The Glamour Boys of Yesteryear

They were a different breed, cuts above the rest, fit to be put on the pedestal.

Only a handful, if any, of today’s so-called matinee idols can hold a candle to ‘The Glamour Boys of Yesteryear,’ as Funfare contributor Celso de Guzman Caparas loves to call them. ‘They were like Greek gods,’ added Celso who collected the 17 photos on this page, all taken by the legendary Mang Ador of Tropicana, The Photographer of Stars, in the ’40s and ’50s, ‘just like the Glamour Girls of the same era (featured in Funfare in Sept. 2014) who looked like Greek goddesses.’

If a picture paints a thousand words, as the song says, then these pictures can speak for themselves.

Eleven of them were built up by Sampaguita Pictures (Dolphy, Eddie Garcia, Eddie Arenas, Eddie Gutierrez, Jose Mari, Juancho Gutierrez, Leopoldo Salcedo, Ramon Revilla, Ric Rodrigo, Rogelio dela Rosa and Romeo Vasquez), four by LVN Pictures (Carlos Padilla Jr., Armando Goyena, Jaime dela Rosa and Nestor de Villa), three by Premiere Productions/People’s Pictures (Fernando Poe Jr., Cesar Ramirez and Robert Arevalo), one by Larry Santiago Productions (Joseph Estrada), and one by an independent company (Fernando Poe Sr.). 

‘They don’t build up actors (male and female) like they used to,’ sighed Celso.

I agree. Those were the days, them were the days!!!

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.) Photos by Tropicana’s Mang Ador, from the collection of Celso de Guzman Caparas