Ate Guy’s 1st death anniversary: Nora Aunor trivia

Nora Aunor left us last year on 16 April. On the occasion of her first death anniversary, it is just but proper for The Butcher to pay tribute to the one and only Superstar and National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts.

In her close to 60-year showbiz career, she contributed so much in the field of cinema, music and television. Since all those achievements had already been duly recorded, this writer decided to simply list down some little-known facts about Aunor. These items may seem trivial, but every single one of those were part of what made her a legend in Philippine entertainment.

• Nora was treated like a religious icon at the height of her popularity as a teen superstar. Her fans lined up to kiss the hemline of her long dress. She was a screen idol to her countless followers and admirers, but their admiration of her already bordered on idolatry — like she was some venerated Catholic saint.

• She insisted that she be paid in cash. Nora didn’t like her talent fees issued to her in cheques. She preferred cold cash. Since the highest denomination that time was P100, she brought home her salary in a bayong (straw bag).

• Whenever she saw alms-seekers — particularly near what was then the Sta. Mesa rotunda (now gone) — she would hand out small paper bills of P1 or P5, which could already buy a lot of food in those days. A kilo of rice in the late 1960s was only about P1.50 per kilo. And that was already “milagrosa,” a premium rice variety.

• Nora started her charity work early. When the one centavo coin still had value in the early 1970s, she started a fund drive called “Mamera Para Kay Nora.” One centavo that time could buy three pieces of lemonadas (lemon drops) at the sari-sari store. Her fans gave up those little treats to be able to contribute to Nora’s charity work. Proceeds were donated to the National Mental Hospital in Mandaluyong, which was then still part of the province of Rizal.

• Her supposed “attitude” was misunderstood by industry members even early in her career. Nora was often called indyanera or a no-show. A slang term in Tagalog, it was coined to describe moneylenders who failed to show up with the promised amount to borrowers. Since most moneylenders were Bumbay or Indian nationals, Pinoys started calling those who didn’t show up for appointments indyanero. Such a horrible case of racism!

• Nora was notorious for not showing up to shoots and scheduled personal appearances. But what most people didn’t understand then was that there was always a valid reason behind her every no-show. She wouldn’t, for instance, bother to show up if organizers of an event didn’t give a downpayment. Nora had been badly burned by unscrupulous fly-by-night show producers when she was new in the profession. She’d perform in an event, but there were many times when she never got paid as per agreement. And so started her dictum: No down payment, no show. But she’d still be pictured as the “bad one” — the indyanera.

• She always had problems with her eyebrows. Her eyes were always her best assets, especially when she had to do dramatic scenes. And she really had the most beautiful pair of eyes in the film business — very soulful. But what she hated were her eyebrows. Nora wouldn’t leave her dresser until she felt she had already perfected fixing her eyebrows — and that often resulted in delays in shoots.

• There was a time when she and archrival Vilma Santos were best friends. To escape problems at home, there was a long stretch when Vilma lived at the Hotel Enrico, which was then located in Malate, Manila. Nora visited Vilma in her hotel room practically every night when they didn’t have work. They talked about girl stuff mostly. Even if they were rivals for “queenship” in entertainment, they never fought. Nora and Vilma were kumares till the end.

• Nora was a mechanical genius. Oh, she loved tinkering around the house during days-off. Before the advent of CDs and other modern devices enjoyed by today’s generation, Nora could stay for days in her room trying to improve the sound system of her stereo component. And didn’t The Butcher write here before how — in the early 1970s — she escaped from a film set (the producer was pulling the wool over her eyes) by commandeering a train from Iriga to Sipocot in Camarines Sur? To think she only learned how to run a train in less than half an hour that very same day!

• Christopher de Leon found her bakya early in her career. The term “bakya crowd” was coined in the mid-1960s. In those days, market vendors — after disposing of their merchandise — trooped en masse to movie theaters showing Tagalog movies that were patronized only by the C-D bracket.

Since rubber slippers were not yet available that time, they wore wooden clogs or bakya to protect their feet from the slime of the wet market floor. They came in droves to theaters and the sound made by their wooden clogs as they walked along cinema aisles heralded the arrival of the bakya crowd. In the early 1970s, the bakya crowd watched mostly Nora Aunor films.

And so, that was the initial perception Christopher had of Nora. Christopher’s younger sister, Lara Melissa de Leon, however, was a rabid “Noranian.” Lara saved her allowance to be able to buy Nora’s singles. But every time she and Christopher would get into a squabble, the latter would fling across their living room Nora’s records — “like those were flying saucers,” according to Lara.

Half a decade later, Christopher would marry Nora and have a child with her, Ian de Leon. The Nora-Christopher union was eventually dissolved. But to this day, Nora’s foster children — Lotlot, Matet, Kiko and Kenneth, still carry the De Leon surname.

•Nora was allergic to certain varieties of crustaceans. When this writer’s former talk show, Showbiz Lingo, was only on its third episode, the people behind the program invited Nora as the sole guest. It was only going to be all about her.

Half an hour before show time (it was aired live), Nora sent word that she’d be unable to make it to the program because she ate crabs and developed an allergic reaction — patches of red all over her skin. She wasn’t always allergic to seafood, but maybe the crab she had for lunch wasn’t prepared well. Nora was put on antihistamine, but that made her drowsy. How would she come out on national television groggy from pills?

I don’t even remember how we were able to pull through that day without a guest. But apparently, we managed. And to be fair to Nora, she did show up the following episode and more than made up for her absence the previous week. How can you not love her?

•Nora was the easiest to please when it came to material items. Every time someone gave her a bar of Heno de Pravia, she’d practically set off fireworks in gratitude and appreciation. Heno de Pravia is a fragrant bath soap that was manufactured in Spain in the early 1900s. It reached the Filipino market in the 1960s and was considered high-end.

The bath soap may be more expensive compared to local brands, but still affordable. But to Nora, that was a luxury.

The life and career of Nora seemed complicated. But deep within, the superstar was a simple, down-to-earth person who preferred to move around in shirts and jeans. In her life on earth, Nora proved to be one classic example that simplicity is the foundation of true greatness.