1st Miss U still glows
CHICAGO – She has kept the glow and elegance that 65 years ago earned her the first Miss Universe crown – as well as the heart of a young Filipino for whom she would eventually give up her title.
Former Miss Finland Armi Helena Kuusela was only 17 when she won the first Miss Universe pageant in Long
Beach, California on June 28, 1952.
A nephew of Kuusela’s late husband businessman Virgilio Hilario provided this reporter several photos of the young beauty titlist, including ones taken in the Philippines.
Shortly after winning the first Miss Universe pageant, she made a journey around the world, including the Philippines. Her other prizes were a box of chocolates, a gold bangle and a return ticket sponsored by Pan American Airways to the United States.
It was in March of 1953 when she met Hilario on a dance floor in Baguio City during an international trade exposition. The young Hilario, who was a good dancer, impressed the young beauty and “swept her off her feet.”
It turned out to be the start a whirlwind courtship that ended in their marriage in Tokyo, Japan on May 4, 1953.
With her marriage to Hilario, Kuusela had to give up her crown in favor of the pageant runner- up. Aside from being intelligent, well mannered and cultured, a Miss Universe titleholder must remain single during her reign.
Although born in Manila, Hilario’s roots are from an old Albay district in what is now part of Legazpi City.
According to The Victoria Advocate, “Virgilio said she had planned to go back to Finland to tell her parents of their planned wedding – on her birthday on Aug. 27.”
But she changed her mind when in “the wee hours of May 3, Hilario was involved in a scuffle with a drunken American newspaperman who tried to harass Armi inside the Cosmopolitan Nightclub.”
The Advocate said, “The bride’s eyes were soft and moist; the bride-groom had a shiner (a black eye).”
“She is Armi Kuusela – proclaimed the most beautiful woman in the world when crowned Miss Universe last year. She hails from Finland. He is Virgilio Hilario from the torrid Philippines, possessor of plenty of pesos and a black eye he got in a fight the other night,” the news item read.