MISS
ITALY
The history of
Miss Italy has been the same for years, and the winners has embraced cinema, television and
fashion. All began when Dino Villani promoted the most
important beauty pageant in the history of our usage.
The history began
this way: the Gi.Vi. Emme, having to improve the image of
a toothpaste, addressed to Dino Villani who thought of a
photographic competition "Cinquemilalire per un
sorriso" bound together with the weekly magazine
"Il Milione"... It was 1939 and the
fourteen-years-/old
Isabella Vernay was elect Miss Sorriso,
winning a photographic selection. After the WWII, the
competition resumed with selections and footbridges: Miss
Italy pageant was born just that year (1946), seeing the
beautiful
Rossana Martini be elected. The following
year, in a cinema golden age, Lucia
Bosè
became reginetta; she would later become the wife of the
great torero Domenguin. Beside her, on the
footbridge of Stresa, there were the future stars of
Italian cinema: Gina Lollobrigida, Silvana Mangano,
Eleonora Rossi Drago and Gianna Maria Canale.
In 1950, a really
unespected event was the missing of the title by Sofia Scicolone, better known in the
cinema as Sofia Lazzaro (today's Sofia Loren). Her breast had been
judged as beeing... overdimensioned for the title, but
she was however rewarded with a wrap purposely created
for her, that one of Miss Elegance. And since then, Miss
Italy it has bound to the history of the cinema, until Anna
Kanakis
(Miss Italy 1977),
Federica Moro
(Miss Italy 1982), Michela
Rocco di Torrepadula (Miss Italy 1987),
Maria Grazia Cucinotta (that has become famous
thanks to the film IL POSTINO of Massimo Troisi) and Anna Falchi (Miss Cinema 1989, a film with
Federico Fellini, showgirl in the Festival of Sanremo and
conductress of a "ZECCHINO D'ORO"), Claudia Pandolfi e Anna
Valle
(Miss Italy 1995).
Beyond these, other names in the history of Miss Italy
have become famous: Stefania Sandrelli, Milly
D'Abbraccio, Ombretta Colli, Simona Ventura (who participated to Miss
Italy in 1986 and represented Italy by 1988 Miss
Universe).
Curiosities do not
lack on Miss Italy's way; for instance, in 1959 Marisa
Jossa was
elected and 27 year later her daughter Roberta
Capua
(right photo)
won the pageant as well; or two sisters Layla
Rigazzi
and Alba Rigazzi having both won the
competition respectively in 1960 and 1965; or even two
participant twins, who arrived one among the first
hundred and the other among first sixty (in the 1997
edition), and two other twins in the 1999 edition.
In 1988 the pageant was broadcast by
RAIUNO; this agreement has proved to be largely
successful; a huge audience has indeed been following
Miss Italy programmes in the last years. Fabrizio Frizzi
has been the conductor of the evenings. These last years
have been characterized by many dramatic turns of events.
In 1988
Nadia Bengala won: it was afterwards
discovered that the beautiful Nadia is about to sign a
contract with one TV show on the Fininvest networks (now
Mediaset). In 1990, upon suggestion of the president of
the jury Maurizio Costanzo, the "measures" were
abolished: the famous 90-60-90 (cm) would no more be the
participants' nightmare; in that year Rosangela
Bessi
became the new Miss Italy.
"Miss Italy in the World" was born in 1991,
that is the competition who rewards the most beautiful
among the Italian girls who live in the foreign countries
(a sort of acknowledgment to the Italians living abroad).
In 1993 there
was another dramatic turn of events: Arianna
David won
the title, despite of the fact that, having already
partecipated in a television show, she would have had to
lose the title; but also this time the organiser Enzo
Mirigliani left the crown on the beautiful roman girl's
head.
In 1994 the Competition opens its doors to mothers and
married women: before then, Mirka Viola, the Miss Italy 1987 had been
disqualified because she was wife and mother. That year,
the tuscanian Beatrice Bocci, married and mother, was the
first "particular" runner-up and became
"Miss mother" to everyone.
In the 1995, Mirigliani abolishes the "traditional
footbridge": the new way to parade gives greater
freedom to the girls, that can eventually give free rein
to they own fantasy and creativity; that year, among the
finalists, there is a black girl, Iony Vecchi, born in
Brazil, and next year (1996) a girl with the same
characteristics,
Denny Mendez, born in Santo Domingo,
gained the title of Miss Italy. It never happened during
the 57 years of the competition and her election divided
Italy. Italians were astonished not certainly by that
fact that she was a black girl; she couldn't just
actually represent the beauty of a typical Italian girl.
Italy isn't indeed yet become a multi-racial Country,
like U.S.A. or South Africa.
1997 is marked by
the participation of one blind girl, Annalisa Minetti,
having been considered as a favourite since the beginning
of that year pageant; nevertheless the calabrian Claudia
Trieste
gained the title, but the beautiful Annalisa took her
revenge winning the "Festival di Sanremo 1998".
There were polemics also at the end of the 1998 edition:
the new Miss Italy,
Gloria Bellicchi, was judged to be too
standoffish; she in fact did produce not even a tear at
the moment of its crowning and the competition came
suspected of being made up.
The 1999 edition,
instead, has been reminded due to a mistake during the
selection of 24 among 60 candidates. A girl was excluded
instead of another. This way the selection had to be done
among 25 instead of 24 girls.
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