NORA AUNOR'S EARLY YEARS IN SHOWBIZ

Highlights in Nora Aunor's early Showbiz career:

[Excerpts from the article "Golden Girl"

written by Quijano de Manila (Nick Joaquin) dated July 1970]

• Nora topped the Darigold Bulilit for 14 weeks. Then she retired undefeated champion.
  

• Nora was a 14-week winner on Tawag ng Tanghalan, an undefeated champion. And she crowned her career on Tawag by topping the grand finals. She bagged the year’s trophy, a TV set, and P200 in cash. The child said good-bye to the amateur. It was 1967; she was 14, when she turned professional. From Tawag she moved on to Oras ng Ligaya and Operetang Putol-Putol.
  
  Alpha Records took a chance on the young singer and waxed the first Nora disc. It flopped. Alpha tried again and the second Nora recording did better. Since then, Nora’s Golden Voice LPs have been runaway bestsellers.
  
  Inevitably, the movies beckoned. Dr. Jose Perez of Sampaguita sent comedian German Moreno to ask Nora if she would like to try the movies. Nora wondered if this was a joke but she also wondered how she would look in the movies. Nobody her type had yet been tapped for glamour roles or sweetheart parts. Curious, Nora decided to say yes to Doc Perez. Anyway she felt sure she would be used mostly as a singer.
  
  She made her movie debut in Sampaguita’s All Over the World. She was in the musical numbers. This was followed by “guest” appearances in nine other pictures from the Perez studios during ‘67 and ‘68. By the beginning of 1969, Doc Perez had promoted her to feature billing. Young Girl first featured her with Tirso Cruz III. Nora also branched out as freelancer. She and Tirso did Banda 24 for Barangay, Oh Delilah for JBC, and Nora appeared in two Lea pictures, Pabandying-Bandying and Adriana. She was on a non-exclusive contract with the Perezes.

All Over The World (1967) - Nora's First Movie

Way Out in the Country (1967)

9 Teeners (1969)

• Then she met director Artemio Marquez and he offered to star her in a picture for Tower Productions. “I wanted to know,” says Nora, “if a movie starring me would click.” The picture, D’Musical Teenage Idols (late 1969), which co-starred Tirso Cruz, demonstrated beyond all fiscal doubt that Nora - or the Nora-Tirso team - was top box-office.
  
  At last Nora was a movie star.