‘MANG TEMYONG’ – Highspeed readers, including Marie Cusi, say that it seems people have forgotten the director-producer who gave Nora Aunor her first starring role, Artemio Marquez, familiarly address as Mang Temyong.
Mang Temyong and his longtime partner, Marivic, owned and ran Tower Productions, where Nora made many movies in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, mostly opposite Manny de Leon. Their starrers included “Nora (Single Girl)”, “Tell Nora I Love Her,” “Nora in Wonderland,” and “Around Asia with Nora.”
But even before Tower, Mang Temyong wrote and directed movies for LVN, Premiere, and other studios, starting the mid-‘50s.
He was father to, among others, actor-politician Joey Marquez (former mayor of Parañaque) and Melanie Marquez (actress and former Miss International). When the Tower days were over, Mang Temyong directed films topbilled by Melanie. Despite some differences, Melanie never turned her back on her father.
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TOWER STARS – Aside from Nora and Manny, Tower signed up other stars, including Sajid Kahn, Ed Finlan, Aurora Salve, Maritess and Tina Revilla, Amalia Braza.
Tirso Cruz III was Nora’s leading man in Tower’s “D’ Musical Teenage Idols,” the Superstar’s first starring role. But Tirso opted to sign-up with Sampaguita, then embroiled in a legal battle with Tower over Nora’s contract.
Nora eventually stayed with Sampaguita, but that is water under the bridge. At Tower, Nora starred with Sajid in “Singing Filipina” and she shared stellar billing with Ed in “Waray at Talyada.”
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‘NORANIAN’ – The great writer (later National Artist) Nick Joaquin was an avid “Noranian.”
He spoke highly of Nora’s thespic skills. He wrote, “Under the tutelage of director Artemio Marquez, Nora is also developing into quite an actress. She has poise, she moves naturally, she underplays rather than mugs. Best of all, she’s one local performer who knows how to react. A person present is mentioned in the dialogue and her eyes automatically turn towards that person. She seems to be really listening to the dialogue, to be paying attention to what’s happening on-scene. Good acting is fifty percent reacting. It seems to be instinctive in Nora.”
So there, even Nick Joaquin acknowledged Mang Temyong’s big role in Nora’s incomparable career. Hopefully, he’ll no longer be forgotten, an overlooked director-producer.