Boulevard of Stars / A tour with Zainab Abaza on the Street of Stars
Stars : Rushdi Abaza
جولة مع زينب أباظة في شارع النجوم

A tour with Zainab Abaza on the Street of Stars

I received a call that made me happy one Ramadan evening from my dear friend Mrs. Zeinab Abaza, the sister of the late artist Rushdi Abaza. She congratulated me on my writings in Star Street, so I told her that we must take a tour to relive some of the funny memories that are being told for the first time about Rushdi. She said that Rushdi was certainly a friend of your father and had many appearances in Al-Mawed magazine, but I will tell you about an incident that happened in my home. I invited my husband and I to a dinner party at our home in the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon. Rushdi was there and a friend and his wife arrived. By chance, the wife sat next to Rushdi and a conversation took place between them about his films and roles.

The husband felt jealous, so he insistently asked his wife to change her seat more than once, saying, “Get up, Samia.” Rushdi felt angry at the way he spoke and said to her, “Sit down, Samia.” The husband insisted and Rushdi told her to sit down, until Rushdi suddenly shouted, “There is no notary here to divorce this woman and I will marry her.” As soon as my sister Munira and I heard this, we immediately took him to the balcony, suggesting that this was one of Rushdi’s jokes.

Samia is still my friend until now, and she is now eighty years old. When I last met her, I joked with her, saying, “If you had agreed, you would have been the widow of the star Rushdi Abaza by now.” We laughed... All my memories with Rushdi, may God have mercy on him, were funny and unforgettable.

This image has been converted from the original medium format film, resulting in a sharp and detailed image.

By May Serbey Chehab, from the Book "Boulevard of Stars: The Golden Age of Arab Entertainment".