The event caused a huge resonance.
On 19 September 1888 at the Belgian resort town of Spa hosted the first ever international beauty pageant. The title of the world’s most beautiful girls claimed 350 participants, 21 of which came in the final. And the idea of beauty, and the principles of selection and competition in the nineteenth century differed significantly from modern standards.
In the summer of 1888 in the Newspapers there was an announcement about the beauty contest which was held in September in the Spa town of Spa in Belgium. Anyone wishing to claim the title of most beautiful girl on the planet offered to send your picture with brief information about yourself. The newspaper has received 350 applications from Austria, America, Algeria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway, Russia, Tunisia, Turkey, France and Sweden. Of these, the jury selected 21 girls – they had personally to continue to participate in the competition in the Spa. Participants were not allowed to appear in public – they lived on a separate floor in the hotel, where they travelled in closed carriages to the salon only casino, which hosted the competition. To awards no one had the right to see participating. All expenses for travel and accommodations of the girls took over the casino.
The organizer of the competition was hervé du Lorrain, 10 000 francs on the grant of awards to winners of the allocated casino. The prettiest girl was chosen by a jury of eight men, among whom were painters, sculptors and other representatives of creative professions. The contest was held for 12 days. Every day the girls were dressed in front of the jury at the salon of the casino. All of them were dressed in long dresses and men present in the room in tuxedos.
On the 12th day announced the winners of the contest. The most beautiful girl of the planet was named 18-year-old Creole from Guadeloupe March Sukkar, she was awarded the first prize of 5,000 francs. Second prize of 2,000 francs was given to the Flemish Angela Belrose. Third place and 1,000 francs gave the native of Vienna Marie Stevens. After the ceremony the casino staged a Grand ball for members of the jury, local authorities and members of the press.
Even the first ever beauty contest was not without incidents and scandals. One of the participants so everyone was amazed by its beauty that the jury unanimously decided that she is out of the competition. It was an Algerian girl Fatima. The resourceful entrepreneur required input charge for people to look at it. And when the jury announced the winner of the competition, one participant, frustrated by this result, came to the lucky girl… and spit in her face!
The winner of the beauty contest received an impressive cash prize, but world downloads: Mar Sukkar during the first three days after the announcement of the results received over a hundred proposals of marriage. But she dismissed them, stating the desire to pursue an acting career. Unfortunately, information about her further fate is absent.
