,” says Salpi Ghazarian, director of the USC Institute of Armenian Studies. They carried heavy burdens, including traumatic memories, she adds, “but they were also ambitious [in] wanting to survive and thrive. And music, food and church were the paths to thriving. Guy Chookoorian gave them a light way of being Armenian, a mirror to their own homes and families, in humor, with warmth.”
has long been home to ethnic Armenians. During the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish forces intent on controlling its eastern border embarked on a murderous campaign to ethnically cleanse the region. Armenians fought back. They immigrated to America in 1922 and gave birth to Gaidzog and his sister Dziadzan not long after. One possible sign of their hopes in America can be found in the names of the two children. “Gaidzog means ‘lightning,’” Arakelian notes, “and Dziadzan means ‘rainbow.’ Like, ‘We made it through the darkness and now we have an opportunity for a brighter tomorrow.’”
“He was always a funny guy,” says Arshag. “He told me that when he was a kid when he went to the library he would only check out books on comedy. He studied humor, so he started doing jokes at Armenian functions.” Chookoorian never achieved enough acclaim in any one endeavor to become a star, but in him, collector Arakelian saw a figure not only determined to make it as an entertainer but eager to be a translator for the Armenian American community.