Miss World 1970

April 15, 2020
A debut memoir recounts how a black woman's unprecedented win in the Miss World competition resulted in stardom.Hosten went into the 1970 Miss World contest feeling unexpectedly confident. A flight attendant who had recently been named Miss Grenada--a competition she had only entered after being scouted by the Grenada Tourist Board--the author saw the whole affair as an adventure. She was proud to represent her tiny island nation alongside the 57 other contestants at London's Royal Albert Hall vying for the Miss World title--though she knew that a woman of color had never been chosen. Hosten and the others were not expecting the feminist protesters who greeted their bus with banners and placards: " 'We Are Not Ugly, We're Angry,' 'You Poor Cows,' 'Miss World, Man's World.' Some of them pounded with clenched fists on the sides of the bus. Others were pushing hard, trying to shake the coach. At one point, they all started singing, 'We Shall Overcome.' " Halfway through the show, protesters in the crowd began shouting down the jokes of the host, comedian Bob Hope, blowing whistles and pelting the stage with flour bombs, among other items. Despite the uproar, the moment that really made history was the judges' decision to crown Hosten as Miss World. It turned out that the night was just the beginning of a decade that would include USO tours of Vietnam, a revolution in her homeland, and the author's meteoric rise, as she became an icon of black womanhood around the world. Hosten tells her story in simple and lucid prose, recalling the weirdness of her immediate fame: "I was very suddenly a celebrity...A freelance photographer who was a friend of mine obtained from my parents a photograph of me as a small baby. He asked to borrow it and promptly sold the photograph to the newspapers without my permission or knowledge." The book is not quite riveting, though there are delightful moments sprinkled throughout. The author largely resists analyzing the conflicting movements of the period, but her tale is an intriguing look at the intersection of race, gender, business, and politics from a unique perspective.A candid and engaging account of the 1970s from the first black Miss World.

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