Wilfredo pascual
27 november 2019

In 1919, a young Filipina from Sibonga, Cebu who went to America to study Radio,  auditioned and landed a bit role in a major silent film made in San Francisco. By the 1920s, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, and the newspapers all over the US hailed Elena Jurado as “the only Filipino who has risen to the ranks of principal in American Cinema,” after her appearance in “White Hands” where she played the role of an Arabian girl who served and danced in a cafe. She was nicknamed “The Swede” among the cast and crew after Hobart Bosworth, dubbed the Dean of Hollywood, learned that her name was Elena.

Years later, she appeared in two other silent films about American Sailors fighting over women abroad in What Price Glory (1926), and A Girl in Every Port (1928), where she played minor roles before completely disappearing from the industry. 

“Finding Elena,” is a show by multi-awarded writer, Wilfredo Pascual featuring photographs of “the First Filipino Movie Star in Hollywood,” following her curious rise to fame and her final performances as an actress and the writer’s talk about his extensive research on Elena.