Long after her husband’s death, Imelda Marcos has been an iconic figure in the Philippines and abroad. Known for her extravagant lifestyle, she is often considered to be the Philippines’ equivalent of Marie Antoinette. With a supply of a pair of shoes a day that lasted for eight years, she was infamous in the United States and abroad for her extravagance and life of excess after late husband Ferdinand’s downfall.
According to many accounts, her glamorous persona has remained a double-edged sword throughout her life. Raised in the south of the Philippines, despite living a relatively marginalized childhood, Imelda Trinidad Romualdez came from an aristocratic family and courted controversy throughout the Philippines as a beauty queen in contention for the 1953 Miss Manila crown as she and another contestant were chosen to represent Manila in the larger Miss Philippines Pageant. Her singing talent, combined with her stunning beauty and gregarious nature attributed to her becoming the most sought after by diplomats, politicians, and businessmen which included her future husband’s opponent Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino. Following her marriage in 1954, Ferdinand viewed Imelda as an untapped resource in his political arsenal.
Unlike many of the wives of world leaders, Imelda was instrumental not only in inflating her husband’s image domestically and abroad, but as a key component in policy making, foreign diplomacy, passing legislation, and the completion of several projects which included a controversial game preserve and wildlife sanctuary on Calauit Island which displaced thousands of indigenous people in the 1976.
In this Los Angeles Times article posted November 7, Justin Chang reviews The King Maker, Lauren Greenfield’s recent documentary on Imelda Marcos which captures a glimpse of the controversial Filipino icon in a less flattering light than Romana Diez’s Imelda (2003), an earlier documentary on the former first lady.
The King Maker opened in Los Angeles and New York for a limited engagement and presently airs on Showtime Television Network in the US.