MARICHU Vera-Perez Maceda once advised aspiring and rising stars: “Always have a little Carmen Rosales deep within you and you can look forward to a lasting, exciting relationship with your viewing public.”

Those aspiring, rising young stars may well ask, “Who Carmen Rosales?”

A pity they were not present when Danny Dolor and Manny Fernandez launched Manny’s loving tribute to his idol, Carmen Rosales: Ang Tangi Kong Pag-ibig, at CCP’s Silangan Hall, prettied up by Nedy Tantoco with a silk-draped ceiling and chandeliers in  royal blue and tangerine. Manny has been away in California and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for the last 30 years, teaching, of all things, Spanish to American teenagers in a public school and never ever forgetting his dream to build a shrine to his goddess, the queen of Philippine movies from 1939-65.

The book is highly readable – I finished it between TV commercials of an hour-long show – and features page after page of priceless photographs from that era in nostalgic black and white. Carmen with her leading men, Carmen with Gloria, Amalia, Susan, Rita, Bella, Lolita – if you don’t know their last names you don’t count. At the launch last week, Susan (Roces) sat with Delia Razon, Lilia Dizon, Liberty Ilagan, Boots Anson-Roa, Elenita Binay. The entertainment press was represented by Ricky Lo, Ronaldo Constantino, Nestor Torre, Crispina Belen.

Most of the pictures in the book were provided by Cesar Hernando, a director and set designer who also did the book design. Recalling how he went down on his knees to beg Danny to publish his obra maestra, Manny said the germ of a book took shape in his head during a trip to the mall, “and then I couldn’t let it go for the next two years.”

As Manny tells it, “my retentive memory saved every detail of every anecdote, every quote” that fell from Carmen’s lips. As Danny explains it, “Manny recites from memory all the titles of her movies, the years they were released, her co-stars. He knows how much money they earned at the box office.” And the next book? How about one on our legendary contravidas?