Young Susan Roces (1941-), ca 1962

Colorized one of few better vintage photos of beauties in the Philippine cinema. Here is Susan Roces, the direct rival of Amalia Fuentes in the race as the most beautiful face and most popular actress during the golden age of Philippine movies (1950 - 1970), She is now a widow of screen action star Ronald Allan Kelley Poe, better known as Fernando Poe, Jr.

Young Amalia Fuentes ( 1940 - ) during her early years in Philippine movies.

Amalia Muhlach Fuentes from Naga, Camarines Sur in the Philippines is a Filipino actress and former Movie Queen and superstar of Philippine cinema. She was once dubbed the Elizabeth Taylor of the Philippines and is acclaimed as the most beautiful face in Philippine cinema. She is the aunt of actors Aga Muhlack and Nino Muhlach, mother of actress Liesl Martinez who died of cancer in 2015.

Colorized photo of Audrey Hepburn (1939 - 1993), ca 1954

Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), colorized photo, ca, 1954-56

Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993)

Colorized a promotional photo of the doe-eyed, swan-neck Hollywood icon of beauty and fashion, the late Audrey Hepburn, taken by Bud Fraker for her film Sabrina.

Colorized photo of Barbara Perez (1937-), the Audrey Hepburn of Philippine cinema

Restored and colorized with some liberties, a small photo of Barbara Perez, regarded as the Audrey Hepburn of the Philippine cinema.  To some extent, she did look a bit better than her Hollywood counterpart during her early years in the industry, appearing in a Hollywood film No Man Is An Island with Jeffrey Hunter (known for his role as Jesus Christ in King of Kings) who was considered a matinee idol. It is quite sad that the Philippines do not have a wealth of vintage photos for its movie stars published on the net, the way Hollywood has even for its movie stars of the 1920s.  Worse, current photos from online resources do not benefit from glamour shots and most of them are either amateurish studio shots or from tabloids of the period.

Amalia Fuentes and Romeo Vasquez, ca 1960

Colorized one of the most popular and celebrated love teams in Philippine Cinema history in the late 50s and one of the few who eventually tied the knot, but eventually separated.  Amalia Fuentes (1940 -) and Romeo Vasquez (1939 - 2017, Romeo Sumilang in real life).  They had a daughter Leizel who also entered show business in her prime, also married her love teammate Albert Martinez, but succumbed to cancer at age 47.

Gloria Romero (1933-) multi-awarded Philippine movie star, colorized 1954 photo

One of the few survivors of the golden age of Philippine Cinema, ca 1940 - 1960, with a career spanning over 40 years and over 200 films in the movie and TV industries. 

Colorized photo of a Philippine "jeep" in the Bimnondo area, a Chinese commercial community.

Filipino ingenuity after the war led to the widespread conversion of several Chrysler Jeep transport abandoned by the U.S, forces after liberating Manila from the Japanese in 1945.  Pictured here colorized is a unique but odd-looking "Jeep" that used the cowling of a 1939 American Bantam speedster modified into a jeepney and plying the San Nicholas route in Binondo, 1949.

Arcada de Quiapo a small commercial building along Quezon Boulevard, Manila, 1949

Colorized a vintage 1949 photo of a busy commercial district in Manila, Philippines, the Arcada de Quiapo along Quezon Boulevard.  The building in the foreground looks like the Quiapo Church, The car fronting the store was in the same model year, the 1949 Ford Wood Wagon with a V-8 engine and considered rare as a 2-door station wagon that became a success for the Ford company that year. 

Colorized Kalesa with 2 GI solders offloaded, 1949

Colorized a 1946 photo of a couple of GIs paying 1 peso to the boy for taking them across Pateros to Fort McKinley as the road bridge between them was destroyed during the war, and motor transportation was cut off. The kalesa was the only means of transport to connect the two. That peso is now worth close to Php700 in today's inflation and exchange rate.

That GI soldier looked quite tall, but not so, It was the Philippine horse that was short. Most photos I have seen put a horse as neck or breast high with a man standing beside it, not waist high as in this photo.

Colorized kalesa (caritela) or carriage in the Phillipines after WWII, Sept, 1949

Colorized a photo of a slow rainy day in a commercial district in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, Philippines, Sept. 1949 by Jack Birns for Time, Inc  The Kalesa or Karitela was the main mass transport means in the Philippines prior to, during, and immediately after WWII, before jeepneys converted from old GI issues of the Chrysler Jeep military vehicle abandoned or left by US forces in the Philippines became the main mode of mass transport. 

Barbara Perez (1937-), colorized from a promo still for "No Man is an Island", 1962

Labeled the Audrey Hepburn of the Philippines due to her near-identical doe eyes, pixie face, swan-like neck, and 19-inch waistline, Barbara Perez in her youth looked better than her Hollywood counterpart. She appeared in No Man Is An Island, a  1962 Hollywood movie with Jeffrey Hunter (King of Kings, The Searchers) and became one of the more famous Philippine movie stars who eventually married Robert Arevalo, a fellow star with whom she often appeared and formed a love team in the 60s.

Eddie Pickett Gutierrez (Feb 1943 - ), Philippine actor and matinee idol, colorized from a photo ca 1959

Philippine actor on film and TV, and matinee idol of the 60s, the Fil-American Eddie Guttierrez had his first serious role in the 1959 movie Handsome and have appeared in over 170 films.  He migrated to the US late in the 60s but returned to the Philippine to resume his acting career in 1975 with more mature roles. His films are listed here 

Gloria Romero (Galla), Filipina actress (1933-) colorized

Colorized a photo of the young Gloria Romero, ca 1950. She is a multi-award actress who has appeared in both film and TV in a career that spans 60 years with almost 200 films and is the first recipient of the lifetime achievement award from the Philippine MTRCB (Movies and Television Review and Classification Board).

She first appeared in her first movie as an extra in Ang Bahay sa Lumang Gulod and was introduced to local cinema as "Gloria Romero" in her first lead role in Monghita (1952) opposite Oscar Moreno. She received her first major acting award in Filipino Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences (FAMAS, the Philippines counterpart of the Oscars) as Best Actress for her role in Dalagang Ilocana (1954).

She has appeared as a drunken landlady on TV sitcoms (Palibhasa Lalake) and with the late Eddie Garcia in a TV melodrama  Maalaala mo Kya in 2008 and continues to take on demanding roles as a grandmother in several movies and films. Here life and works are essayed at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Romero_(actress)