Bodabil in the Philippines

Vaudeville in the Philippines, more commonly referred in the Filipino vernacular as bodabil, was a popular genre of entertainment in the Philippines, emerging in the 1880s during the late Spanish period, but achieving more popularity after its promotion by the American administration from the 1910s to the mid-1960s. For decades, it competed with film, radio and television as the dominant form of Filipino mass entertainment. It peaked in popularity during the Japanese occupation in the Philippines from 1941 to 1945. 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.