Category: 50s to 90s

Found some old photos of Video Club in Salmiya I had taken back in 2011 before it closed down. Cassettes were being sold for 500fils and CD’s for 1KD.

At this point the store had shrunk to half the size and I don’t think the video rental upstairs still was around then.

I love interesting stories about Kuwait and this one is particularly fascinating because I was able to get so much information, photos, and newspaper clippings to go along with it. Last week I got an email from someone telling me that their dad back in 1970 became the first and only Kuwaiti to ever be drafted by the NFL. They wanted to know if I’d be interested in telling the story and obviously, I jumped all over it! I really wanted to know how someone from Kuwait in the 60s ended up in the NFL so I met with his two sons and managed to get the full story.

Back in the 60s, their father Maher Barakat graduated from Shuwaikh High School for boys and received a government scholarship to attend the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. When Maher was in Kuwait he used to play soccer with his friends and family and he was known to be a powerful striker who was accurate and usually scored a lot of goals. It was soccer that got him into the NFL, and it was also soccer that ended his NFL career.

During one of his PE classes in college, Maher was given an opportunity to Punt (kick) a weird-shaped ball into a U-shaped goal. He hadn’t played American Football before but apparently, it was very easy for him to kick the ball as he used to when playing soccer. The coach then asked him to do it again and Maher scored the ball again. The coach then moved him to different points around the field and kept asking Maher to try and score from there and Maher would keep kicking the ball through the posts. After completing the assessment, Maher was given an offer by the coach to join the college football team as their starting punter and Maher accepted the offer.

Though his punting style was unconventional (leaning more towards a soccer kick), Maher Barakat became a star at South Dakota. He ended up breaking college and division records, which is most likely how he was spotted by NFL scouts. Maher became really well known in his college town and earned the nickname Bear-Cat.

Maher was officially drafted by the NFL in 1970 and became the first football player from his college as well as the first Kuwaiti to ever be drafted to the pros. Bear-Cat was approached by a number of NFL teams such as the Denver Broncos, Dallas Cowboys, and St. Louis Cardinals but ended up choosing to sign with the Broncos.

In the summer after signing his NFL contract, Maher Barakat flew back to Kuwait to see his family and share the good news. Once back in Kuwait he was eager to play soccer with his friends just like he used to in the old days and that’s where the story takes a turn. Unfortunately while playing soccer with his friends, Maher ends up fracturing his toe. Even after healing, he couldn’t kick the same anymore and that was the end of his American Football career.

Maher eventually graduated and moved back to Kuwait where he worked in the Ministry of Electricity until the early 80s when he decided to leave to start his own business. He ended up opening what eventually became the popular video store, Blue Belt (حزام أزرق) and held the rights to WWF (now WWE) for the GCC (that needs a whole separate post). In the 90s he also became the partner in IVC, the video store located next to Fanar Mall.

Maher had kept all the newspaper clippings and photos from his college years and his sons passed them to me to share. There were a lot but I chose to share the ones I thought were the most interesting and informative. I’ve shared some in this post but you can download the PDF with all the articles, photos and letters I scanned by clicking this link Maher-Barakat.pdf

There is very little information about Maher online so I really appreciate that his sons decided to share this with me. According to them their dad doesn’t like talking about himself and so very few people know of his story and accomplishment. Hopefully, after today he’ll get the recognition he deserves.

Update (August 9, 2025): Maher Barakat passed away today. May he rest in peace.

A few years ago, I posted about digitizing your old videos using a video capture device that plugs into your computer. It’s a great way to convert all tapes, but the downside is you needed the actual tape player. If you just had videotapes but no means of playing them then the capture device was pretty much useless. This was my dilemma, I had an old Betamax tape of a school ski trip and no means to play it. I considered buying a Betamax player but the cheapest I found was 50KD and so wasn’t going to be worth it for just one video.

Someone ages ago told me Al-Nazaer converted videos but since all their stores closed down years ago I couldn’t just visit them and ask them about it. So last week while feeling nostalgic I decided to call their head office in Subhan and ask about it. Turns out they have a small media academy in Hawalli that was still functional, and that’s where their digital conversion studio was located.

I headed straight to the studio with my Betamax tape and headed to their conversion studio. I asked if they could convert Betamax tapes and they said yes and took my tape and played it on their screen so we could check and see if it was working. A few seconds later my 11-year-old self popped up on the screen.

It was the first time I had ever seen myself as a kid in the 80s on video and it felt SO WEIRD!

During the 1990 invasion, we took most of our family videos to Lebanon and stored them away in our family home without any means to watch them. So no one in my family has watched any of our family videos that were filmed in the 80s for 30+ years. Since I had no idea what was on this video and since I had never seen myself on video as a kid, it felt like I was watching a video of myself in another dimension. That’s the best way I could describe it in words, it was a very strange feeling.

But anyway, back to the subject of converting videos, Al Nazaer can convert any video format to digital. So camcorder videos like Hi8 or miniDV, VHS tapes and Betamax tapes are all no issues. The cost of converting depends on the kind of tapes you have and how many you want to convert. They charged me KD10 to convert a single Betamax tape and I got the footage on a DVD as well as a digital file. The more tapes you have the better price. Their studio is located on the first floor of the building across the street from Muhallab Mall. Their phone number is 1888900 and here is their location on Google Maps.

You can also find them on Instagram @alnazaer

I recently heard that they might be demolishing Mishref Palace and obviously if true, that’s upsetting. But also no surprise since there seems to be a general lack of care for old important buildings in Kuwait. Anyway here are some videos showcasing the palace back in the 50s and a video showing the state of the palace today.

I think this would be such a great location for an art museum, similar to the Getty museum in LA. Does anyone know the actual name of the palace since I might be able to dig out some old photographs and videos?

Yesterday @badshaiji posted the photo above taken back in 1975 of the old Kuwait Television studios that were located in Dasman. For those of you old enough, turns out that’s pretty much the same compound where Villa Moda and Mais Alghanim used to be located. I didn’t realize that location had previously been the KTV studios and offices so I decided to pass by after work and explore the area.

The last time I visited that compound I think was around 6 years ago. I was looking for a location for an event and decided to check out the old Villa Moda building. Back then it looked like some businesses were occupying the various buildings in the compound but when I passed by yesterday it was completely deserted.

There was nobody there and nearly all of the buildings had their roofs caved in and were in a horrible state. I actually ended up banging my head on a fallen beam so now I have a big bruise across my forehead. I should learn to keep my hard hat in the car so I could use it on these spontaneous explorations.

It’s pretty sad that this is all that’s left of the old studios. The compound is pretty big and I could have seen these buildings being utilized for so many things from restaurants, to design and photography studios to a museum celebrating Kuwait’s rich broadcasting and theater past.

If you want to know the exact location of this abandoned compound, here it is on Google Maps.

For someone that spends so much time trying to dig up stuff on Kuwait I don’t know how I just found out there was an English newspaper back in the 60s and 70s in Kuwait called “The Daily News”. I found two copies of the newspaper this weekend while sifting through a pile of old newspapers at an old books and magazines sale in Sulaibiya and was completely caught by surprise since I didn’t know this paper ever existed.

One copy is dated Wednesday August 16, 1972 while the other Wednesday October 17, 1973. The newspaper is described as “Leading Political Daily Newspaper in Arabian Gulf” and Edititor-in-Chief was Fahed Al Massaeed. The newspaper was published by Al Rai Al Aam and was launched in 1963. I’ve found no information about it online which is why I never knew about it.

Both issues mostly covered international news but there were a few articles and ads in the papers that were super interesting. For example, one paper had a TV guide while the other one had a radio guide. Then one of the issues had a section called Kuwait Dateline which must be equivalent to a 1970s version of Twitter. Actually, I thought Dateline was really bizarre, why would random people reading the newspaper be interested in this info I have no idea, and they’re so detailed! For example:

Al Haj Nicola Abu Khater, Bristol Hotel Manager flew for one day – stay in Lebanon which he spent with his children in Aljtoun.

It must have been a thing they did back then because traveling wasn’t so common?

Another interesting article I found was regarding the acquittal of the editor-in-chief of the Al-Siyassa newspaper Ahmad Jarallah from the charges brought against him. I only know of Ahmad Jarallah because he’s constantly in the news, always being referred to the public prosecution or always having charges against him dropped. So seeing this article from 1973 which wouldn’t seem out of place today put a smile on my face. He’s STILL the editor-in-chief of the Al-Siyassa newspaper today and he’s STILL getting in trouble with the courts, I love that!

Anyway, I’ve uploaded all the interesting bits from both papers and you can check them out above and in the post below (click on more).

I found a ton of old ads online and decided to go through them and pick out the most memorable ones to me growing up in Kuwait during the 80s. I think the one that caught my interest the most was the Al Khalejiah Complex ad. So very few people remember that when Al Khalejiah Complex originally opened it was one large department store. The only reason I remember it is because that’s where I used to go get my Legos from so it was pretty cool finding this commercial.

The Samsung and Indesit commercials were also great finds since I used to find their tunes extremely catchy as a kid. Anyway check out the full list below of my favorites:

7up
Al Khalejiah Complex
Americana 1
Americana 2
Coast
Crest
Dalal Oil
Filfila
Fotofast
Hardees
Hungry Bunny
Indesit
Kiri 1
Kiri 2
Kit Kat
KDD 1
KDD 2
Kentucky Fried Chicken
Kitco
Kuwait Dairy Co
Like Cola
National Bank of Kuwait 1
National Bank of Kuwait 2
Pepsi
Pizza Italia 1
Pizza Italia 2
Safeway
Samsung
Shani
Sultan Center 1
Sultan Center 2
Sunkist
Tikka
Toyota
Wazza Tea
Zest

If you want to go through all the commercials and find some other ones, click here.

Since it’s an odd posts day, here is another one. For those of you who aren’t aware, the first UFO sighting in the Arab world was in Kuwait back in 1978 and then again in 79. Reports of the sightings were published in newspapers and even the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) got involved.

I’ve posted about the sighting before but this morning I found an interview with the photographer who captured photos of the UFO (Ali Shash) as well as an eye witness who contacted the press. The interview was shot the same week as the sighting since the eyewitness starts off by stating it was Friday 11:30AM when he spotted the UFO from his window which faces the Qadsia stadium. Very interesting stuff and I love that this interview is available online to view.

I don’t recall this place at all and only found out about it recently. It was owned by Mahmoud Alghanim, the same person behind Pizza Italia and Prego and I believe it opened towards the end of the 80s or early 90s. It was located right next to the Kuwait Towers which is why I find it odd that I don’t remember it.

Back in 2009 I posted a scan of a liquor permit dating back to 1964 when alcohol was still legal in Kuwait. But a few days ago a friend of mine sent me a photo of a liquor permit which looks to be in really good condition. Kinda makes me want to find one so I could frame it.

One thing I’ve been trying to find for over a decade now is photos of the Gray Mackenzie liquor stores. Supposedly there was one location in Seef and I’m guessing there were other locations like in Ahmadi but I can’t find a single photo of one anywhere!

Anyway, here is a link to an article in TIME magazine dating back to 1965 talking about how alcohol was banned in Kuwait.

Thanks friend, owe you cookies

Update: A reader just sent me the picture below of a Gray Mackenzie liquor store from back in 1958 when alcohol was still legal. Based on the decorations it looks like it was taken during the Christmas season. This photo is also supposedly of the location opposite Seef. I couldn’t find a higher resolution photo but it’s a start!

Last week I found this old 80s KDD advert and one thing that struck me about it was the sheer amount of flavors that don’t exist anymore. And, on top of all the missing flavors, turns out KDD had push-up ice cream (back row, right of the Rockets)which I don’t ever recall. Also if you’re wondering about the blue and green colored ice cream sticks in the back, the green is coconut flavored but the blue I’m not sure. You’ll also notice two Columbia flavors, turns out they’re both similar except one doesn’t have the ice cream center.

Between 1895 and 1909, Russel Hamilton an English petty officer made various voyages from Egypt to Japan stopping along the way. One stop was Kuwait where he took these two black and white photographs with captions on the back.

The caption on top reads:

Shiek of Koweit and followers. Note that some have covered faces, fearing evil eye of camera.

The caption below reads:

Taken during bombardment of Koweit. Somali outrage led by the “mad mullah” – Sheiks Pallace Koweit

If you’d like to see these photos in hi-res, click here.

Source: Smithsonian Institute

Back in 2017, I attended a talk by Prof. Alberico B. Belgiojoso titled “The 1970 Vision for Kuwait City” where he shared some various interesting plans that never got implemented. One plan to help reduce traffic congestion in the city center included building multistory parking lots on the outskirts of the city and then connecting them to the city center and various office towers via suspended monorails. Since that talk I’ve been trying to find a decent photo of the proposal and the best I’ve been able to find is the one above which I scanned from a booklet I borrowed off a friend. It’s a government booklet titled Urban Development in Kuwait “التطور والعمران قي الكويت”.

Thanks @_M87

Yesterday I uploaded some old photos of Family Bookshop to Flickr which I had taken back in 2011 before they closed down. I had always assumed that the Salmiya location of Family Bookshop was the first and only branch but turns out that wasn’t the case,

The Family Bookshop started off as bible shops around the region by the Danish Missionary Society with the one in Kuwait opening up in 1910. But in the 60s, as part of their literature mission they decided to build a new concept called the Family Bookshop Group (FBG) with the following objectives:

• To print the Gospel
• Encourage dialogue between Muslims and Christians
• Provide all Christian churches in the region with literature and auxiliary materials, provide society with quality literature and other books primarily in Arabic and English
• Seek the best possible cooperation with various Christian churches
• Develop a self-supporting organization by efficient leadership
• Offer education and encourage Arab Christians to become booksellers
• Develop cooperation between the bookshops and coordinate a future development

From what I could gather there were two Family Bookshops in Kuwait. One at the American Mission Hospital (now the Amricani Culture Center) which opened in 1969 and pictured at the very top of this post. Then there was a second branch located in Salmiya which also opened up in 1969 (pictured above).

I think it was Salmiya because in the photo above taken outside their 1969 location, the building in the background on the far right of the photo looks like the building in Salmiya which the Family Bookshop we know was located in. I believe the building they were in got demolished so they moved to the location across the street in 1971 (pictured below).

The Salmiya Family Bookshop which most of us know eventually closed down in February 2013 when they were evicted from their premises and the building demolished.

The store manager at that time who you might recognize if you were a regular was Jaswinder Singh. He joined Family Bookshop in 1979 as a part time accountant before eventually become the manager. He’s now retired and back in India, but his daughter runs the bookstore @little_bees_books

I managed to find a bunch of incredible photos of the Family Bookshop in Kuwait in the 60s on the University of Southern California library website. I’ve uploaded them all to Flickr and you can view them here.

Also if you want to check out photos of Family Bookshop Salmiya before they closed down, click here.

Update: This post was updated with more information and the closing down date was adjusted from 2012 to 2013.

A few days ago Mahmoud Alghanim, a pioneer in the local restaurant industry sadly passed away. Mahmoud was the creator of the popular pizza concept “Pizza Italia” as well as the Italian concept “Prego”. Considering the popularity of the concepts, there is oddly very little information on the brands online which is why I was always hoping to meet him so I could document his story and make it available to everyone.

From what I gather, Pizza Italia opened sometime in the mid-80s (1984?) and had at least 16 locations. They were open at least till 2005 since that’s when I took the photo above.

Prego, on the other hand, I found the CV of their executive chef “Luca Umberto Voncini” online so I have a bit more information. Based on his CV they opened their first location in Dalal Complex in Salmiya in 1993 and then closed it in 1995. This was the same location where their Pizza Italia branch was previously located. They had two other Prego locations, one in Mangaf and one in Kuwait City. Those opened up in 1996 and closed in 1997.

Both concepts were under the mother company “Arab Food Service Co.”

An accident in front of Pizza Italia Riqqa Coop branch in 1987.

I’ve started scouring the internet to try and find as many photos, commercials, and information related to the brands so I can put them all under one post. If you have ANYTHING related to both brands, a menu, a business card, anything no matter how insignificant you think it is please let me know.

Tidbit: The popular Pizza Italia commercial above was filmed in Salmiya, in the old souk on Salem Al Mubarak Street. It was directed by Nick Cate on a hand-cranked 16mm Bolex camera. The music was composed by an Egyptian composer called Mohammed Al Banna. The actor running in the commercial is a Lebanese actor but I don’t have his name.

Update: Managed to get some dates!

Pizza Italia opened in 1983 with its first store in Daiya. They ended up closing the whole brand in 2005.

Prego opened in 1993 with its first store in Salmiya, Rabih Building (now demolished), followed by another store on the Gulf Road in Sharq. Prego also closed down in 2005.