California dreamin'

SACRAMENTO, California — Pardon my ignorance (blush, blush!) but I didn’t know that Sacramento is the capital of California until two months ago when my friend Raoul Tidalgo and I came here upon the invitation of Raoul’s fellow Boholano Liklik Schroeder and her husband Gene Roger Schroeder. Raoul flew from San Antonio, Texas, where he was vacationing with his sister Cora (a nurse) to L.A. to keep me company during the press junket for High School Musical 3: Senior Year (starring Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens who is half-Filipina) and Quantum of Solace (Daniel Craig’s second outing as James “007” Bond).

Raoul and I went, as the song says, “California dreamin’” on such an autumn weekend.

During the four-day gap between the two junkets, Raoul and I hied off to this city where we reunited with three Filipino actresses who are happily retired. Of course, you remember the ’60s bombshell Miriam Jurado (of Premiere Productions/People’s Pictures), Vilma Valera (who had a good track record as a singer-actress before she turned “bold,” showing her own version of the “wet look” as the title role in Salambao, produced by the Nemesio Yabut who later became Mayor of Makati, which predated the trend kicked off by Gloria Diaz in the 1974 sex-drama Pinakamagandang Hayop sa Balat ng Lupa and Lucita Soriano (widow of character actor Rodolfo “Boy” Garcia, who figured in a hair-pulling spectacle with fellow sex siren Stella Suarez and ended up with a deep cut on her face inflicted by Stella with a broken bottle).

The much-awaited reunion proved to be the highlight of the party held at the new house (a few turns away from the Thunder Valley Casino where Nora Aunor was once sighted) of birthday celebrator Nestor Guerrero and his doctor-wife Luz who both work at Kaiser Permanente.

Liklik said that Miriam and Vilma jokingly asked her to “warn” Raoul and me that she had grown “bigger” and not to expect to see her the way she did in the ’60s. They looked healthier, all right, but after only a few minutes into the reunion, Miriam and Vilma started to look to us as they did back then — still beautiful, that is, the excess “years” notwithstanding.

On the other hand, Lucita has retained her figure (she finished second to Mina Aragon, with Juliet Pardo the third-placer, in the ’60s Premiere-sponsored search for a star to play the lead role in I Believe).

Earlier that day when we stopped over for lunch at a mall on our way from the airport (with Liklik at the wheel) to the Schroeders’ house, we “playtimed” Lucita whom we saw near the entrance, seated behind a table on which were displayed necklaces and bracelets made of beads and other trinkets.

“Magkano po ito?” we asked Lucita, holding up a bracelet.

“Hindi po pinagbibili,” she said, looking up from whatever it was she was writing. “Binibigay po sa mga nagdo-donate.”

It turned out that Lucita is a fund-raiser representative of the Philippine Children’s Fund of America (“Building Better Lives and Stronger Communities”), a 17-year-old charity organization which, among other objectives, helps Amerasian children trace and reunite with their fathers, sustain the educational needs of Aeta children in the indigenous communities, help build school buildings in different parts of the Philippines, operate feeding centers and sponsor the Lakbay Puso project which is said to be “a life-changing travel mission to the Philippines” for young Fil-Ams to enable them to know more about their roots and heritage.

Lucita took a long, hard look at Raoul and me and said, “May kamukha kayong reporter sa Pilipinas.”

When Raoul and I asked her who, Lucita touched her forehead while trying to recall who, and said, “Sina ano...si kuwan...ay ewan, nakalimutan ko ang kanilang pangalan.”

It was only when we burst out laughing did Lucita’s memory kind of clear up. After lunch at the South Villa restaurant (owned and managed by Ben Cu and his family), we left a styrofoam-ful of food for Lucita.

“See you at the party tonight,” Liklik reminded Lucita.

Miriam and Vilma lived near the Guerreros’ house and they were among the early arrivals.

“For a long, long time, I’ve been coming and going to the States,” volunteered Miriam, “because since 1944 nandito na ang Tatay ko. My father, Francis Eisenman, was American so even if I was born in the Philippines, my citizenship has always been American. Jurado is my mother’s surname. Her name was Concepcion and she used to appear in LVN movies as a mataba at matapang na tiyahin.”

Miriam started as a child star at LVN Pictures, playing the little Lilia Dizon in Kandelerong Pilak. She was discovered by Lamberto Avellana. From 1957 to 1959, she did several LVN movies, most of them with Marita Zobel, Chona Sandoval, Luz Valdez and Lou Salvador Jr., and then she moved to Premiere Productions where she achieved stardom. Her first-starring picture was Pautang ng Langit, followed by those starring Eddie Mesa (Aawitan Kita, etc.), several costume pictures (Apat na Agimat, etc.) and dramas.

When she turned free-lancer, Miriam starred in action films, such as Ikaw O’ Ako (in which she did an erotic love scene with Romeo Vasquez who left her lips bleeding from a passionate kiss).

“My most memorable film was Somewhere My Love, starring Eddie Rodriguez and Carmen Soriano. That’s where their romance started. Maliit lang ang role ko pero markado.”

She quit showbiz in the early ’70s and has been living in this city since then, working as a pharmacy-technician until she retired a few years ago, and is now leading a leisurely life. She never married.

Miriam and Vilma have been friends from way back, forming what they call “The Big Three” with former actress Lyn D’Amour, Rey Ramirez’s (of Reycard Duet) widow who is based in Las Vegas. Their friendship endures.

A Bicolana, Vilma is Vilma Johnson in real life, whose father was also American.

“I had a bypass three years ago,” said Vilma whose ’60s hit songs included It Must Be Him and One Day.

She was 15 in 1960 when she was discovered by LVN character actor Alfonso Carvajal (Alma Concepcion’s grandfather) and introduced in Bakit Ka Nagtampo? (directed by Tony Santos Sr.), topbilled by Nida Blanca and Nestor de Villa. When LVN closed shop soon after, Vilma signed a contract with Larry Santiago Productions which loaned her to other companies.

“I really wanted to be a singer, so I joined a band. We would play in Asian cities, like Okinawa, and when came back I would do a movie or two. Then, alis uli kasama ng band. In one of those trips home, I did a few movies with Sampaguita (Way Out in the Country and Pogi with Eddie Gutierrez, among them). I did films with other companies, including Salambao for Zultana Productions.”

She migrated to the US almost at the same time Miriam did. She married Darrell Moro by whom she has a son, 34, and a daughter, 31, both married with one child each.

“After my husband died 30 years ago, I did not work because my husband didn’t want me to. He wanted me to just raise our kids. But I got bored so I started working with a financing company. After 10 years, I decided to retire.” 

Asked what, if they do, miss about showbiz, Miriam and Vilma said, “This,” gesturing around the room where a videoke sing-along was going on. “The camaraderie.”

Then, the three of them — Miriam, Vilma and Lucita — stood up to join the singing and the dancing, enjoying the party in gay abandon,

relishing the “old home” weekend as if they had never been away from showbiz.

It was showtime, folks!

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