Journal of the Vague Years by Virgilio A. Reyes, Jr.

Book Review: The Diary of Lilian Velez, Chronicle of a Star and a New Nation, 1944-1948.
Archivo 1984 and Arc Lico International Services, Pasay City and Quezon City, 2022

Cover photo of the book, The Diary of Lilian Velez, from a publicity photo of LVN Pictures’ Enkantado (1948) showing Lilian Velez with her new leading man, Jaime De la Rosa.

Few are the diaries of individuals that record the thoughts, impressions and reflections of Filipinos on Philippine history, a highly personal, and painstaking labor so essential for rounding out and giving color and perspective to important periods in the life of our nation. Hence, it is surprising that such an articulate mirror of events should come from the pen of an emerging actress of the immediate postwar period, Ms. Lilian Velez.

Today, she is little known and remembered; her brilliance as a comet on the silver screen was tragically snuffed out at age 24 by her fellow actor and co-star Narding  Anzures in 1948.

Her name and memory might have gone forever into oblivion had not her daughter, Vivian Climaco Ocampo, supported by the co-publishers, Archivo 1984 and Arc Lico International, and the able team of Isidra Reyes, Renz Spangler, John Brian de Asis and Gerard Lico, persisted in putting into publication her personal diary of the years 1946 and 1948. Vivian did not even see the product of her efforts as she herself passed away in 2021.

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74 yrs after her death, Lilian Velez’s diary reveals a colorful life before that gruesome end

In diary entries now compiled in a book, readers will meet the independent-minded singer-actress whose legacy was overshadowed by her death in the hands of her screen partner

The Diary of Lilian Velez shows a different facet to the singer-actress.

“A piercing scream, blood-curdling and long cut through the friendly stillness of the night, blade-like.” 

So goes the opening line of Ruben T. Jose’s article in the entertainment magazine, Movie Confidential, about the murder of Filipina star of radio and screen Lilian Velez. Written a few years after the sensational crime elicited shockwaves worldwide, it reported about the early Sunday morning when police found the actress’ body. “The prowlers (the Philippine Constabulary or P.C.) were speeding to Pulog Street at Sta. Mesa Heights, in response to an anonymous phone call reporting ‘something tragic’ that happened at the residence of the Climacos.”

The report goes on: “As police officers entered the fashionable chalet, a housemaid announced with tragic finality: ‘Lilian Velez is dead!’ Police officers found the sala furniture topsy-turvy. Chairs and tables were overturned and shattered, ornamental glasses littered the floor. At the center of the room was a blot of blood, the beginning of a crimson trail to a bedroom. A policeman, entering the bedroom, was taken aback. 

The publication of the book, “The Diary of Lilian Velez,” by Archivo 1984 and Arc Lico, with an introduction and annotation by this author, was Vivian’s commitment to the perpetuation of her late mother’s memory. As Vivian herself wrote:

“This isn’t just a diary.  It is an intelligent and  insightful commentary of the Pre-war Era, the Japanese Occupation, the Liberation, and the (Post-War) (re)-building of a nation. It is told from the perspective of a 22-year old housewife, mother, actress, singer, dancer, all rolled into one…A budding young star,,,she looked forward, with enthusiasm, to the rosy promise life seemed to hold out to her, Her bubbly personality, zest for life, and spontaneity of character won for her many endearing friends…She had big dreams for the future and had it all planned out, never knowing that two days after her last entry in her diary, she would be murdered in the presence of her only child, This diary was compiled by that child 67 years after her death.”

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A NEW PHOTOBOOK CAPTURES THE EARLY DAYS OF MANILA'S RAVE SCENE

Filipino photographer Eddie Boy Escudero has released an archive of vintage images in a new book called When We Danced

In 1996, Filipino photographer Eddie Boy Escudero was handed a flyer that read, "look out for the Bat signal." Intrigued by the invite, he and a friend hunted for it in Manila's Rizal Park. What he found would become known as the capital's first established non-club rave, which was held in the Philippine National Library.

"We were hooked immediately by the music, which we had never heard before," Eddie said to Mixmag Asia. "People were dancing inside and the library had stalls offering tattoo artists, street clothes, art and more. There were pole dancers and half-naked men in angel wings!"

Another party followed, this time in the basement of the newly built Shangri-La Mall. And then another in a production studio, until it became more regular and the parties began attracting international artists like Goldie, Ken Ishii, Derrick May, Laurent Garnier and Juan Atkins, who were billed alongside founding members of the local Filipino electronic music scene.

"I don't know what caused it, but an underground scene developed," Eddie explained. "People started to dress up. Their hair turned yellow and pink. More and more bodies were inked. Fashion designers became rockstars, and glow sticks became cool."

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A Glimpse Into The Life Of Douglas MacArthur’s Filipina ‘Mistress’

The late actress Isabel Rosario Cooper performed the first kiss in Philippine cinema in the 1926 silent movie Tatlong Hambog. Incidentally, the first silent movie in the country, Dalagang Bukid, was released 100 years ago today or on Sept. 12, 1919.

She performed the first on-screen kiss in the country. And she was called a “mistress” of Douglas MacArthur — the US Army general assigned in the Philippines who became renowned for the words “I shall return” — even if he was free to marry her. She appeared in bit roles in Hollywood films. At the age of 46, she committed suicide.

The mysterious life of Isabel Rosario “Dimples” Cooper piqued the curiosity of multi-disciplinary artist Miljohn Ruperto while researching on the life of MacArthur. Ruperto’s first exhibit featuring Cooper’s film clips, photographs, a script and a video imagining the life of the late actress was first mounted in 2014 by Koenig and Clinton, an art gallery in New York.

A scene from a movie where the late actress Isabel Rosario Cooper appeared and presented in the exhibit of Fil-American artist Miljohn Ruperto at the Archivo 1984 Gallery in Makati City from Aug. 15 to Sept. 6, 2019. Photo by Nathalie Tomada, The Philippine STAR

Here’s how the late Vic Delotavo made posters without Adobe Photoshop

Our rich film heritage wouldn’t be complete without iconic movie posters, and a huge part of it—especially from the ’70s to ’90s—is embedded in the work of Vic Delotavo. Unfortunately, the veteran movie poster designer has passed away last Saturday, May 18. How do we remember him now?

Vic Delotavo first worked in the mid-’70s in the publishing industry of Manila. Back in Iloilo, he was quite a vital element in theater as he designed sets and costumes. Then, fast forward to the ’80s, Delotavo began designing posters for Philippine Cinema. Soon after, this artist became the most prominent designer of film posters including Peque Gallaga’s Oro, Plata, Mata (1982). It was no surprise when Regal, Viva, and Seiko—the past’s big time studios—eventually picked him up to work on paper visuals of more films.

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Life At a Distance

The famous ethnographer Pierre Verger combined both skills, producing photo-books on South America and the “African diaspora” (read: slave trade, which had one of its bases in Brazil). He also captured Cuba, Peru, Bolivia and immersed himself in their cultures, so much so that he adapted the name “Fatumbi” (“He who is reborn”) and was initiated in the mysteries of the “babalao” (very much like our own babaylan or shamans.)

Born in Paris in 1902, he became enthralled with anthropology — as did most French intellectuals of the 1930s. He was sent to Shanghai as a journalist to cover the war and instead found himself fascinated, on a short side trip, by the Philippines in 1934.  He would return in 1937 to travel the country from Ifugao to Sitankai, which he described as its last island in the south.

Downtown Manila (1937-1938): The Tabacalera Building, “in the style of the Alhambra of Cordoba”

Downtown Manila (1937-1938): The Tabacalera Building, “in the style of the Alhambra of Cordoba”

FROM PALACES TO RUINS: The Story of Manila’s Dearly Missed Cinemas cum Architectural Wonders

"Evolving from viewing halls such as the Salon de Pertierra and the Cine Walgrah to converted, ill-ventilated warehouses, basements, or bodegas like the Cine Orpheum and Cine Cervantes, to theaters for the performing arts such as the Circulo Teatro Zorilla and the Manila Grand Opera House, these [structures] evolved into film palaces beautifully designed by foremost architects of the period highlighted by murals, sculpture, and grillwork created by equally renowned artists of the time. Indeed, watching movies in the Golden Age of Cinema was a total experience where one could enter a “palace” and lose oneself in make-believe worlds for the price of a movie ticket and a bag of popcorn.”

Post-WWII ruins of State Theater seen in the distance. Photograph by John Tewell

Post-WWII ruins of State Theater seen in the distance. Photograph by John Tewell

The First Filipino Movie Star in Hollywood is a Woman

Elena Jurado was from the rustic seaside town of Sibonga, Cebu, but fate led her to the US where her steely ambition led to a career in movies. In this feature pieced from the extensive research of writer Wilfredo Pascual, we chart the journey of this “Island Cinderella” from being billed alongside Hollywood hotshots until her fairy tale took a different turn.

Still photo showing lead actor Victor McLaglen with Girl #1 in Panama, Elena Jurado, in Howard Hawks’ A Girl in Every Port (1928). Photo courtesy of Wilfredo Pascual

Still photo showing lead actor Victor McLaglen with Girl #1 in Panama, Elena Jurado, in Howard Hawks’ A Girl in Every Port (1928). Photo courtesy of Wilfredo Pascual

Lights, camera, Archivo 1984

Archivo 1984, the unconventional art gallery focusing on contemporary art, is closing shop this year but will reopen in 2020 as a film archive, a library of rare books, and a service for digitizing old films.

Its name was coined in the same year the owner—who requested anonymity—started collecting artworks, old books and film memorabilia at age 8.

Archivo 1984 has had a large collection of Filipino movies, documentaries, rare footage of artists and filmmakers. To maximize the space on Chino Roces, it held film screenings to attract cineastes, who didn’t have to go to CCP or the University of the Philippines to watch vintage Filipino movies. The screenings also drew the film crowd to the art exhibits.

Vintage 16 mm movie projector shows bits of Dimples Cooper scenes from Hollywood films at Archivo 1984. —NELSON MATAWARAN

Vintage 16 mm movie projector shows bits of Dimples Cooper scenes from Hollywood films at Archivo 1984. —NELSON MATAWARAN

Why Danny Zialcita was one of PH cinema’s true bad boys, and how his actors loved him

His films have been dismissed by critics as mere glossy melodramas, escapist, elitist, irrelevant, and far-removed from the social realism of a Lino Brocka, the social satire of Ishmael Bernal, the scope and breadth of an Eddie Romero epic. But Danny Zialcita never gave much importance to criticisms and never cared about critics. In an interview with movie journalist, Arthur Quinto in 1983, he declared: “I am not in a social revolution...I am not a rebel with or without a cause. My aim is just to please the public...to entertain...Very few people would like to see depressing things. Depression is felt everywhere. Will you pay P 5.50 [the price of a movie ticket then] to be depressed? My kind of fun is to see long queues — people lining up to see my movie...People who see my films are paying their hard-earned money, and that is an achievement by itself. Hindi ba mas masarap ang maraming tao ang makakagusto ng pelikula mo kaysa mga sampu o labindalawa lang?”

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Crazy, glamorous world of Danny Zialcita in a tribute show

Zialcita dominated the cinema in the late 1970s and much of the 1980s. He was famous for films with very long titles: “Gaano Kadalas and Minsan?”, “Nagalit ang Buwan sa Haba ng Gabi”, “ Hawakan mo at Pigilan ang Kahapon”.

Writing his own scripts, Zialcita is known for his poetic dialogues delivered in machine-gun speed: “Puwede bang makausap ang ang asawa ko na asawa mo na asawa ng bayan?” Laurice Guillen famously asked Gloria Diaz over the phone in “Nagalit ang Buwan”. Ang sala sa init, sala sa lamig, iniluluwa ng langit, isinusuka ng Diyos”, said Vilma Santos to Nora Aunot in “Si T-Bird at Ako”.

While he is remembered for films with narratives that dealt with infidelity, betrayal, love and lust among the beautiful, rich and the tormented, Zialcita actually began his directing in the 1960s with action films like “Palos Strikes Again!”, :Hammerhead” and “Bart Salamanca”.

Danny Zialcita with Elizabeth Oropesa and Pinky de Leon in “Kabiyak” (1980)

Danny Zialcita with Elizabeth Oropesa and Pinky de Leon in “Kabiyak” (1980)

Newly Discovered Bonifacio Movie

People recall Sampaguita and LVN Pictures, but not Manila Talkatone Studios. It was established in 1932 by George Musser and its first film “Ang Aswang” starring, not surprisingly, a young Mary Walter, was considered when it came out a year later, as the first talking picture in Philippine cinema. Musser’s house in Pandacan, known as the Musser/Telmo house, became the studio, where many of their films where shot. The original house still stands today and should be declared a national cultural treasure because of its importance in the development of cinema in the Philippines.

From left: George Musse, Vicente Bonus, Gilda Gales, Eduardo de Castro, and a scriptwirter shooting a scene for “Andres Bonifacio”. Photo courtesy of Lito Bonus

From left: George Musse, Vicente Bonus, Gilda Gales, Eduardo de Castro, and a scriptwirter shooting a scene for “Andres Bonifacio”. Photo courtesy of Lito Bonus

This Pandacan House was a 1930s Movie Studio, Birthplace of the Pinoy Talking Picture

In the second of a series of stories on Philippine cinema, in celebration of its 100th year, Isidra Reyes takes us inside the arched gate of the Musser/Thelmo house in Pandacan — address of the 30s movie studio Manila Talkatone where the first “talking picture” came to life.

Pandacan District of Manila would also give birth to what would become a favorite location for movie-making from as early as the 1930s: The Musser/Thelmo House at 1149 Teodora San Luis Street, formerly 167 Calle Fraternidad. Built circa 1920s, it is a two storey concrete structure on a 760-square-meter lot that appears to be a hybrid of the bahay na bato and Spanish Colonial Revival styles. 

On the same street where the house stands one also can still find the magnificent ancestral house of former Manila City Mayor Miguel Lopez Romualdez (1924-1927), where the young Imelda Romualdez grew up, and the former Pio Pedrosa House at 121 Calle Fraternidad. On the same street likewise stood the former homes of Padre Jacinto Zamora and Ladislao Bonus, Father of Philippine Opera.

The Musser-Telmo House at 1149 Teodora San Luis Street (formerly 167 Calle Fraternidad, Pandacan, Manila.

The Musser-Telmo House at 1149 Teodora San Luis Street (formerly 167 Calle Fraternidad, Pandacan, Manila.

He has done movies with FPJ, Dolphy & two National Artists, but you don’t know his name

In our continuing series of stories on Philippine cinema, in celebration of its 100th year, we put the spotlight on this unheralded art director/production designer whose mementos were only recently discovered. Vicente Bonus’ career began in the pre-war era, survived the big studio closures, and even pulled off a classic from the Second Golden Age. So why don’t you know him?

In his eye-opening lecture held at Archivo 1984 last month, film archivist and historian Teddy Co lamented that while we are commemorating 100 Years of Philippine Cinema this year, so many great names who have contributed to it have fallen by the wayside. “We have a very, very poor sense of archiving and also documenting our history, (especially) our Filipino movie history”.

Photo of a young Vicente Bonus, circa 1930s. Photograph courtesy of Lito Bonus

Photo of a young Vicente Bonus, circa 1930s. Photograph courtesy of Lito Bonus