THE 1978 PAGEANT opens with a greeting from the reigning queen Janelle Commissiong against a spectacular Mexican Pacific sunset in Acapulco Bay. The seventy-five delegates stream into the modern Acapulco Convention Center as they harmoniously chirp out the theme song, "Bienvenidos a México."

      The background music for the Parade of Nations featured melodies representing popular movies and Broadway productions of the day such as the "Superman" score and the famous "Tomorrow" tune from the musical Annie. Highlights of this year's parade included the delegates from the African kingdoms of Lesotho and Morocco and the Micronesian dependency of the New Hebrides. Miss South Africa wore an interesting sea-blue "nightgown" as she bumped into the microphone. Miss Mexico donned the traditional embroidered garb of Mayan women, and Miss Puerto Rico explained her giant white chicken costume as honoring the famous fighting roosters of her island!

      After the Catalina fashion swimsuit segment in which all of the contestants model their suits in various Mexican settings, Bob Barker announces the twelve semi-finalists. This year's pageant introduced the technological innovation of electronic scoring: the international panel of celebrity judges would "feed" a super-computer their scores for the Top Twelve in all three areas of semi-final competition during the live telecast. We see composite scores on the TV screen for the first time ever!

      The electronically-scored interviews: Miss Ireland's Spanish last name of Enríquez was bequeathed by her Maltese father. Miss South Africa admitted to falling off a motorized sea-bike (she is a clumsy girl, after all). Miss Spain loved disco-dancing. Miss Holland emphasized the small size of her nation. Miss Mexico joked about Mexican machismo. Miss Sweden met a man at the pageant (her chaperone's five-year-old son). Miss USA informed us that First Daughter Amy Carter was an avid pageant watcher. Miss Colombia reminded Bob how she first met him in the hotel elevator. Miss Belgium parroted Bob's English. Miss Peru won an actual house at her national contest. Miss Israel took a leave of absence from the Israeli army to participate in the pageant. And Miss Chile confessed her uncertainty in pursuing her original goal of becoming a journalist.

      The judges included the French-born Miss Universe 1953, Christiane Martel; a former first lady of Indonesia; and Mexico's foremost entertainer, Mario Moreno ('Cantinflas'). Janelle Commissiong presented a silver trophy to Christiane Martel commemorating the twenty-fifth (silver) anniversary of her accession to the Universal throne. The official state dance troupe, the Ballet Folklórico de Guerrero, performed a sample of dances indigenous to the Pacific coastal region of Mexico. The telecast continues with the swimsuit and evening gown semi-finals in which the world-wide TV audience is much more mesmerized by the brand new electronic scoring system rather than the worldly beauty of the international contestants.

      The Top Five are Misses Spain, USA, Colombia, South Africa and Sweden. Each finalist draws a question from a glass bowl and provides the appropriate response. The judges would still honor tradition by casting the final vote with handwritten ballots. Janelle takes her final walk in a lemon-yellow gown. The runners-up are Sweden (fourth), Colombia (third), Spain (second) and USA (first). In what has been described as one of the most surreal moments in the pageant's history, the first black Miss Universe crowns a white South African as her successor. Margaret Gardiner of South Africa takes her victory walk and greets the audience empty-handed (no flowers, no scepter). This would happen again when Janelle's countrywoman Wendy Fitzwilliam won the second crown for Trinidad & Tobago exactly twenty years later - in 1998.

by Juan Prado

The 12 Semi-finalists

• MARGARET GARDINER, South Africa
• JUDI ANDERSON, USA
• GUILLERMINA RUIZ, Spain
• SHIRLEY SAENZ, Colombia
• CECILIA BJORNDOTTER, Sweden
• FRANCOISE MOENS, Belgium
• MARIANNE PRIETO, Chile
• KAREN GUSTAFSSON, Holland
• LORRAINE ENRIQUEZ, Ireland
• DORITH JELLINEK, Israel
• ALBA CERVERA, Mexico
• OLGA ZUMARAN, Peru

Photo courtesy of the Miss Universe Organization

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2006 CRITICAL BEAUTY. All rights reserved.