– Paraluman’s legendary status in Philippine showbusiness merited her an inclusion in the lyrics of Ang Huling El Bimbo, one of the most popular songs of Filipino rock band Eraserheads. –

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Patay sa kembot ng bewang mo
At pungay ng ‘yong mga mata

—- Ang Huling El Bimbo, Eraserheads

Paraluman was born in Tayabas, Quezon, of a German father and a Filipina. At her prime, she was considered as the Philippine’s answer to Swedish-American actress Greta Garbo because of her perfect bone structure, svelte figure, long brown hair, hypnotic eyes, an impenetrable gaze, and a face capable of registering everything.

She died of heart attack last Monday at 85.

The young Paraluman was a movie fan. She loved reading magazines about her favorite celebrities. Her interest in showbiz increased when she learned that their next-door neighbor was the big movie star, Corazón Noble. She would often climb over the fence to catch glimpse of the actress.

Her curiosity yielded positive results because Noble’s younger sister, Lily, noticed her and soon, Paraluman became friends with Lily.

Because of her extraordinary beauty, Paraluman was recommended by Norma, another sister of Corazón, to Luis Nolasco of Filippine Films. She was only 17 at that time. Her first movie was Flores de Mayo (1940). She first used the the screen name Mina de Gracia. It was later changed to Paraluman by Fernando Poe Sr., who signed her as a full-fledged star in X’otic Films’ Paraluman (1941). This was followed by the actresses’ roles in the films Bayani ng Bayan and Puting Dambana.

Ang Huling El Bimbo

After World War II, she came back to cinema as a contract star of Sampaguita Pictures. She then became a famous leading lady in romantic movies, but when she made a comeback, her image was repackaged by Sampaguita Pictures owner Dr. José “Doc” Pérez. She was given character roles, playing nemesis to Gloria Romero in Hongkong Holiday, then a lame woman in Tanikalang Apoy(1959). This, however, turned to her favor because it honed her acting skills more, earning her a FAMAS Best Actress Award for the movie Sino ang maysala?.

Paraluman was also nominated four times in FAMAS: twice in 1959 for Best Actress for the movies Bobby and Anino ni Bathala, in 1972 as Best Supporting Actress for Lilet, and in 1976 as Best Supporting Actress for Mister Mo, Lover Boy Ko.

Her last movie was “Kailan Sasabihing Mahal Kita” in 1985.

Her daughter, Baby O’Brien, was a TV-commercial-model-turned-actress. Her granddaughter, Rina Reyes (O’Brien’s daughter) is also an actress.

Paraluman’s legendary status in Philippine showbusiness even merited her an inclusion in the lyrics of Ang Huling El Bimbo, one of the most popular songs of Filipino rock band Eraserheads.

(SOURCE: telebisyon.net)

I was cleaning the toilet bowls of the San Carlos Seminary College in Mabolo, Cebu City in 1993 when I heard a song by the Eraserheads for the first time. The music came from a house just outside the seminary’s west wall, from a room where the owner’s daughter would sometimes treat us seminarians to long-distance striptease at night.

I froze, a bottle of muriatic acid in one hand and a toilet bowl swab in the other. Who was this guy warbling about his house being small yet clean, pati sa kusina? And what was my favorite childhood rhyme “pen pen de sarapin de kutsilyo de almasin” doing in the song? What decent songwriter would use Skyflakes and Coke 500 in his lyrics? And what guts to base his song on Nat King Cole’s “Too Young.”

But for some reason, the song seemed to threaten my dream of becoming a priest-musician. The seminary was teaching me classical songwriting and here was this frisky, bouncy tune threatening to undermine the seminary fathers’ efforts. The song sounded irreverent – and one couldn’t afford to be irreverent in the seminary — and yet I was enjoying it, without a tinge of guilt. It just blew me away.

I asked my classmates if they had heard of the song and the artist. They said they hadn’t, and they were not interested. They’d been singing “Diosnong Magtutudlo” (Heavenly Teacher) all their life, any music from the radio was the devil’s creation. And they had toilet cleaning to do, please. But I was determined to know more about this raw sound that made me pause and listen, and doubt my vocation.

With the Internet and cell phones still unheard of, and the limited TV hours allowed us, the best place to do my research was the library. There were newspapers and national magazines there, our only contact to the entertainment world outside. Surely they could provide me with information. So I rushed there after my toilet assignment and begged the librarian to please allow me a few hours’ extension because I was doing a research on the Spanish Inquisition.

From a Sunday magazine I learned the band was called Eraserheads and the song was called “Toyang,” a cut from their debut album “UltraElectroMagneticPop!” The article listed down all the other songs in the album: “Easy Ka Lang,” “Maling Akala,” “Pare Ko,” “Shake Yer Head,” “Ganjazz,” “Ligaya,” “Tindahan Ni Aling Nena,” “Honky-Toinks Granny,” “Shirley,” “Walang Hiyang Pare Ko,” “Combo on the Run.”

The article also carried a picture of the group. In plain shirts, torn jeans and old chucks, the four guys called Eraserheads looked no different from the istambays drinking “mestisa” (a mix of gin and beer) at the sari-sari store across the seminary gate.

In our dormitory that night, I couldn’t sleep. The song kept playing in my mind. If “Toyang” blew me away at first listen, were the other songs equally mind-blowing? I hated the prohibitions in the seminary. I envied college students outside who could listen to the Eraserheads anytime they wanted to.

I waited for “Toyang” to play again on the radio from the house outside the wall. Then a few minutes and I was watching the hazy figure of the girl moving rhythmically to a different song but whose irreverent appeal was now familiar to me. The girl wasn’t strip dancing this time. She was simply head slamming, occasionally hitting imaginary drums, and shouting at the top of her voice, “Di ba, ‘tangina!”

sun.star opinion, september 2, 2008