██TRIBUTE TO MISS UNIVERSE 1974

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TRIBUTE TO THE MISS UNIVERSE 1974 PAGEANT
Exactly forty years ago, the 23rd Miss Universe pageant, was held in Manila, Philippines on the early morning of July 21, 1974
(evening of July 20 in the USA) before a live audience of an estimated 10,000 at the Folk Arts Theater and broadcast live by CBS and Radio Philippines Network (RPN). The pageant was hosted by Bob Barker and Helen O'Connell. It was the first time in the Pageant's history that the event was held in Asia.

The pageant opened with the parade of nations of all 65 contestants in their native costumes singing "Let's Be Friends," accompanied by the honor guard cadets of the Philippine Military Academy. The pageant contestants also performed a second musical number based on an Ilocano melody entitled "Pamulinawen," a song considered to be a personal favorite of then Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.


That win for the national pride must have got Imelda thinking, “The next Miss Universe pageant must be held here in Manila. Let’s build a venue!”

Once again the First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos called upon the talents of architect Leandro V. Locsin, who designed a very simple amphitheatre, open on three sides to the “fresh” air off Manila Bay. And once again, Locsin provided his signature “floating volume” that seems impossibly heavy but light at the same time. The building has the largest free-span in the Philippines and was completed in seventy-seven days! (giving rest to the notion of third world inefficiency).

The Folk Arts Theater is big: it has a capacity of 8,458 divided into ten sections:

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The First Lady, Imelda Romuáldez Marcos secured the Miss Universe 1974 pageant for Manila, which necessitated the construction and completion of the 10,000-seat Folk Arts Theater in less than three months. She also organized the Kasaysayan ng Lahi, an extravagant festival parade showcasing the history of the Philippines.


Sixty-five entrants:

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MISS ARGENTINA - Leonor Celmira Guggini


MISS ARUBA - Maureen Ava Vieira


MISS BELGIUM - Anne-Marie Sophie Sikorski


MISS BELGIUM and MISS LEBANON Laudy Salim Ghabache


MISS BOLIVIA - Teresa Isabel Callau


MISS CANADA - Deborah Tone


MISS COSTA RICA - Rebeca Montagne


MISS CURACAO - Catherine Adelle De Jongh

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MISS FRANCE - Brigitte Marie Flayac



MISS GUAM - Elizabeth Clara Tenorio


MISS CONGENIALITY
MISS ICELAND - Anna Bjornsdóttir


MISS ISRAEL - Edna Levy


MISS JAPAN - Erika Tsuboia


MISS KOREA - Kim Jae-kyu


MISS NEW ZEALAND - Dianne Deborah Winyard


MISS NICARAGUA - Fanny Duarte De León Tapia

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MISS PHILIPPINES - Guadalupe "Guada" Cuerva Sanchez


MISS SCOTLAND - Catherine Robertson


MISS SPAIN - María Amparo Muñoz Quesada



MISS SWEDEN - Eva Christine Roempke


MISS SWITZERLAND - Christine Lavanchy


MISS TRINIDAD & TOBAGO - Stephanie Lee Pack


MISS URUGUAY - Mirta Grazilla Rodríguez


MISS WALES - Helen Elizabeth Morgan


MISS YUGOSLAVIA - Nada Jovanovsky

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Miss Finland won the Miss Photogenic special award








The first Miss Universe Armi Kuusela of Finland, Sylvia Hitchcock of the USA (Miss Universe 1967), and Miss Universe 1969, Gloria Diaz of the Philippines graced the event.
Margarita Moran, from the Philippines crowned Amparo Muñoz of Spain at the conclusion of the 2-hour telecast.
First runner-up Helen Morgan of Wales would eventually win the title of Miss World (representing the United Kingdom) later that year.

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The winner with Harold L. Glasser, chairman of the Miss Universe Inc.


First-born of a family of six children - the mother a housewife and the father, a forge teacher, Amparo Muñoz never had a princess treatment in her humble house of Vélez-Malaga. No privilege for being the prettiest. As a girl she grew up with her godparents, who did not have children. People recall her as a "solitary, shy, happy, very ingenuous... and very pretty. When she was walking along the street, people would turn to look at her.”

When she was in high school, she cut classes once and went to see the first movie of her life. "I was alone to the Astoria cinema in her natal city to see "A Man Called Horse", with Richard Harris and Kiriaki Tsopei (former Miss Universe 1964).
It dazzled me. In that time my favorite actors were Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando; now I like Susan Sarandon and Brad Pitt".

At 17, she earned her first salary as saleswoman in a department store in Mérida. Then she was employed at a French boutique and passed models in malls of Andalusia. Thanks to her insistence she was placed as secretary in an advertising company of exterior fences of which her father was an associate. The director of the newspaper -Sur de Málaga-, where she was going to put the announcements, encouraged her to participate in MISS COSTA DEL SOL, a regional event that the diary was promoting.

Against her prediction, in 1973 she was crowned MISS COSTA DEL SOL and then MISS SPAIN. “I always thought that these contests used woman, these events are like a cattle fair", Amparo said.

"It awful for a woman to use an event like this as a springboard, but I was not aspiring to become an actress". Her destiny changed when producer José Luis Dibildos saw her on television during her crowning and gave her a role in “Vida Conyugal Sana” directed by Roberto Bodegas, some months later she has a leading role in "Clara Es El Precio" where she was playing the role of a married woman that in her spare time worked naked in movies.

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Amparo Muñoz was the first Spanish woman to win the title and the first one in rejecting the crown in the history of the Miss Universe pageant.

The victory was unexpected. That gray Spain had suddenly a pretty image with a view to the exterior. More beautiful than it could imagine, in spite of the fact that the arrogant Spanish woman (with measures 84-56-84) had a pair of very thin legs that today would not adjust to the fashionable cannons. After six months of tortuous reign, during which they diagnosed her a nervous depression, in January 1975 she resigned, " She was fed up of being treated as a doll". Amparo was the first Spanish woman to win the title and the first one in rejecting the crown in the history of the Miss Universe pageant.

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Amparo married with the Spanish singer Patxi Andión, in May 1976. Months later she was pregnant, but a worrying incident that Amparo believed led to her miscarriage five days later. She miscarried a baby which, according to the words in her Autobiography, had borne for about three and a half months, and which "seemed to be a male child".




She became an instant celebrity in Spain, alongside the likes of artists and other Spanish celebrities of the 1970s, following her victory at Miss Universe with a fruitful show business career.
Prior to winning many beauty pageants, she was enrolled in the entertainment. After college, she moved to Madrid where she studied acting, modeled, and appeared on television commercials.
Previously to the Miss Universe pageant, she appeared in the movie film "Vida Conyugal Sana" as actress in a Supporting Role. In 1979, Muñoz acted in the comedy "Mama Turns 100 years old", by Carlos Saura. This was followed by performances in 1982's "Todo un Hombre" (He's all a Man), 1999's "A Paradise Under the Stars" and 2003's "El Tahur". In the late-1990s, she returned to the mainstream Spanish cinema with the movie Familia, by Fernando León de Aranoa and started a new life as an actress.

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Amparo Muñoz died on February 27, 2011, aged 56, due to heart problems, in her native Málaga.

[wiltz13]

wow!! Just like what Miss USA said in her intro, "KALIGAYAHAN SA INYONG LAHAT" seeing this gives me happiness! the Top 5 is one of the most Solid and beautiful set in many many years!! I hope Aruba can produce a beauty like that of Maureen Ava Viera! And Im wishing Finland to send a barbie like Johanna Raunio! gosh they're last placement was back in 1996? it's crazy!!

[CoolasICE]

Nice thread I just noticed, the sash, was it part of the swimsuit before or it's removable just like the present sash, it appears to be part of it

[Klass Act]

I remember getting a VCD copy of this pageant (along with Miss Universe 1994) to see how beautiful the production was.

After 1994, there even were rumors that Miss Universe will be held in the Philippines every 20 years. 1974 - 1994 - and obviously it didn't happen in 2014.

One story my Mom was telling me is that on the day of the pageant, it was threatening to rain. Imelda didn't want her extravaganza to be ruined so she had the Philippine Air Force do cloud seeding to prevent it from raining.

And of course, that "I'm in the mining business too" incident Imelda had with one of the candidates was epic. Imelda trademark.