Juanita Antido | |
|---|---|
 Juanita Antido in 1926 | |
| Born | Cebu, Philippines |
| Died | 1945 Manila, Philippines |
| Other names | "Queen of Jazz in the Orient" |
| Known for | Popular Filipina vaudeville performer in early 20th Century |
Juanita Antido was a controversial early 20th Century vaudeville performer from Cebu, Philippines who was internationally known with performance tours in Penang, Shanghai, Singapore, and Hong Kong during the early 1920s with a fellow Filipina companion Conchita Blus. While in Hong Kong, Antido and Blus served as a live accompanying performer at screenings of the American silent film White Hands that featured contemporary Filipina actress Elena Jurado. Each night before the film showing, they would entertain the audience with song and dance numbers. Antido and Blus were credited with the introduction of the flapper-era 'shimmy-shake' jazz dance to Singapore and Hong Kong during their tours in 1921 and 1922. [1] Some references, including a playbill in Hong Kong, suggest that Antido appeared in White Hands as a bit player, but there is no evidence that Antido had made the trans-Pacific crossings to or from San Francisco during the October to December 1921 time period in which the film was being produced. [2] Indeed, during that time period she and Blus were known to be touring in the Straits Settlements. [3]
Antido's performances were often controversial and deemed scandalous in the Philippines. In October 1924, Antido entered the Convent of the Good Shepherd in Manila for the purported reason that her father had neglected her education, [1] but her confinement in the convent was actually at the behest of Manila's Archbishop Michael J. O'Doherty. [3] Antido escaped the convent after a few months and had to be recaptured and returned to the convent. At that point, a writ of habeas corpus, was filed by Attorney Vicente Sotto on behalf of Albino Cruz in the Court of First Instance with Judge Carlos A. Imperial presiding. Cruz had claimed that he was Antido's husband and that her confinement in the convent had denied them their marital bliss. Eventually Judge Imperial ordered the release of Antido from the convent in early 1925. Upon release from the convent, theaters around Manila competed to contract her as a performer. She entered a contract with the Sine Lux theater with a salary of PHP500 per month, which was a substantial sum at the time. [3]
On November 6, 1925 Albino Cruz filed an adultery case against Antido, and she was brought to court in Manila and convicted after having a child with her lover, Benjamin Quirol. Both Antido and Quirol were convicted of adultery and sentenced to three years of confinement in Old Bilibid Prison that began in August 1926. After release from prison in 1929, Antido and her child lived in obscurity away from show business. [1] According to Philippine death records she died in early 1945 under the name Juanita Antido de Robles and buried in Manila on February 12, 1945. [4]