FeaturedCultureFamily Histories
The Saroyans, Chance Encounters and a Briefcase of Coffee
Over a year ago, I uncovered a relatively forgotten story on the transfer of William Saroyan’s ashes from the United States to Yerevan, Armenia, where they were subsequently buried at the Komitas Pantheon. My report was based on research I conducted using online and print sources. This was when I discovered that my great-grandfather, Armenian playwright Aramashot Papayan, had been a part of this historic transfer and was one of the leaders and members of the Yerevan delegation that went to Mos
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Very interesting piece! Thank you for sharing this story. I’d like to point out that the individual standing third from the left in the third photo is probably not Razmik Davoyan, as mentioned. It could be worthwhile to investigate the actual identity of this person.
Great story. Not enough is written about our American armenian history and the figures who left should an important imprint.
If I remember right, William Saroyan’s cousin was Ross Bagdasarian, who had an interesting career progression:
*He appeared as the pianist in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”. There’s a photo from the set of Hitch pouring water on RB like a plant.
*He did the song “Witch Doctor”, but had to use the pseudonym David Seville, as celebs weren’t supposed to sound ethnic.
*He created Alvin and the Chipmunks. He got the names Alvin, Simon and Theodore from some execs whom he met while recording “Witch Doctor”.
Fantastic read
Shedding light posthumously on events related to our Great Values.
There was also another Papayan, wasn’t there? Rafael. He was an MP in the 90s. But he is never mentioned.