No Dogs in Space: New York Dolls Pt I

Welcome to No Dogs in Space, the podcast that delves into the history of punk rock and its various subgenres. This week, hosts Marcus Parks and Carolina Hidalgo kick off a new series on the New York Dolls, a band that, despite their short-lived career, left an indelible mark on music history. The New York Dolls were a pivotal band in the early 1970s, blending glam rock, proto-punk, and a rebellious attitude that influenced countless artists.

The Genesis of Glam: Syl Sylvain's Early Life

Carolina begins by introducing Syl Sylvain, the guitarist and co-founder of the New York Dolls. Born Sylvain Mizrahi on Valentine's Day, 1951, in Cairo, Egypt, Syl's early life was far from the gritty streets of New York. His mother was of Syrian descent, and his father's family hailed from Turkey, but they all spoke French, the prominent language for many Jewish Middle Eastern people at the time. Syl spent his childhood in a very upper-class, downright wealthy family, residing in a nice penthouse apartment with a car and chauffeur. However, Syl wasn't a fancy kid. All he cared about was going to the movies and watching Western American singing cowboy movies, starring heroes like Roy Rogers.

Syl's dream of becoming a singing cowboy was abruptly shattered in 1956 with the Suez Canal Crisis. This complex international conflict led to the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser, taking ownership away from French and British interests. The French and British, along with Israel, planned military action to retake the canal. While the military operation failed, Nasser's political victory led to a massive increase in Egyptian nationalism and antisemitism. As Syl's father was a wealthy banker working for a British bank, the family's future in Egypt became precarious. Syl's father lost his job, and the family, along with other Jewish communities, faced harassment and danger. They couldn't go out shopping or walk down the streets without being called nasty names. Syl's family, being Jewish (his grandfather was a rabbi), found themselves in a difficult position.

With their money running out, Syl's parents, resourceful and hardworking, started making clothes in their living room to make ends meet. Their fancy apartment became a makeshift workshop, sewing shirts and pants on their dining room table. When food also became scarce, the family decided it was time to leave Egypt for good. After months of writing letters to every foreign embassy they could think of, they finally received a response from France. By Syl's eighth birthday, he and his family had settled in a small apartment on Rue Cadet in Paris. Their luxurious penthouse life in Cairo was replaced by a single-room hotel with nothing but a bucket to wash in, and the toilet was down the hall. Syl remembered Rue Cadet as a crowded, smelly, rat-infested, gross-ass street. However, it was also home to the Folies Bergère, Paris's most famous cabaret hall (second only to the Moulin Rouge). Syl, though too young to enter, would stand at the side door, watching as trucks unloaded dozens of costumes, feathers, sequins, and the most beautiful satins. This was Syl's first exposure to glitz and glamour, a world of shiny fabrics and sequins that would profoundly influence his future artistic endeavors.