she was, Badia promptly began to recover from her losses. |
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The Casino Opera
When World War II began in 1939, it affected the clubs on Emad el Din street in a negative way. The area began to deteriorate and it soon became filled with soldiers and thugs who were unruly and difficult to control. Badia decided to move her club elsewhere. In the year 1940, with a loan from Bank Misr, she bought a large locale across from the Cairo Opera house in what was known as Ibrahim Pasha Square. The square was called thus because of the large statue of Ibrahim Pasha on a horse that stood right in the middle of it. It was also called Opera Square because it is where the old Cairo Opera house stood at the time. Badia's new and more luxurious casino was larger than her Emad El Din street clubs and it boasted the first circular stage in Egypt, a stage on which all the performers might be seen from every angle. On the front of the building in huge letters were the words "American Bar Restaurant Cafe and Music Hall". This grand sala was popularly known as the Casino Opera because of its proximity to the old Cairo Opera house. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This photo of the Casino Opera was taken in 1944 by an American soldier named Captain Charles M. Cook while he was on leave in Cairo. Click here for more information about Captain Cook's visit to 1940's Egypt. |
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Badia's Casino Opera was scheduled to open its doors to the public on November 14, 1940. There had been quite a bit of newspaper publicity for some time prior to this, announcing the grand opening for that night. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This advertisement, which appeared in Al Ahram on November 14, 1940, promotes the grand opening of Badia Masabni's new club, the Casino Opera. A translation is available. However, on the very day of the scheduled opening of the Casino, the Prime Minster of Egypt Hassan Sabry died on the floor of the Egyptian Parliament as he delivered a speech, apparently of a heart attack. Due to the national mourning and state funeral, every single casino, sala and theater in Egypt closed that day. Badia's Casino Opera postponed its grand opening until the night of November 15th. She generously refunded ticket money to those who had bought advance tickets and wished a refund. |
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Opening night at the club was a great success. People flocked to the inauguration of the Casino Opera. This legendary nightclub was where many of Egypt's brightest stars got their start and every dancer in Egypt and the Middle East dreamed of being one of Badia's dancers. It was the Golden Era of raqs sharqi. Badia also ran a dance school at this club where she not only trained the dancers herself but she also employed several high-profile dance instructors and choreographers of the time, including Isaac Dickson and Khristo Klaadax. They were in charge of training the dancers in various different genres of dance. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This photo shows Taheya Carioca, one of the dancers who headlined at the Casino Opera, in a scene from one of her motion pictures. |
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The End of an Era
In the year 1950, after 10 years of operating the most famous nightclub in Cairo, Badia Masabni decided to sell the Casino Opera. Several factors led her to make this decision. After World War II ended, Badia had decided to travel to Europe to look for new artistic talent and troupes that she might bring to Egypt to perform at her club. By this time she had forgiven her nephew Antoine for his episode with Beba and had made him the manager of the Casino Opera. She also invited him to come and live at her house. In addition to this, she had transferred the club to Antoine's name so that he might inherit it should anything happen to her. However, she still legally kept for herself the management and authority over the club as well as any income that it generated for as long as she lived. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This photo is of Badia Masabni. Upon her return from Europe, Badia was aghast to discover that Antoine was nowhere to be found. His clothes were missing from her house. To add insult to injury, her house stood completely empty. Badia then went down to her Casino to inquire about Antoine and was told that he rarely showed up there any more and that he'd neglected the club completely. On the few occasions that he did show up, he was always late. Patrons constantly asked about Badia and wanted to know when she'd be back, to which Antoine would simply shrug and claim that he didn't know when she'd be back. The Casino Opera had lost a large portion of its clientele because of this. |
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Furthermore, Antoine had begun a romantic relationship with Egyptian actress Soraya Helmi and he was so besotted with her that not only had he neglected the club but he had also spent all of Badia's money on his new mistress. When Badia confronted Antoine and demanded to know why he had behaved this way, he petulantly told her that he would sign the club back over to her if she promised to pay off all his debts. Badia ended up paying Antoine's debts for a sum of 8,000 Egyptian pounds, and Antoine also charged her an additional 2,000 pounds to sign the Casino Opera and another building in Garden City back over to her. Badia then set out to restructure her club and try to repair the damage that Antoine had done to its reputation.
It was during this period that Beba Ezz El Din came to Badia asking for forgiveness and Badia hired her once more, but Beba was rude and nasty towards the patrons, which made Badia extremely uncomfortable. Badia ended up firing her. This termination enraged Beba and she conspired with a lawyer friend of hers to try to force Badia to sell her club. They were unsuccessful in their attempts, but Beba began to spread the false rumor that Badia was going to sell her casino. In addition to this Badia was devastated by the death of her estranged husband Nagib El Rehani in mid-1949. She had hoped for a reconciliation with him and in fact they had both spoken of it shortly before his death. Now those hopes were dashed. After his death Badia travelled to Lebanon once more and she met a young Lebanese man with whom she fell in love. The young man told her that he dreamed of opening a bookstore but he needed her financial help to do so. He convinced Badia to give him the money. They made marriage plans and Badia returned to Egypt with the idea in her mind of selling the Casino Opera and returning to Lebanon to marry her young man and to help him open his bookstore. With all the setbacks and obstacles she had gone through in the past couple of years it was not a difficult decision to make. ABOUT THE PHOTO: Badia Masabni wears a Syrian dress. |
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Badia met with her lawyer and told him that she wanted 30 thousand pounds for the Casino Opera. She soon recieved an offer of 20 thousand pounds and she decided to accept it, not knowing that the offer came from Beba Ezz El Din. When Badia learned that it was Beba who wanted to buy the club she didn't refuse to go through with the sale; however, she did set down the condition that Beba was not to change the name of the casino after purchasing it. Beba, never one to pass up an opportunity like this immediately snatched it up, benefiting once more from Badia's name and hard work. (See Photo # 16) Beba in turn, owned the club until her death in a car accident on February 5, 1951. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This advertisement appeared in Al Ahram to promote the first season of the Casino Opera under Beba Ezz El Din's ownership on October 16, 1950. A translation is available. This was not the end of Badia's Casino troubles however. Due to negligence on the part of her lawyer, he had failed to inform Badia that according to a new Egyptian law, anyone who wanted to sell a business was obligated to inform the Tax Department of their intention to sell two months prior to the date of the sale. If they failed to do this they might be considered tax evaders and the Department would be free to tack on any amount of taxes that they wanted to charge on the sale. She would be obligated to pay them, or go to jail. The Tax Department was notorious for charging exorbitant and ridiculously unfair amounts. Badia was taken by surprise and was quite shocked by this because she had always diligently paid her taxes on the Casino Opera. She had no idea that she could be taxed on the sale of her club as well. |
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She quickly consulted with another lawyer for a second opinion and he confirmed what the first lawyer had told her. His advice was to sell everything she owned in Egypt as fast as she could; otherwise, it would certainly be confiscated. Badia promptly sold all her furniture and the three buildings that she owned in Egypt. At the same time, Beba, who had already taken over the Casino Opera, informed Badia that documents had arrived at the the club from the Tax Department stating that Badia was expected to pay 74,000 Egyptian pounds in taxes for the sale of her casino. That was three times as much as what she had sold it for.
Badia hastily collected all her jewelry and her money and took off for the airport to take a flight back to Lebanon, but at the airport she was detained and arrested. She paid a bail of 1,000 Egyptian pounds but she knew that she would be sent to jail or she'd lose all her money if she remained in Egypt. She decided that the only way she could leave was to escape. Badia was helped by a foreigner who charged her 2,000 pounds to put her on a private plane back to Lebanon and it was in this way that she finally left Egypt.
Among the first things Badia did upon her return to Lebanon was to request that her Lebanese citizenship be returned to her once more. She was reinstated as a Lebanese citizen on September 29, 1950 by decree # 3038. Badia and her Lebanese fiancé never married; however, she did eventually re-marry. She married a young man 22 years her junior, a gambler who apparently was after her money to keep up his gambling habit. She divorced him after only two months. He initially demanded 50,000 pounds for the divorce, but ended up accepting just 500 pounds. Badia Masabni retired to the country and bought a dairy farm which is still functioning to this day and is managed by her family members and heirs. ABOUT THE PHOTO: Taheya Carioca embraces Badia Masabni when visiting Badia at her dairy farm in Lebanon. More photos and translation of the text are available elsewhere on this site. |
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What Now Stands Where the Clubs Used to Be?
So, what has become of these legendary nightclubs of yesteryear where Musician, Politician, Actor, Military Officer and Dancer hobnobbed together during the glorious golden age of Egyptian cinema, music and dance? Today, in the place where Sala Badia Masabni once stood on Emad el Din street between the Majestic and the Semiramis Theaters, stands the Lido Cinema which was built in the 1940's. The Lido is no longer functioning. It was severly burned in a fire in the year 2000. Now it stands closed, its facade blackened and scorched. There were plans to restore the Lido and reopen it, originally intending to reopen it in 2011. |
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ABOUT THE PHOTOS: Both of these photos show the Lido Theater. Emad El Din street is no longer abuzz with night life, it's no longer the hub and meeting place of all the well known artists of the Arab world. Today it is a dark and quiet street lined with various shops and apartment buildings on either side. |
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Badia's summer casino, The Casino Badia in Giza City near the English Bridge is no more. The Sheraton Hotel Complex now stands in its place and English Bridge (which had also once been called Badia Bridge or Blind Bridge) was renamed El Galaa Bridge *The Exit Bridge* after the 1952 revolution in remembrance of the exit of British Troops from Egypt. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This photo shows what Opera Square looks like today. The statue depicts Ibrahim Pasha, and stands in the center of Opera Square. The old opera house which had given Badia's famous casino its name, burned down in 1971 and was rebuilt elsewhere. |
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In modern-day Opera Square, El Gomhoria Street now passes right through the middle of Opera Square. El Gomhoria street begins at Ramses Square and ends at Aabdeen Square. Today an 8 floor parking lot and government building stands in the place where the original Cairo Opera House once stood. (see photos #20, 21) ABOUT THE PHOTO: This photo provides a closer look at the building that now occupies the place of the original Cairo Opera House. Badia's famous nightclub would have been to the left of the site where this building now stands. |
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| ABOUT THE PHOTO: This close-up shows the writing on the façade of the government building which now stands on the site of the original Cairo Opera House. It says "Opera Office Building and Garage". |  |
The Casino Opera continued to function as a nightclub for some time after Badia sold it to Beba Ezz el Din, but after the popularity of the dance halls had passed, the grand club became a cafeteria and coffee shop until the 1970's. The beautiful building with its second story open terrace full of cafe tables adorned with umbrellas and potted plants was eventually torn down and a ten story mall was erected in its place. This mall stands today on the site where Badia Masabni's famous Casino Opera once stood and it's quite appropriately named The Opera Mall. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This is where Badia's Casino Opera once stood. Today it's a ten-story shopping mall called THE OPERA MALL. |
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| ABOUT THE PHOTO: This is another view of the 10-story shopping mall that today stands where Badia's Casino Opera once stood. |  |
| ABOUT THE PHOTO: A view from across the street of the OPERA MALL and the old Opera Cinema known as Cinema Badia... as it looks today |  |
| ABOUT THE PHOTO: A close-up view of the Opera Mall which stands today on the site where Casino Opera once was. |  |
Sadly, the Art Deco style Opera Cinema building which to this day is still known as Cinema Badia by old timers in the area, is the only reminder left of Badia Masabni's presence in the square. Cinema Badia still stands right next door to Opera Mall - closed, empty and forgotten, surrounded by a cracked and peeling fence that keeps out the curious, its once beautiful Art Deco facade is now faded and crumbling with age. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This is Cinema Badia, the last remaining building from Badia Masabni's complex in Opera Square. |
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Much like the old statue of Ibrahim Pasha who stands guard in Opera Square, Cinema Badia is a relic of an era past. ABOUT THE PHOTO: This is Opera Square today. The building on the left is where the Opera House once stood. The building in the center-right is where the Casino Opera nightclub was located and now Opera Mall stands. Ibrahim Pasha still sits astride his horse pointing off into the distance |
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Related Articles
Biographical
Badia, the Club Owner
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Interviews
Flyers and Ads
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About the Author
Priscilla is a dancer of Lebanese heritage who enjoys researching the Golden Era of Egyptian dance. She owns a collection of more than one hundred classic black and white Egyptian films which is continually expanding. Priscilla has also gathered a large library of dance related articles and clippings from Middle Eastern magazines and newspapers, many of which she has translated from the original Arabic to both English and Spanish. Priscilla currently resides in Central America where she is a dance instructor. |
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