Tuesday, August 28, 2012

224. Carnival Beauties: VIRGINIA LEJARDE, 1930 Candidate of "Alitaptap"

ALLURE OF ALITAPTAP. Virginia Lejarde, the official candidate of Alitaptap Magazine to the 4th National Beauty Contest search for Miss Philippines 1930. 

With the great success of the 1929 Manila Carnival queen search that saw the participation of the country's leading schools and institutions, the 1930 Manila Carnival was touted by publicists to be even more spectacular. Sure enough, in the search for th queenship of the Carnivsl, magazines and newspapers came back in full force to field their own candidates--this, in addition to the school bets.

Publications like The Manila Times, Liwayway,  The Philippine Herald and Tribune sponsored their own beauty bets together with schools that included Philippine Collegian, U.P. and the Centro Escolar de Senoritas. Even smaller dailies like Atalaya and Alitaptap were ably represented by lovely Filipina belles.

Alitaptap was a popular Tagalog magazine that was first published in 1928, and which had a successful run till the '30s, ceasing publication with its 29 December 1932 issue. Of its Carnival candidate, Virginia Lejarde, not much is known. The 1930 Miss Philippines crown went to an Ilongga teenager, Consuelo Acuna.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for having a blog dedicated to our beauty queens! Im 18 and Im a huge fan of the Philippines Golden Age. I love visiting your blog. Im also a fan of black and white photos since I found albums of them in my lola's shelf mostly photos of great grandpa during his UP Conservatory of Music days, he's a violinist.

Alex D.R. Castro said...

Thanks, Ana. Maybe you could do a photo blog of your won too, just to remember the good old days!

Anne said...

God bless you for blogging about all things vintage and things worth remembering. Don't know if the Alitaptap Magazine you mentioned is the same Alitaptap Magazine I "inherited" from my Mom -- I have some 1928 issues because my late grandfather is Vicente Albo (his "Tagapamahala" was Pedro Gatmaitan) --the editor of Alitaptap. Been thinking how I could preserve these precious magazines, all of which are already in their "crunchy", yellowed state. Will post pics soon in my blog, and hope I could truly keep them in good condition until such time I am ready to hand them down to my daughter too. :)

Alex D.R. Castro said...

First, thanks much Anne. I bet that's the same Alitaptap magazine that sponsored this Carnival beauty. Best way to preserve crumbling pages is to scan them! Or have them photocopied.