World’s first Miss was a hit
QUESTION Were most of the contestants British at the first Miss World in 1951?
THE first pageant wasn’t planned to be an international event. It was Miss Festival of Britain, until impresario Eric Morley had the idea of adding competitors from other countries.
When the Press got wind of this, they dubbed the contest Miss World. Morley immediately patented the name.
As a captain in the Royal Army Service Corps, he had organised entertainment for the troops at Dunkirk. After the war, he became publicity manager for Mecca dance halls. In 1949, he pioneered Come Dancing, the long-running BBC ballroom dancing programme.
The Festival of Great Britain marked the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851 and showcased science, technology, architecture and art.
Morley had adapted seaside beauty contests into shows at Mecca and spotted an opportunity to develop this into a national beauty pageant and television extravaganza.
The bikini was the height of fashion and Morley decided to showcase beautiful women wearing the revealing swimwear. The pageant was named the Girl Bikini Contest of the Festival of Great Britain.
He sent out invitations to a dozen countries: the U.S., France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Holland, Turkey and Japan.
Many of these nations considered the bikini to be immodest and just five accepted the invitation: Denmark’s Lily Jacobson, France’s Jacqueline Lemoine, Holland’s Margaret van Beer, Sweden’s Kerstin ‘Kiki’ Hakansson and the U.S.’s Annette Gibson.
Morley recruited 24 British contestants in a casting call on July 24, 1951, at the Lyceum Ballroom in London, plus a student to represent her native Mexico.
Three of the contestants dropped out following objections from their husbands, so 27 appeared in the first Miss World competition on July 27 at the Lyceum.
The contestants arrived on stage wearing a cape, which a female attendant removed so the judges could better observe their physical attributes.
The contestants were rated 50 per cent on figure, 20 per cent on facial beauty, 20 per cent on pose and 10 per cent on acclamation by the audience. Personality and accomplishments were not taken into account.
Kiki Hakansson, a 22-year- old model from Stockholm with the vital statistics 37-23-36, won the first Miss World crown and a cheque for £1,000.
Following criticism from the Pope, Morley changed the rules the following year. It became an international event with one contestant from each competing country wearing a more modest one-piece bathing suit.
The 1952 competition had 11 entrants and once again was won by the Swedish contestant, May-Louise Flodin, aged 18. Ben Francis, London NW4.
QUESTION Could Italian Cardinal Joseph Mezzofanti speak more than 30 languages?
CARDINAL Joseph Mezzofanti was one of the world’s greatest polyglots.
His biographer Charles William Russell states he spoke 39 languages fluently and 30 of these were ‘frequently tested and spoken with rare excellence’.
These were Biblical Hebrew, Mishnaic Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldee (Aramaic), Coptic, Ancient Armenian, Modern Armenian, Persian, Turkish, Albanian, Maltese, Greek, Romaic (vernacular Greek), Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, English, SerboCroatian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Chinese.
Another nine languages were ‘ spoken fluently, but hardly sufficiently tested’: Syriac, Ge’ez (Ethiopian), Amarizana ( a now forgotten native American language), Hindustani, Gujarati, Basque, Wallachian, Californian (an unknown native language) and Algonquin.
He was said to have a basic knowledge of dozens more, including Welsh, Malay, Kurdish, Japanese, Gaelic and Irish.
What was extraordinary was the fact he learned all the languages without leaving Italy. He acquired his knowledge through books or from native speakers who visited the Vatican.
Born to humble parents in Bologna in 1774, Mezzofanti showed exceptional memory skills from a young age as well as a flair for music and foreign languages.
He studied with the Piarists (the Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools) where he was introduced to different languages by foreign missionaries. By the age of 12, he spoke ten languages.
In 1797, he was ordained a priest and became a professor of Arabic, Hebrew, Asian languages and Greek at the University of Bologna.
He left Bologna to go to Rome in 1831 as a member of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, the Catholic Church’s governing body for missionary activities. In 1833, he became custodian-in-chief of the Vatican Library and in 1838 was made Cardinal.
Justine Wilkes, Oakley, Hants.
QUESTION My grandmother referred to ‘February fill dyke’ and ‘March many weathers’. What other weather sayings are there?
THE earlier list of weather sayings reminded me of my grandmother who, when I complained about having to stay indoors, would say: ‘Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot, we must weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not.’ Carola Morton, Hereford.