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This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.

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Sunday, January 21, 2007

entry arrow10:12 PM | Do We Still Make Stars Like These?

It's already a shame that most Filipinos do not know the vast tradition of cinema we have. It's even more shameful that when we are asked to name movie stars of old, especially the goddesses who have tickled our fancy, foremost in our mind are always Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner, Audrey Hepburn, Rita Hayworth, and other similar silverscreen vixens. Then again, one can go to any local video store and come away with virtually nothing in terms of stock from our film heritage. Which is sad, because when we compare the likes of Sandara Park, Pauleen Luna, Kim Chiu, Toni Gonzaga, and other contemporary actresses with these...



... today's girls more than pale in comparison. They wilt. We had goddesses the likes of Paraluman, Gloria Romero, Amalia Fuentes, Nida Blanca, Carmen Rosales, Lolita Rodriguez, Etang Ditcher, Mary Walter, Bella Flores, Susan Roces, Rosa Mia, Charito Solis, Daisy Romualdez, Corazon Rivas, Rebecca del Rio, Lita Gutierez, Zeny Zabala, Marlene Dauden, Myrna Delgado, Alicia Vergel, Luisa Montesa, Barbara Perez, Delia Razon, Mila del Sol, Tita Duran, Leonor Vergara, Lani Oteyza, Norma Blancaflor, Cynthia Zamora, Lilia Dizon, Norma Vales, Priscilla Cellona, Tessie Quintana, Emma Alegre, Carmencita Abad, and Olivia Cenizal, among many other Sampaguita, LVN, Premiere, and Lebran stars. What glorious, and intereseting, faces they had then. Today, most of them are lost in obscurity, condemned there by our collective cultural amnesia -- or they have become mere vinegar from the deteriorating celluloid of our unarchived old film titles left to rot in miserable conditions.

And so, today, we simply make do with Angel Locsin with the strange Adam's apple.

[Click here for a brief history of Philippine cinema. All pictures found in the Pinoy's Tambayan Classic Film Actresses Forum.]

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