We’ll miss you, Nida!

First of two parts

Nida Blanca found dead – with 13 stab wounds.

This piece of gruesome news made me rush over to the Atlanta Center Building along Annapolis Street in Greenhills where her body was found yesterday morning at the backseat of her car (a dark green Sentra with plate No. UBJ 547).

According to the investigation, Nida, a member of the Movie and Television Review & Classification Board, left the MTRCB office located at the 32 and 33rd floors of the Atlanta Center Building at 5:08 p.m. She was supposed to go to her car at the building’s 6th level parking area. (Nida is her own driver.)

From MTRCB, she was scheduled to proceed to a wake in Makati where friends were expecting her. When she failed to show up at the wake – and especially when she didn’t return to her White Plains home last night – her family began to worry. The people at home called up the Atlanta Center Building to inquire what time she left MTRCB and if her car was still there. The car was there, all right, but Nida was nowhere to be found. (There is this theory that she must have been picked up by another vehicle the afternoon she left MTRCB and returned later to Atlanta Center to return to her car after her evening engagement.)

At 8 a.m. yesterday, a roving guard found her body at the back seat of her car which had been parked at the building’s 6th level since noontime of Wednesday.

I accompanied Gen. George Alino when he went to check the building late yesterday morning, but pieces of evidence found within the area where still being studied as of this morning. (Startalk is doing an in-depth story on Nida Blanca’s life and death this Saturday on Channel 7.)

Gen. George Alino also gathered at the MTRCB boardroom some of the people in the office who were with Nida Blanca during yesterday’s review. Among them were MTRCB chairman Alejandro Roces, vice chair June Keithley and members Joe Lad Santos and Jaime Fabregas.

The violent death of Nida Blanca sent shock waves to the entire nation and even to Pinoys overseas who have all loved her as a popular movie queen of the ’50s and a television icon from the ’60s all the way to this generation.

Nida Blanca was born Dorothy Jones to American John William Jones II and Innocencia Acueza in Gapan, Nueva Ecija on Jan. 6, 1936.

As a child, she became the subject of a vicious tug-of-war between her father and her mother who had to kidnap her just so they could stay together. Nida spent most of her childhood in Gapan where – even then – she already excelled in the field of singing and, especially, dancing in school presentations.

At the age of 13, Nida and her mother moved to Manila to continue her high school studies (at the Adamson University) and to perform in amateur shows.

She was so determined to become a movie star that she went to audition at the three big studios then: LVN, Sampaguita and Premiere. All three turned her down. She was too young and was told to return when she had grown a little taller.

In a town fiesta where she performed sometime in 1951, the special guest was Delia Razon, then the reigning queen of LVN. Mustering enough guts, Nida approached Ms. Razon and asked to be presented to Doña Sisang of LVN Pictures.

Although Nida could have been a possible threat to her throne (which eventually was what happened), Delia still went out of her way and helped the young showbiz aspirant.

Before proceeding to Doña Sisang’s house in Broadway Street in New Manila, Delia gave the teener a thorough overhaul to make her look older. She also told Nida to tell Doña Sisang a little white lie about her age. As per Delia coaching. Nida told the LVN matriarch that she was already 16-going-on-17. (She was actually only 15 then.)

Doña Sisang was visibly impressed with Nida and immediately cast her in Reyna Elena. Other movies followed -including Amor Mio which marked her first team up with Nestor de Villa who will always be identified as her leading man in many of her LVN movies.

In the 1952 movie Korea, she was made to play the part of Lee Ming, a Korean girl Boni Serrano fell in love with while he was a soldier fighting in Korea. The story of the film was based on the accounts of then Korean War correspondent Benigno Aquino Jr. who supposedly dated Nida Blanca for some time. Korea made Nida the first recipient of the FAMAS Best Supporting Actress Award in 1952.

But in spite of her FAMAS trophy (which she won for a serious movie), LVN continued to cast her in light musical comedies – still with Nestor de Villa. Together, they did Dalawang Sundalong Kanin (also with Pugo and Tugo), Hijo de Familia, Iskwater, Waray-Waray, Luneta, Ibong Adarna, Talusaling, Ikaw Kasi, Easy Ka Lang Padre, Turista, Ganyan Ka Pala, Turista, Tingnan Natin, Wala Kang Paki and Anak ni Waray.

While Nida continued to make money for LVN by doing light musical comedies, her contemporary in the studio, Charito Solis (who passed away on Jan. 9, 1998), went on to do heavy dramatic movies and won a string of FAMAS best actress trophies. This proved to be a bit of a frustration from Nida Blanca’s end then. She wouldn’t win a best actress award until 33 years later.