Rebetika songs, an expression of the popular and marginal classes of the city, passed during the inter-war period in the so-called Smyrni period. After the Asia Minor Catastrophe and during the decade 1922-32, bands with dulcimers, violins, and ouds prevailed, and with famous singers such as Marika i Politissa, Rita Abatzi and Roza Askenazy, who put their special, "oriental" mark, to the music development of the kind. The next decade was characterized, as "classical", as it was defined by the musical output of big names of composers and virtuosos, such as Markos Vamvakaris, Bagianteras, Batis, Yannis Papaioannou, Stratos Pagioumtzis. The prevailing musical instruments were bouzouki and baglama (tiny bouzouki), while the record production was promoted. Rebetika songs however, but also folk songs occasionally, were heard in the performances of Karagiozis, by bands accompanying the new heroes of a very old kind of popular theatre, the shadow theatre. The yards of famous Karagiozis players, such as Spatharis and Mollas were filled, and characters such as barba-Yorgos, sior Dionisis or Kollitiri were acclaimed. A relatively new character, that of Stavrakas or Nontas, was the link between the shadow theatre and the world of rebetika songs. These two kinds were cultural manifestations of the daily routine of people from various geographical and cultural environments that came to live in the city, a city- crossroads between the past and the present.