Video: The first Miss World beauty contest: scandalous start and real reasons for organizing
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
April 15, 1951 is considered the birthday international beauty contest "Miss World" … On this day, advertising agent Eric Morley from London had the idea to organize a competition, the final of which took place on July 29th. Few people know that Miss World was originally conceived as just a one-time publicity stunt, the purpose of which was to draw attention to a completely different event. Why was the competition actually held, and why was it accompanied by a scandal?
One of the most prestigious beauty contests in the world celebrates its 65th anniversary in 2016, and in 1951 no one could have imagined that the idea of a young advertising agent would last so long and turn into an annual event. Then Eric Morley was asked to come up with something unusual to advertise the dance hall "Mecca" during the British Festival in London. Then the advertiser had an idea to hold an international beauty contest under the auspices of the festival. The main goal was to attract the attention of foreign spectators to the network of dance pavilions "Mecca Dance Hall".
The competition not only attracted the attention of a huge audience, but also provoked a scandal. Its reasons will seem ridiculous to modern viewers: according to Eric Morley's idea, the girls paraded in swimsuits. Bikinis were just coming into fashion then and looked more than modest. But for 1951, it was a bold move, and the swimwear was deemed too revealing. A scandal erupted in society. Newspapers wrote that "even at the present time of falling morals, swimwear looked too defiant on the participants of the competition!"
The religious community was especially outraged. Since the competition was held as part of the bikini festival, the winner went to the coronation in a swimsuit. Because of this, the Pope himself condemned her for shamelessness.
Morley's PR move was very successful - the competition attracted a large audience. Therefore, it was decided to hold the festival next season as well. However, in the summer of 1952, a similar show, Miss Universe, started in America, so Eric Morley decided to postpone the Miss World contest to November, closer to the Christmas sales. The calculation was simple: on the eve of the holidays, stores are attacked by crowds of buyers, and manufacturers of goods are not stingy with advertising. For three weeks of the competition, the organizers managed to earn decent sums on advertising: all the dresses were branded, resorts, hotels, cars, food - all logos and brands were shown not by chance and not at all for free.
In 1953, Morley became the director of the Mecca Company and the organizer of the annual beauty pageant. In 1959, the BBC began broadcasting the competition, which made it possible to reach an even larger number of viewers. In England alone, the show was watched by 25 million people. Thanks to this competition, London gained fame as the capital of world beauty.
26 participants from Great Britain, Denmark, USA, Netherlands, France and Sweden competed for the title of the first beauty in the world. The first Miss World winner in 1951 was 22-year-old Swede Kerstin (Kiki) Hokansson. As a prize, she received a check for 1,000 pounds, a necklace and the opportunity to appear on the pages of the tabloids.
Throughout its history, the Miss World pageant has been repeatedly attacked, especially by feminists. The most harmless of all its names were "anachronism", "vulgarity", "humiliation". Nevertheless, the show was and remains one of the most spectacular and is still popular all over the world. The final of the competition is broadcast in more than 70 countries, with a total audience of 2 billion people. Although this event has long been considered boring and uninteresting in the UK, many viewers believe that the format of the beauty pageant is outdated.
And the first beauty contest in Europe was held back in 1929: portraits of the participants of the very first Miss Europe contest
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