Beauty that doesn’t fade with age

At 69, Gloria Romero has been tapped to endorse – no, not Sustagen Prime, that milk product formulated for the elderly. No, she’s not the spokesperson for a retirement plan either. And horrors, no – she’s not selling adult diapers on television.

In spite of those well-earned lines on her still queenly face, Ms. Romero had been signed up recently to become the latest image model for the Ricky Reyes chain of beauty salons.

No, she’s not competing with the other Gandang Ricky Reyes model, Ruffa Gutierrez. She is out to capture another market instead – the glamorous grandmothers, thus the catch phrase: Ang ganda ng lola mo, ‘no!

On Feb. 4, Ricky Reyes is even putting up a big show for Gloria Romero at the AFP Theater to launch her as the newest endorser of his beauty salons. Ms. Romero will be joined by Ruffa and the other members of the Ricky Reyes beauty salon family: Sherwin Ordoñez, Roxanne Barcelo and Angel Locsin, who are part of the Ricky Reyes Gandang Kabataan group, plus Tanya Garcia, her mom and two sisters who are being packaged as the Ricky Reyes Gandang Pamilya.

Gloria Romero, of course, has endorsed dozens of consumer products in the past: Talon zipper for radio, Coca-Cola on billboards, Dari-Crème and, of course, Camay and Gloco beauty soaps on print ads.

In 1978, she also appeared in a Superwheel commercial – a spoof of the musical The King & I. In the 30-second ad, Gloria – as Anna – was shown shining with what looked like a towel the bald head of the Siamese king, played by the late Aurelio Estanislao. It was a hit with the public and brought laughter to anyone who watched it – except for the officials of the Thai embassy in the Philippines who didn’t find it amusing that a TV commercial made fun of their royalty. The ad was promptly reedited and released without the offensive scene.

More than a decade later, Ms. Romero also did the Del Monte ketchup television commercial along with other veteran stars (mostly from LVN Pictures), among them, the late Charito Solis.

Gloria Romero had always been in demand for product endorsements because – in the words of Ricky Reyes – "she has always been very beautiful and has kept her values all these years."

Ironically enough, Gloria Romero never thought of herself as exceptionally beautiful. Growing up in the remote town of Mabini in Pangasinan, in fact, she thought she looked like Olive Oyl. And when she went to Premiere Productions in 1949 in quest of stardom, she was rejected because she was too thin.

Ever so modest, she even points out parts of her face she feels are imperfect – like her nose, for instance. "Just looking at my shadow, you already know it’s me because of my nose, which I find a bit too sharp," she claims.

But even if cosmetic surgery was already available (although still quite primitive) during her prime, she never opted to have any part of her face or body altered – except for one, her eyebags, which she had removed in a private clinic in Manila on Aug. 21, 1971… around the time Plaza Miranda in Quiapo was bombed.

Age was also something she accepted gracefully and without much difficulty. In one of my past conversations with her, she told me: "Yung pagtanda, acceptance lang naman ‘yan. When I felt I was already growing old, I asked myself, Ano ba, will it bother me if people said: ‘Ay, naku, si Gloria, noong araw ang ganda-ganda. Eh, ngayon, ang tanda na!’ Pero naman, give me a break. I am not 18 anymore. That time, I knew I had to make a choice," she relates.

"You see, if you want to stay in the movies, you only have two choices: Kung iniisip mo that you cannot handle it dahil nakikita mo ang sarili mo sa screen na kay ganda-ganda noong araw, then all of a sudden, kulubot ka na, eh umalis ka na. Or you stay, but accept reality." Mercifully, she stayed and continues to illuminate the screen with her engaging performances.

Gloria Romero may no longer be the pristine beauty that she was in the 1950s but in the hearts of countless movie fans she will always be one of the greatest movie queens to ever grace the silver screen. And at age 69, wow, she still looks glamorous and is in relatively good shape – especially now with Ricky Reyes behind her.

Moreover, people who know her and know her well will always consider her to be a beautiful person with a beautiful soul. Blessed with a goodness of heart, her beauty is certainly not the type that will fade with age.