Many of the leading figures of Philippine film in the 20th century, such as Dolphy, Nora Aunor, Leopoldo Salcedo and Rogelio de la Rosa, began their showbusiness careers in bodabil.
[1] It featured a hodgepodge of musical numbers, short-form comedy and dramatic skits, and even magic acts, often staged inside the theaters of Manila.
[3] The main showcase of Borromeo's company was an orchestral band, which played what he called "Classical-Jazz Music", and variety acts in between.
New stars also emerged, such as the singers Diana Toy and Miami Salvador; the dancer Bayani Casimiro, and the magician and Chaplin-imitator Canuplin.
[1] Many leading lights of Philippine cinema began their entertainment careers in bodabil during this period, such as Rogelio de la Rosa, Leopoldo Salcedo, Dely Atay-Atayan and Chichay.
[4] Among the performers whose careers were jumpstarted during this period were Panchito Alba, Anita Linda, Rosa Mia, the tandem of Pugo and Togo, and Dolphy, who started under the stage name "Golay" as a comic dance partner of Bayani Casimiro.
[4] Pugo and Togo had a popular routine where they portrayed Japanese soldiers wearing multiple wristwatches on both of their arms, and they were soon briefly incarcerated for that spoof.
[4] Following the end of World War II, film production in the Philippines resumed, and many of bodabil's stars either returned or shifted to cinema.
A large credit to bodabil's continued popularity can be attributed to Lou Salvador, Sr., a performer with the stage name "Chipopoy" who shifted to production after the war.
In the late 1950s, singers such as Nora Aunor, Elizabeth Ramsey, Pilita Corrales and Sylvia La Torre also plied the bodabil circuit.
In the 1980s, activist groups within the University of the Philippines also tried to utilize the bodabil format, using the medium to promote socially-conscious themes.
At the same time, many older, and equally colonial forms of stage entertainment such as the komedya and the sarswela declined due to the rise of bodabil.