History of beauty pageants with illustrations. The very first international beauty contest (6 photos) Contests for married ladies

April 15, 1951 is considered a 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?

And the first beauty contest in Europe was held back in 1929:

In 1908, thousands of spectators gathered at the hippodrome in the English city of Folkestone to see a stunning spectacle - the most beautiful girls from England, Ireland, Austria, France and the USA parading in evening dresses and swimsuits.

It is logical that the first place and the crown of the first beauty went to a local resident. 18 year old Nelly German when asked to say something for the fans, she barely uttered, stammering with excitement: “My most ardent desire is world peace. And I also want a pig for my dad.” It sounded sweet and direct, the girl was applauded.

A year later, the city authorities again held the same competition. And this time the event became truly significant: it was covered by the press of many countries, the whole world followed the development of the competition.

And on April 15, 1951, the first ever Miss World pageant was held in London. This was the reason for the new status of the capital of England: it was now called the world capital of beauty. The event was attended by 30 girls from different countries. At some stage, they appeared in bikini swimsuits, which were just coming into fashion. This created a real sensation among enthusiastic spectators.

Robert Forsyth - the "father" of beauty pageants

In the form in which we know beauty contests now, they were created by Robert Forsythe- Manager of the wharf of the English city of Folkestone. He was the first to catch new trends in society, realized that another time had come, and decided: it's time!

In 1908, this man announced an international beauty contest at the city hippodrome and invited everyone to take part. There were 6 contestants. The best was chosen by the viewers who received special coupons to fill in (this is how they voted for their favorites). And so the competition turned out to be perhaps the most democratic in history.

However, even under such conditions, it was not without scandals. One of the journalists published his article in the newspaper that the Englishwoman won unfairly, because, they say, the local viewers voted for "their own", which means that the foreigners had no chance of winning.

In addition, a wave of indignation was caused by several harsh feminists, who sat in the front row of the hippodrome and demanded that only women be judged by women. In their opinion, such contests humiliate the dignity of girls, especially if men choose the most beautiful one.

Be that as it may, the winner of the world's first beauty contest received fame and the main prize - an excellent piano, which at the beginning of the 20th century every girl from a good family could play. And thanks to the initiative of Robert Forsythe, such contests quickly became popular, and today they already look more like bright spectacular carnivals than a modest defile in front of the audience of several embarrassed girls 110 years ago.

How the cunning Barnum convinced prudes to show their beauty

Of course, 1908 is called the year of the first beauty contest only conditionally. In fact, beauties were evaluated at competitions before. Another thing is that everything happened quite differently.

In 1850, a famous showman of that time Phineas Barnum held a "curiosity exhibition" in New York: viewers could admire the most beautiful creatures of nature, from flowers and decorative dogs to small children.

Five years later, thousands of onlookers gathered for a children's beauty contest. Barnum was going to arrange the same competition for girls, but could not convince the ladies brought up in severity to flaunt themselves like prize horses or thoroughbred poodles. Even the prize offered by Barnum did not help - a precious tiara adorned with diamonds.

Yet Barnum wouldn't be a legendary showman if he didn't come up with a way to get around puritanical morality and get women to showcase their beauty. He invited them to participate not personally, but with the help of photographs, which were then placed at the exhibition.

Ten finalists had to decorate the Parisian "International Magazine of Women's Beauty" with their photographs. That is, the event received the status of a cultural event that stood several steps above the vulgar mass entertainment. And the women couldn't resist.

Photo Contests

Another 30 years have passed. A beauty contest was organized in Belgium - again through photographs. In total, 350 participants were recruited, of which 21 girls reached the final. They were already evaluated not only by pictures, but also “live”, however, not by the general public, but by a small jury, consisting of competent men in tailcoats.

Ladies living in secluded conditions were brought to the venue of the defile in closed carriages. In a word, everything was covered with a veil of mystery. The most beautiful was named 18-year-old Creole Berta Sucare. She was awarded the main prize - 5 thousand francs.

I must say that the women liked the idea of ​​photographs. She allowed both to observe decency and satisfy her ambitions. In general, in the 19th century, it was difficult for women to let go of their desires and do something unexpected. Their whole life, according to the opinion of society, should have flowed between the family and the ladies' charitable committees. Even those women who allowed themselves to travel were not approved: they had to stay at home, period!

So the ladies, who decided to show themselves (albeit in the photo) to the general public, showed serious courage, challenging a strict society.

However, the society also changed gradually. The laws of capitalism came to the fore. In order to attract as many entrepreneurs as possible, the authorities of small towns began to hold beauty contests by publishing photos in local newspapers. The winner was declared the "Queen of the Fair" of a particular town.

Ambitious girls warmly responded to the offer to participate in such an event. In St. Louis, for example, in 1905, 40,000 photographs were submitted to the competition! All this made the annual fairs incredibly popular.

On September 19, 1888, the first ever international beauty contest took place in the Belgian resort town of Spa. 350 participants claimed the title of the most beautiful girl in the world, 21 of which reached the final. And the ideas about beauty, and the principles of selection, and the rules for holding a competition in the 19th century differed significantly from modern standards.

The winner of the competition on the cover of the magazine and a cartoon for the first world beauty pageant. Caption under the picture: contestants; judges; blonde or brunette?

In the summer of 1888, an advertisement appeared in the newspapers for a beauty contest to be held in September in the spa town of Spa in Belgium. Anyone wishing to claim the title of the most beautiful girl on the planet was offered to send their photo by mail with brief information about themselves. The editorial office of the newspaper received 350 applications - from Austria, America, Algeria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway, Russia, Tunisia, Turkey, France and Sweden. Of these, the jury chose 21 girls - they had to personally continue to participate in the competition in the Spa. Participants were not allowed to appear in public - they were settled on a separate floor in a hotel, from where they traveled in closed carriages only to the casino salon where the competition was held. Prior to the awarding of prizes, no one had the right to see the participants. All expenses for moving and living for the girls were covered by the casino.

The organizer of the competition was Hervé du Lorrain, 10,000 francs were allocated by the casino for the issuance of prizes to the winners. The most beautiful girl was chosen by a jury of eight men, among whom were artists, sculptors and other representatives of creative professions. The competition was held for 12 days. Every day, the girls defiled in front of the jury in the casino salon. At the same time, they were all dressed in long dresses, and the men present in the hall were in tailcoats.

The winner of the first ever international beauty pageant Marta Sucare

On the 12th day, the winners of the competition were announced. The most beautiful girl on the planet was named 18-year-old Creole from Guadeloupe Martha Sucare, she was awarded the first prize in the amount of 5,000 francs. The second prize of 2,000 francs went to the Flemish Angela Delrose. Third place and 1,000 francs were given to a native of Vienna, Marie Stevens. After the awards ceremony, the casino arranged a big ball for the participants, the jury, local authorities and the press.

3rd and 4th prize winners Marie Stevens and Olga Nadiaska

Even the first ever beauty contest was not without curiosities and scandals. One of the participants so impressed everyone with her beauty that the jury unanimously decided that she was out of the competition. It was the Algerian girl Fatma. The resourceful entrepreneur demanded an entrance fee from those wishing to see her. And when the jury announced the winner of the competition, one of the participants, annoyed by such a result, approached the lucky woman and ... spat in her face!

The dress code of the first beauty contest was significantly different from modern ones.

The winners of the beauty contest received not only impressive cash prizes, but also worldwide popularity: Marta Sukare received more than a hundred marriage proposals within the first three days after the announcement of the results. But she rejected them, declaring her desire to pursue an acting career. Unfortunately, there is no information about her future fate.

Were divorced women allowed to participate, how the requirements for applicants changed, why the jury did not please Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, and how the fate of the first Soviet “misses” turned out - Bird In Flight remembered the history of beauty contests.

The idea of ​​beauty contests arose at the dawn of human history: similar reviews were held in Ancient Greece, and in Ancient China, and even in the Ottoman Empire (in the format of choosing the most beautiful wife in a harem). But the first close to modern competition took place in 1888 in Belgium, in the resort town of Spa.

Secret beauty

The competition was announced in advance in the newspapers; applicants were required to send a photo with a brief description of themselves. There were few applicants: the organizers received only 350 applications, of which the judges chose 21. The jury, consisting exclusively of men, already evaluated the finalists “live”.

The competition was rather modest by modern standards. A reporter from one of the newspapers reported that all the men present at the review were dressed in tailcoats, and the finalists themselves were in long dresses. According to the terms, the participants did not have the right to appear to the general public: they lived in a specially rented and carefully guarded house, and they were delivered to the reviews in closed carriages. The winner was 18-year-old Creole from Guadeloupe, Bertha Sucaret. She received a cash bonus of 5,000 francs (two and a half a worker's annual wages); to crown the main beauty, however, has not yet been invented. The further fate of the winner is unknown.

The winner received a cash prize in the amount of two and a half annual wages of a worker.

Not immediately, but gradually other countries picked up the idea. So, in the summer of 1909, the first beauty contest was held in Berlin, on the stage of the Promenade cabaret. The victory, along with a prize of 20 gold marks, went to 19-year-old Gertrude (his last name has not been preserved), a cigarette saleswoman from East Prussia. Ten years later, young Marlene Dietrich tried to participate in the Berlin competition, but to no avail: her hips did not meet the standard, which was literally tough - the applicants were measured using special wooden blocks.

Interestingly, another future film star, Greta Garbo, participated in a similar competition in Stockholm in 1921. And she took only second place: the jury considered her face "too pale and anemic."

Chastity in a bathing suit

The first Miss America pageant was held in Atlantic City in 1921, and it was there that the idea was first voiced that a beauty queen should have not only external attractiveness, but also intelligence, elegance, chastity and integrity. This is confirmed by a set of prizes, which, among other things, included a grant for studying at a university or college of the choice of the finalists. In addition, over the next year, the winner was forbidden even to appear in hot places or establishments where they drink alcohol: this requirement was spelled out in the contract. But chastity is chastity, namely "Miss America - 1921" was the first contest in history where the finalists took the stage in swimsuits. The winner was 16-year-old Margaret Gorman, daughter of an USDA official in Washington; The main prize was a gold figurine of a mermaid worth $1,500.

Since then, Miss America, with rare exceptions, has been held annually. It is interesting to look at the statistics of the competition by state: the leaders in the number of beauties (six winners each) were bohemian California and - suddenly - "village" Ohio, followed by Pennsylvania (five), Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan and Mississippi (four each), then Texas, Minnesota, Colorado, Kansas and New York (three each).

During the year, the winner was forbidden to appear in establishments where they drink alcohol.

In the early years, girls were evaluated according to strictly defined external criteria, almost like at a horse fair: face (maximum 15 points for structure and 10 points for attractiveness), eyes, chest, legs, arms, separate hands (10 points each), hair, lips , nose (5 points each) and gracefulness (10 points). In the mid-1940s, more complex criteria were added: proficiency in speech, timbre of voice, level of general culture, the presence of special talents, the ability to dress, health, and character traits. At first, there were no age limits, but in 1938 the age of the participants was limited to 18-28 years, and later the upper bar was lowered to 25. Over time, more and more new restrictions appeared: married and divorced women, as well as those with children or doing abortions. In 1954, Miss America was broadcast live for the first time, which brought the pageant to a new level of popularity. He was followed by 39% of viewers (27 million people!).

From Miss Europe to Miss Universe

The first pan-European review of beauties was held in Paris in 1929 at the suggestion of the Paris-Midi newspaper. 18 countries participated (including Russia, which was represented by white emigrants settled in Paris); according to the conditions, only girls of European appearance could be applicants. The first competition was won by the representative of Hungary, Erzsebet Böschke Shimon, who married the wealthy businessman Paul Brommer the following year.

If the first competitions were held without clear criteria, then in 1947 a special international committee was established to select the finalists of Miss Europe. He developed rules, the main of which was naturalness: plastic surgery or even hair coloring was prohibited. On this basis, many funny things happened. So, when the jury doubted the naturalness of the light ash hair of one of the contenders, the girl tore off her clothes to prove that her hair color is the most real. If these judges knew that half a century later, the problem of naturalness would reach a new level: instead of applicants with dyed hair and silicone breasts, the jury would have to deal with beauties who had once changed their sex.

When the jury doubted the naturalness of the light ash hair of one of the contenders, the girl tore off her clothes to prove that her hair color was real.

The first Miss World show was held in London in 1951 and caused a scandal. During one of the stages, the girls took the stage in a bikini, which at that time was considered unheard of debauchery (bikinis were invented several years ago, but have not yet entered mass use). The winner, Swedish Kerstin Håkansson, “finished off” the Puritan public by going out in a bathing suit even to the coronation, after which the Pope himself condemned her for shamelessness. Together with the crown, the girl was given an expensive necklace and 1000 pounds.

The idea of ​​international competitions was picked up by America, where already in the summer of 1952 they held a similar show - Miss Universe. 30 participants fought for the right to be called the first beauty of the Universe; the first place was taken by 18-year-old Armi Kuusela from Finland. Like many "misses", the competition gave her first of all a chance for a successful marriage: less than a year later, she married a wealthy Filipino entrepreneur, from whom she gave birth to five children.

In the USSR, the first beauty contest was held at the height of perestroika, in 1988; the sponsor was the Burda concern, which had just entered the Soviet market. The queue of those wishing to pass the selection stretched for several kilometers: according to the memoirs of one of the organizers, “not only young women stood, but also mothers with children, with husbands, with some kind of shopping bags.” “Who sang, who danced, who read poetry, who talked about themselves - in general,“ Come on, girls! ”, Who is much better,” one of the finalists told about the casting. - Clothes were collected by girlfriends, each contestant came in her own outfit. Sponsors dressed us only at the final.”

The final was held on a grand scale at the Luzhniki Sports Palace; 36 participants were evaluated by a jury led by Muslim Magomayev. In addition to the beauty of the participants, their wit was taken into account: during one of the tests, the girls answered questions from the satirist Mikhail Zadornov. The inexperience of the organizers led to several incidents at once. So, just before the awards ceremony, it turned out that the main contender for the victory, the future movie star Oksana Fandera, did not have a Moscow residence permit (in the end, she was awarded only second place). Another of the six finalists, Irina Suvorova, had a husband and a child, which also contradicted the conditions of the competition. The third, Elena Durneva, was weeded out because of a dissonant last name. As a result, the tenth-grader with the “correct” name Masha Kalinina became the winner. She was awarded a crown, a crystal vase, a Cartier watch and a Temp TV. Barely graduating from school, Masha emigrated to the United States, where, according to rumors, even the famous lover of beauties Donald Trump sought her favors. She still lives in Los Angeles, goes by the name Mariah Kalin and teaches yoga.

“Who sang, who danced, who read poetry, who talked about themselves - in general,“ Come on, girls!

A year later, the first all-Union competition "Miss USSR - 89" took place. The jury was full of stars: Irina Skobtseva, Muslim Magomayev, Ilya Glazunov, Ekaterina Maksimova; the hosts were Leonid Yakubovich and Alexander Maslyakov. Participation gave the girls a start in life: the finalists, mostly still schoolgirls, instantly became celebrities on an all-Union scale. “The competition turned my life upside down,” one of the participants, Marina Maiko, later said. – Before that, I lived for myself in the provincial Tiraspol and was going to become a primary school teacher. And after the competition, she got into the cinema, where she met her future husband (Dmitry Kharatyan. - Approx. ed.). ”

The winner was 17-year-old Yulia Sukhanova. After the victory, Julia also left for the USA: she was offered a job by a modeling agency. “I flew in with pomp, on the same plane with the Yeltsins - it was his first visit to the United States,” Yulia said many years later. - It turned out to be in great demand: it seemed that they looked at me like an alien creature. The police were on duty around my house around the clock, I was invited to talk shows, they took me to press conferences. Now Julia is engaged in business - she heads a company that produces generators of "mountain" air. She says if she had a daughter, she would not let her go to a beauty contest.

At the same time, according to the memoirs of the producer of "Miss USSR - 89" Yuri Kushnerev, the competition did not bring direct benefits: "Neither I nor my colleagues received a penny. Three finalists had to sign a contract in order for the representatives of our country to take part in the Miss World contest. But no one knew how to make it. We found some unprofessional lawyers who illiterately drew up a contract with which the girls were not allowed to Miss World.

Perhaps the main secret of the popularity of beauty contests is that they provide a legal basis for our tendency to evaluate others on external signs, which in today's tolerant society is usually ashamed. Therefore, despite the numerous disputes and scandals around these competitions, they, apparently, will not disappear anywhere in the foreseeable future.