1.Long Beach (CA) to host twenty-six beauties from twenty-six countries and territories for MU pageant –winners of beauty contests in their own countries. There are new countries from Western Europe: Austria and Switzerland make its international debut on U.S. soil. Meanwhile, Miss Morocco, Colette Ribes, does not compete in the pageant. The next edition of the event will be also held in California.
2. The event helps to make Long Beach one of the most famous places on the U.S coast.
3. Sixteen entries are elected to semi-finals and are the following: Maxine Morgan (Australia), Lore Felger (Austria ), Thelma Elizabeth Brewis ( Canada), Jytte Olsen (Denmark), Christiane Martel (France), Christel Schaack ( Germany) , Rita Stazzi (Italy), Kinuko Ito (Japan) ,Ana Bertha Lepe Jimenez (Mexico), SynnÃÆ”ÃƔÃ’Ò¶ve Gulbrandsen ( Norway), Emita Arosemena Zubieta (Panama), Mary Ann Sarmiento ( Peru), Ingrid Rita Mills ( South Africa) , Myrna Hansen (States), Ayten Akyol ( Turkey), and Ada Alicia Ibanez mengual (Uruguay).
4. Western Europe is looking for its second title. Miss France, Christiane Martel (whose real surname is Magnani), has just edged in front as the heavy favorite to win the worldwide title.
5. France wins second MU! With all justice, Christiane Martel, France’s top beauty queen, captures the crown on U.S. soil, gaining a reputation around the world for being one of the most beautiful queens. She was crowned on 17 July 1953, succeeding Finland’s Armi Kuusela. The rest of the story is familiar enough. She was MU until July 24 1954.
6.During her year as universal queen, she was extremely popular in the United Mexican States, where she married Miguel Aleman Velasco, governor of Veracruz and the son of the late Mexican President Miguel Aleman Valdes. Between 1955 and 1961,she was an actress in the Latin American republic, after working in Hollywood for almost three years. The second MU in the 20th Century, Christiane Martel, a Frenchwoman by birth but Mexican by choice since the mid-1950s, was considered one of the international judges at the Miss Universe in Acapulco in the late 1970s.
7. Miss Martell is Europe’s second MU and the first in the French-speaking world. After this achievement, however, France’s performance to become less competitive in the following decades.
8. The host country, USA, thrills the home crowd during the annual pageant as its local beauty, Myrna Rae Hansen of Illinois, finishes second in the twenty-six country event.
9. Latin America is beginning to make their mark in the annual pageant. Mexico (it competes for the first time) is third runer-up with Miss Ana Bertha Lepe Jimenez (the country’s best performance until the late 1980s as Amanda Olivares was the only Latino to make the top five in the Republic of China/Taiwan. Years later, Miss Lepe found international stardom as one of the most respected actresses during the Golden Age for Mexico’s cinematography starring alongside unforgettable names such as Sarita Montiel, Armando Arriola, and Pedro Vargas.