Gorgeous men in ‘beauty’ contests

Three male "beauty" contests are scheduled during the first quarter of the year, kicked off by the 2007 Manhunt International held in South Korea last Feb. 12, won by Mr. China. The Philippine bet, 23-year-old Roldunne Jimenez Mendoza, didn’t make it even to the semi-finals but finished first runner-up in the Best Runway Model special-award competition.

Tomorrow, Feb. 17, the 2007 Mr. Philippines-World will be chosen from a field of more than two dozen aspirants on German Moreno’s late-late-night show Master Showman Walang Tulugan on GMA 7. The winner will compete with more than 50 equally gorgeous men from the same number of countries in the 2007 Mr. World contest to be held on March 31 in Sanya, China.

Now, did you know that male "beauty" contests are as old as female beauty contests, dating back to the early ’50s, with some of local movies and high society’s gorgeous men as winners and runners-up?

(Trivia: Did you know that Alfie Lorenzo was a Mr. Luzon back in the ’50s?)

Let’s take a look at the list, furnished Funfare by "the other beauty expert" Celso de Guzman Caparas.

JESUS "OG" RAMOS — One year after he was named Mr. Philippines (1951), Jesus was discovered by Premiere Productions which cast him as the title role in Og, his movie debut. The movie was such a hit that it spawned follow-ups: Si Og sa Maynila (1953), Si Og sa Army (1954), Si Og sa Singapore (1957) and Lo’Waist Gang at si Og sa Mindoro (1958, with FPJ). Jesus died of prostate cancer in 1992.

CESAR RAMIREZ (real name: ARLEN QUINDOY AGUILAR — He was already an "extra" and doing "supporting" roles at Sampaguita Pictures when he finished first runner-up (Mr. Luzon) to Jesus in the Mr. Philippines contest. Cesar’s victory prompted Sampaguita to cast him as the title role in Bernardo Carpio, with Alicia Vergel, who would become his wife, as leading lady. (Trivia: Cesar was with the 7th Regiment during the Liberation and worked with the US Fire Service. He died of cardiac arrest in 2003 and is survived by children Ace and Beverly.)

ROMEO VASQUEZ (real name: Ricardo Sumilang) — He was proclaimed Summertime King of 1957, along with Cora Cruz as Summertime Queen. The pageant was sponsored by the Philippine Youth Association.

LUIS GONZALES, NESTOR DE VILLA and JORGE "NENE" ARANETA were among the 22 candidates in the 1955 search for Texas King. The contest, won by Romy de Guzman, was held on Feb. 26, 1955, at the Malacañang Park in connection with the Texas Carnival, sponsored by the Manila Youth Circle.

Luis was a Law student at the Philippine College of Law when he was discovered by Pancho Magalona in 1954, a year before the Texas King contest. He got a Special Recognition Award at the 1965 South Korean Film Festival for Iginuhit ng Tadhana (where he played former Pres. Ferdinand Marcos, with Gloria Romero as former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos).

Nestor (real name: Gines Francisco Soriano) was introduced in LVN Pictures’ Amor Mio in 1951, along with Nida Blanca. Also a gifted dancer, Nestor was once known as the Fred Astaire of the Philippines.

Jorge would later marry 1960 (and the first) Miss International Stella Marquez Zawadsky (of Cali, Colombia), now head of the Bb. Pilipinas Charities, Inc. The couple will celebrate their 45th wedding (Sapphire) anniversary on Sept. 8 this year.

LUIS GONZALES, ROMEO VASQUEZ and JORGE ARANETA were also among the 57 finalists in the 1956 Binatang Filipino search held on April 21, 1956, in Parañaque, along with WILLIE SOTELO, MANDING CLARO, CARLOS "CALOY" LOYZAGA and FERDINAND "FERDIE" VILLAR. The contest was sponsored by Dons Club of Manila, Student Youth Club and the Gay Cardinals

Willie played basketball for the Jose Rizal College in the 1953 NCAA (the team finished third) and became an LVN star in 1956. His first movie was Easy Ka Lang, Padre (topbilled by Nida Blanca and Nestor de Villa).

Manding was one of LVN’s matinee idols in the ’50s. His first movie was Tin-edyer (1954).

Caloy (the father of Bing, Teresa, Joey and Chito) is considered by many as the greatest Filipino basketball player of all time and will go down in history as "The Big Difference, The Great Difference."

A two-time Olympian, Caloy played for the national team in the 1952 and 1956 Olympics in Helsinki and in Melbourne respectively. He led the Philippine national team to a bronze-medal finish in the 1954 FIBA World Championship and was named to FIBA’s All-Star Mythical Team of Five. He retired in 1964 after a luminous 15-year career.

Ferdie would later become a pageant organizer. He spearheaded the Miss Republic of the Philippines from 1965 to 1976, the same contest which produced several actresses, including multi-awarded Elizabeth Oropeza (one-time Miss Luzon), Evangeline Pascual (winner, 1973, and first runner-up in that same year’s Miss World contest), Eva Reyes (winner), Suzanne Gonzalez (winner), Beth Bautista (finalist), Carmen Ronda (semi-finalist), Bessie Badilla (one-time TV actress, runner-up) and Anna Bayle (runner-up) who became the first Filipina international model. Ferdie is now based in San Francisco where he continues his "mission" of discovering and building up more beauty queens and kings.

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