PHILIPPINE

FESTIVALS:
PHILIPPINE BODABIL
(VAUDEVILLE)

VAUDEVILLE
Is

theatrical genre of variety entertainment

Popular

in the United States and Canada

from the early 1880s until the early 1930s.

Typical

vaudeville performance is made of

series of separate, unrelated acts grouped
together on a common bill

 Type

of acts have included popular and

classical musicians, singers, dancers,
comedians, trained animals, magicians,
female and male impersonators,
acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers,
one-act plays or scenes from plays,
athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels,
and movies

A vaudeville performer is often referred to as

a vaudevillian

Vaudeville developed from many sources,

including the concert saloon, minstrelsy,
freak shows, dime museums, and literary
American burlesque called the the heart of
American show business, vaudeville was
one of the most popular types of
entertainment in North America for several
decades.

 Vaudeville

in the Philippines, more

commonly referred to as Bodabil, was a
popular genre of entertainment in the
Philippines from the 1910s until the mid1960s.

For

decades, it competed with film,

radio and television as the dominant
form of Filipino mas entertainment.

 It

peaked in popularity during the

Japanese occupation in the Philippines
from 1941 to 1945.

Many

of the leading figures of Philippine

film in the 20th century, such as Dolphy ,
Nora Aunor, Leopoldo Salcedo and
Rogelio de la Rosa, began their
showbusiness careers in bodabil.

Bodabil is an indigenized form of

vaudeville, which had been introduced in
the Philippines around the turn of the 20 th
century.

It featured a hodgepodge of musical

numbers, short-form comedy and
dramatic skits, and even magic acts,
often staged inside the theaters of
Manila.

 Around

the beginning of the American

occupation of the turn of the 20th
century, stage entertainment in the
Philippines was dominated by the
Spanish-influenced komedya and the
newly emergent zarzuela (or
sarswela).

 In

order to entertain American troops

stationed in the Philippines, vaudeville
acts from outside the Philippines were
brought in to provide entertainment.

As

early as 1901, a leading Manila

theater, Teatro Zorilla, would promote
some of these visiting vaudeville
troupes as Novelties in Manila.

 During

these early years of vaudeville in

the Philippines, most of the featured
entertainers were non-Filipinos.

By

the middle of the 1910s, a few

Filipino performers would begin to
appear in vaudeville acts as well.

The zarzuela star Atang de la Rama was

among the first of such performers, as well
as the singer Katy de la Cruz, who first
appeared on Manila stages aged 7.

The routines they would perform were

featured as intermission numbers in between
sarswelas. These intermission numbers were
sometimes called jamborees.

1920 a Filipino entertainer named Luis Borromeo

returned from North America, renamed himself Borromeo
Lou, and organized what became the First bodabil
company.

The main showcase of Borromeo Lous company was an

orchestral band, which played what he called ClassicalJazz Music, and variety acts in between.

Borromeos band is credited as having popularized jazz in

the Philippines.

It was also Borromeo who dubbed the emerging form as

vod-a-vil, which soon became popularly known by its
Filipinized name, bodabil.

1923 there were three theaters in Manila that were exclusively

devoted to bodabil.

1941 there were 40 theaters in Manila featuring bodabil shows.

The popularity of bodabil was not confined to Manila stages.

Bodabil routines were also staged in town fiestas and carnivals.

The typical bodabil shows would feature a mixture of

performances of American ballads, torch songs and blues
numbers; dance numbers featuring tap dancers and chorus girls
and jitterbug showcases; and even the occasional kundiman.

Within that period, established performers such as Katy de la Cruz

and Borromeo Lou continued to thrive.

New stars also emerged, such as the singers Diana Toy and
Miami Salvador; the dancer Bayani Casimiro and the magician
and Chaplin imitator Canuplin.

Many leading lights of Philippine cinema began their entertainment

careers in bodabil during this period, such as Rogelio de la Rosa,
Leopoldo Salcedo, Dely Atay-Atayan and Chichay.

Bodabil thrived despite the emergence of Filipino film productions.

Many moviehouses featured bodabil performances in between

screenings, and many film and bodabil stars frequently crossed
over from one genre to the other.

The Japanese invasion of the Philippines in late

1941 led to a halt in film production in the
country, at the insistence of the Japanese who
were not keen to allow Western influences to
persist within the country.

Bodabil however was permitted, and it became

the predominant form of entertainment in the
country.

Many film actors whose careers had been stalled

became regular performers in bodabil shows.

 Among

the performers whose careers

were jumpstarted during this period
were Panchito Alba, Anita Linda, Rose
Mia, the tandem of Pugo and Togo, and
Dolphy, who started under the stage
name Golay as a comic dance partner
of Bayani Casimiro.

Many bodabil shows during the war incorporated subtle

anti-Japanese soldiers wearing multiple wristwatches on
both of their arms, and they were soon briefly
incarcerated for that spoof.

There were comedic and dramatic skits that referred to

the impending return of Mang Arturo, an illusion to
General MacArthurs promise, I shall return.

Even guerilla members attended bodabil shows, and

when word reached the performers that the Kempetai
were due to arrive, theyd break out into a special song
that served as code to the guerillas to leave the
premises.

Following the end of World War II, film production in the

Philippines resumed, and many of bodabils stars either returned
or shifted to cinema.

Bodabil however remained popular for the next two decades.

A large credit to bodabils continued popularity can be attributed

to Lou Salvador, Sr., a performer with the stage name
Chipopoy who shifted to production after war. Salvador would
become the most successful stage show impresario in the 40s
and 50s. He organized several bodabil troupes and discovered a
new generation of bodabil performers, such as the comedians
Chiquito, Cachupoy and German Moreno, the singers Pepe
Pimentel, Diomedes Maturan and Eddie Peregrina.

Bodabil continued to capitalize on the latest

trends in Western entertainment.

It featured popular Latin dances such as the

mambo and cha-cha, or the boogie, which was
popularized by Chiquito.

When rock and roll emerged in the 1950s,

bodabil showcased Eddie Mesa, who became
known as the Elvis Presley of the Philippines.

 In

the late 1950s, singers such as the

Nora Aunor, Elizabeth Ramsey, Pilita
Corales and Sylvia La Torre also plied
the bodabil circuit.

Bodabil

had also started to incorporate

burlesque numbers into its routines.

1960s bodabil had to complete as well with the

rise of commercial television broadcasts in the
Philippines.

It underwent a swift decline, and by the late 1960s,

the form drew on the limited market for its
burlesque routines.

The emergence of bomba films around 19691970, which killed off burlesque, also marked the
end of bodabil.