Tribute to Maria Menado: A Star Who Once Lit Our Bedok Kampong

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Maria Menado - Malaysia’s beloved actress, screen siren, and icon of the golden era of Malay cinema - passed away recently in Kuala Lumpur on 30 April 2026, at the age of 94. For many across the region, her name evokes the glamour of the 1950s and early 1960s. For our family, her presence was something far more intimate: she was a figure who was once a part of the daily rhythms of our Bedok kampong.

In those years, the ladies in our household were enthralled by her celebrity. They would stand at the veranda, or pause in the garden, hoping to catch a glimpse of her whenever word spread that she might be arriving. And indeed, she often did - to stay at the holiday home of Sultan Abu Bakar of Pahang, whom she married in 1963 before retiring from the film world.

We were told that whenever she was in residence, music and song would float from that house, carried across the old Sungei Bedok tributary like a soft announcement that the star had returned.

That house stood diagonally across from ours. Even from the angle of a photograph taken in 1967, its silhouette is unmistakable. In the late 1950s (after 1957), the Sultan had built a green metallic bridge across the tributary when the river still flowed freely. After landfill covered the waterway around 1960, the bridge remained, serving as a smooth passageway for the royal cars.

Our mother recalls how the Sultan would have potholes along the gravel road filled in, ensuring a comfortable drive for his vehicles -  and, in doing so, improving the road for every kampong family who used it. It is a small detail, but one that stayed with her for decades.

How remarkable it feels now, looking back, that we once lived close enough to witness the comings and goings of an actress who won Best Actress at the 1957 Malaysian Film Festival and became Malaysia’s first female film producer.

Maria once mentioned in interviews that she cherished her stays in Singapore. We often wondered: were many of those cherished memories formed right here, in our little corner of Bedok, among the same gravel paths and wooden houses that shaped our own childhoods?

This tribute is made possible through the generosity of Ron Ho and Abu Bakar Haji Ibrahim, whose recollections helped anchor these memories. And, of course, through our 88‑year‑old mother, who still speaks with delight of those youthful days - living just across from the Sultan, and unknowingly, with the rest of the kampong had shared a neighbourhood with one of the great stars of Malay cinema.

1967 view of the Sultan of Pahang's holiday home opposite our house,
juxtaposed with images of screen legend Maria Menado (photos not ours)

See also:

https://ourbedokkamponghousesg.blogspot.com/2024/10/neighbours-music-dance-sultan-maria.html

https://ourbedokkamponghousesg.blogspot.com/2024/06/neighbours-sultan-of-pahang.html


Photos taken at our Bedok kampong house with the holiday home behind us:

1961

1966

1967

1967



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