Four global pageants still define the big-brand circuit
Beauty pageants rank contestants on physical and mental attributes, traditionally weighting appearance. Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International, and Miss Earth form the so-called Big Four amid thousands of annual contests. The oldest still running, Miss America, began in 1921 as a lure for tourists to Atlantic City.
A beauty pageant judges and ranks contestants, historically on looks alone, though most modern contests also weigh personality, intelligence, talent, and answers to judges' questions. Pageants are usually tiered, with local rounds feeding bigger ones, so an international title may sit atop hundreds or thousands of local contests. Each organizer sets its own rules, including the permitted ages of entrants.
Ancient Greeks held kallisteia, beauty contests such as one on Lesbos where women gathered at Hera's sanctuary and the fairest won a prize, and events called euandria and euexia mixed male beauty with physical size and strength. The most direct ancestors are medieval European festivals like the English May Day, which always crowned a May Queen. At the Eglinton Tournament of 1839, a staged medieval joust in Scotland, the beauty prize went to Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset.
In May 1920 the promoter C. E. Barfield made a "Bathing Girl Revue" the centrepiece of Galveston's new Splash Day, opening the Texas island's summer season. The next year a local businessman organized the first Miss America, bringing winners of newspaper contests to Atlantic City, New Jersey, and helping make such contests respectable. Its success inspired imitators, some as slight as the National Donut Queen. Eric Morley founded Miss World in 1951, Miss Universe and Miss USA followed in 1952, Miss International in 1960, and Miss Earth, focused on environmental awareness, in 2001.
Losing a Big Four crown is rare and draws heavy press. Marjorie Wallace of the United States was stripped of the Miss World title three months into her 1973 reign, and Helen Morgan of Wales resigned as Miss World 1974 four days after winning, once it emerged that she was a mother named in a divorce case. Gabriela Brum of Germany lasted just 18 hours as Miss World 1980. Russia's Oxana Fedorova, Miss Universe 2002, became that pageant's first dethroned winner four months in.
Source: Beauty pageant
