For those who were fortunate to have witnessed Cubao’s old glory from the 1960’s-1980’s, it seemed far-fetched to entertain the idea of a possible demise of this colorful district. But by the 1990’s, this idea became an unfortunate reality as Cubao became endangered thanks to the shifting tastes in entertainment trends, the rise and the mushrooming of the shopping malls,(spearheaded no less by SM which ironically has a presence in Cubao as a department store) and the competition waged by rival commercial districts, particularly the malls of Ortigas Center and Makati’s old Quad and Greenbelt shopping centers that have been revamped to become the classier Ayala Center. The deteriorating peace…
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reminiscing Cubao: the Fiesta Carnival
More than the stores and the movie theaters, if you ask anyone who experienced old Cubao as to what was their best experience of the place, the most popular answer would probably be their visit/s to that beloved placed called Fiesta Carnival. Long before Star City and (in some way) Enchanted Kingdom, one of the ultimate, if not THE ultimate, amusement park in the metropolis was the Fiesta Carnival. Despite the name though, it was not housed on a tent like the carnivals we see in the movies. Rather it made its home under a warehouse-type structure with a variety of shops surrounding the building. Very far from the common…
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reminiscing Cubao and its old movie theaters
When the Aranetas first got hold in 1952 of what was then a wide empty tract of land along what was then known as Highway 54, (that’s EDSA as it was called before) they envisioned the place what was soon to be known as Araneta Center as a premier entertainment hub to compliment/rival the old Downtown Manila area which by that time was already getting too crowded for comfort, so to speak. It would not be until the mid 1960’s when the entertainment scene in Cubao began to boom. As with the rise of the department stores, movie houses in and around Cubao began to mushroom. From then until the…
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reminiscing Cubao: when department stores were kings
As was mentioned in a previous entry, Cubao at its height was a premier commercial destination. For casual shoppers and enthusiasts, Cubao was one of the top destinations in mind if you’re looking for variety and great bargains to boot. To give you a good idea of how bustling was Cubao’s shopping activity during its heyday, I would refer you to this customized Google Earth map I made. Here you can see that the department stores (who at the time were the upper echelons of the shopping hierarchy) were located right across or next to each other. You can imagine the chaos if there was a simultaneous sale that will…