February 19, 2007

From Waikiki With Love: Remembering Tom Babauta

By: Guillermo Ramos

The star of Strangers in Paradise remained a stranger in paradise.


For decades the Philippine movie industry has been graced by foreign "actor" who want to try their luck in local showbiz. In the 60's you had John Saxon, who appeared as the token Caucasian in movies like El Pinoy Matador, a Dolphy movie shot entirely in Spain; and the Pinoy spaghetti western Sergio Leone take-offs starring Chiquito. In the 70's you had Sajid Khan, an Indian looker who appeared in mindless romantic comedies with Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos. His career in the Philippines didn’t last long because Filipinos are inherently racist and not very keen on actors who have dark skin. He was displaced in the public's affections by Junior the American singer.

In the 80's you had Tom Babauta, whose talent hung delicately on his cheekbones, triceps and his "big kahuna." We don't exactly know his progeny but legend has it that he was model for the original "Malakas" cracking out of a bamboo pole as depicted in the mural by Botong Francisco at the Manila Film Center. "Maganda," on the other hand was supposedly modeled after the body of Coca Nicolas and the face of Imelda Marcos. I don’t know if this mural still exists; maybe it's hanging in the dining room of some fallen PCGG commissioner.

Tom Babauta. A name immortalized in swardspeak. "Tom Babauta na ako" means "I'm hungry." "Tom" is short for gutom.

This ball-scratching monosyllabic dude was a dreamboat for casting couch directors. Rumor had it that he would do anything for a sandwich. His notable talents included: hula war dancing, baton twirling with fire on both ends, greased tightrope walking, lying on nails and broken glass, and last but not the least, fire-eating. Tom was so sought-after that Mother Lily made a series of Hawaiian-themed movies with social commentaries on Fil-American cross-cultural issues. At least there was a sense of authenticity when he was cast in these films. Another rumor was that his family was not from Hawaii, but the Northern Marianas (The elected Governor of Northern Marianas bears the name of Juan Babauta.). What the heck, no one will know the difference.

Tom Babauta had so much promise, and his career remained a promise. He appeared with Snooky in Strangers in Paradise. Then he starred with Rio Locsin in Waikiki, (Was he the one? No not really. I take it back) nevertheless propelled him to oblivion. From time to time he appeared in dramas and variety shows, notably in Lovingly Yours, Helen, where he played a balikbayan GI baby searching for his mother in Angeles. And yes, of our country’s 80 million population, I’m the only one who remembers this useless piece of information. If no one remembers what Tom looked like, think of David Kawena of Lilo and Stich, with curly hair.

In one of his final interviews in Manila, Tom Babauta graced the immortal Sunday variety show, Germspesyal. Here is the transcript of that conversation:

Kuya Germs: "Do you love Philippines?"
Tom: "Yes Kuya Germs."
Kuya Germs: "Have you, ah, made love to a Filipina?"
Tom: "Duh?"

And thus Kuya Germs brought Tom Babauta's career to its final, inexorable doom.



Technorati Tags:, , ,

11 comments:

ribbiticus said...

egad! yes, i remember him! that name somehow stuck...lol! ;)

Anonymous said...

Damn...has his current whereabouts been traced??? Is he still living somewhere in this country (possibly as the kept man of some powerful matron or gay fafa), or maybe he must have went back to Hawaii?

His legacy lives on...in the form of Troy Montero and Marc Nelson (is the latter EVEN Pinoy??? Methinks not)

Anonymous said...

Ito kaya?

http://www.heas.org/default.aspx?page=staff_guam.html

Anonymous said...

i have a short-lived band before named after him -- "tom babatuta".

Anonymous said...

Hey how about Danni Vanni, the raw egg with sarsi guzzler/endorser? and the models of players cologne for men?

Anonymous said...

I remember Danni Vanni. I remember he did a movie with Maricel Soriano called "Ang Boyfriend Kong Kano" and I remember he and Maricel presented an award at that year's Famas awards. It was the holiday season and Danni had to greet the audience in Tagalog, he had to say "Manigong Bagong Taon" but he had a little mishap, he said "Manigong BAGO-ONG Taon" and everybody laughed, including Maricel, but Danni was oblivious, going "What? What did I say?"

Anonymous said...

wanyeah i remembered tom babauta.....i think it was lino brocka who directed this movie...after direk lino's demise, marami ding careers ang namatay....allan paule, william lorenzo to name a few.....haven't you guys noticed lahat ng mga lino proteges they remained nanays and tatays na lang sa teleseryes ng mga young stars na wala namang ginawang talent kundi mag pa cute sa camera? wsted talents na lang palibhasa monopoly lingers in phil showbiz pag hindi kumagat sa patibong ng mga ganid sa laman na mga talent scouts at DOM's na politician hindi sumisikat...tsk tsk

Anonymous said...

tom and danny are both dead now

80sMan said...

http://metlogs.blogspot.com/2008/07/tom-babauta.html

this is a good info of Tom

Anonymous said...

Hey that's my uncle

Anonymous said...

Danni is still alive and lives in Oregon.



The Latest Features & Headlines
Don't ever miss a post and be on top of the latest features and headlines:
Get All That Nostalgia Manila Goodness! Get a Nostalgia Manila Email Subscription today and enjoy all the benefits of this wondeful service. Today, if subscribers want to read / view / watch syndicated online content, they typically have to go to where the content is hosted, or know how to subscribe to the feed and consume the content within an aggregator or reader (e.g. MyYahoo!, FeedDemon, ect.). With a Nostalgia Manila Email Subscription, you will receive all that Nostalgia Manila goodness straight to your inbox, similar to an e-newsletter. This is delivered to you in easy-to-read, plain text or HTML email containing the latest Nostalgia Manila posts. What are you waiting for? Sign Up for a Nostalgia Manila Email Subscription today!

Let everyone know you have Nostalgia Fever!
Nostalgia Fever is quite a contagious thing, and the best way to spread it is to add this cute chicklet to your site. It's real easy! All you have to do is copy and paste the HTML code below (make sure you copy the entire code), add it to your own page, and you're done! Show your love for Nostalgia Manila and spread Nostalgia Fever today!