Beauty School is pleased to welcome our third inductee into the Pantheon - Miss Helen O’Connell, the television hostess of 9 Miss Universe Pageants (1972-1980) and 8 Miss USA Pageants (1973-1980).

Inducting Helen O’Connell may seem an unusual  choice to some.  Our younger students in particular may not even remember her at all.  For those who do, we hope you will share our enthusiasm in elevating Miss O’Connell to the lofty heights of the Pantheon.
 

To put Helen’s contributions to the world of pageantdom in perspective we need to take a historic look at pageants in general. Almost all of the major beauty pageants were established as marketing ploys to boost tourism. The Miss America pageant (yes, originally it was a "bathing beauty" contest) came about when the local town fathers wanted to find a way to keep tourists coming to Atlantic City after the Labor Day weekend. So they scheduled a bathing beauty contest later in the month of September.  The Miss Universe Pageant’s creation was established in no small part to help foster tourism and development in the Long Beach, California area. And when the pageant moved to Miami Beach, the motive was the same.  Give them a beauty pageant and they will come, and they will spend money.  That said, it is time to see how Helen fits into this picture.

In 1972, after 20 years of holding its "international" beauty pageant solely on the shores of North America, the Miss Universe Pageant made its first foray off the coast of the United States. It did not travel far, only to Puerto Rico, but it was the beginning of the stunning international venues that would become a trademark of the pageant.  For their first Miss Universe broadcast abroad, the directors of the Miss Universe retired June Lockhart as the on-air hostess and replaced her with Miss O’Connell.

Helen came to the Miss Universe Pageant from a stunning career as one of the best known big-band singers of the 1940's. Born in Lima, Ohio (a presage of exotic locales to come perhaps), she went directly from high school to standing behind the microphone before The Larry Funk Band. She was discovered by big-band leader Jimmy Dorsey and the rest is history as they say. She would go on to sell millions of copies of her trademark songs "Green Eyes," "Tangerine," and "Amapola."  From the big bands it was on to television in the 1950's where she worked with Dave Garroway on NBC.  And in 1972, she landed the job of Tour Guide Extraordinaire to millions of Miss Universe fans.
    
From the auditorium of the Cerromar Beach Hotel in Dorado, Puerto Rico, Helen  made her international debut standing high above the stage, wearing a long blue dress and sporting perfectly coiffed blond hair.  Her first words?  "Oh, weren’t those costumes lovely!", as the parade of nations was completed on stage.

As pageant hostess, it was Helen’s job to give us the background on the girls, introduce the commercials and to lead us on a cultural tour of the host nation.  Each task she did with her inimitable grace, wholesomeness, and just that right amount of "wink" in her eye.

After her spectacular debut in 1972, she kept her suitcases packed and traveled  where ever the itinerant pageant took her.  In 1973, she introduced us to the culture of Athens, in what was the most spectacular setting ever for the Miss Universe pageant. From high above the ancient stage of Herrod Atticus, Helen informed us of the history of this great city and even managed to tip us off to the pleasures of Ouzo.

1974 found Helen in the Philippines and in 1975, El Salvador.  At each stop along the way, so to speak, she would give us a geography lesson, complete with maps on an easel, showing us where we were at that evening (or morning for some of you!).  And to a world just beginning to commercially exploit computer technology for real-time, world-wide communication, she would also explain to us how we were able to watch the pageant live via satellite, using another map on an easel to explain how the signal was sent up into space and bounced back by the satellite to receivers and then on to TV sets all over the world.

Let’s not forget she served as hostess for 8 Miss USA Pageants, too.  And, it was at the 1976 Miss USA Pageant that the singer got to croon a little, doing a shortened version of "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby."  Her comment after sharing her vocal talents were most telling of her mischievous nature, "They finally let me sing on this show!"

At the 1976 Miss Universe pageant in Hong Kong, she introduced us to the ways of the Orient.  She sipped jasmine tea with Anne-Marie Pohtamo, Miss Universe 1975, in an simple, but beautiful tea ceremony and even showed us how to eat with chopsticks!  She also gave the Chinese Horoscopes for each of the 12 semifinalists.  Here is what she had to say about Miss Israel, Rina Messinger, the winner that year:  "Miss Israel is an Aquarian who was born in 1956, the year of the monkey.  She’s very inventive and she’s successful because she doesn’t believe in the word impossible."

       Miss Universe 1976
    "So, like what’s your sign?"

In 1977 she was off to the Dominican Republic, and in 1978 she was in Mexico.  At that pageant, she interviewed - and flirted shamelessly with - a very important visitor from the site of the 1979 pageant.  With perfect timing and dead-pan delivery, she carried on a 30-second conversation with the visitor - a big, stuffed koala bear!  Here’s an excerpt:

Helen:  "I know we are all looking forward to seeing your beautiful country and we’ll see you next year in Perth, I know!"

(Helen puts microphone in front of koala bear and pauses for 5 seconds, while the bear "speaks").

Helen:  "What?"

(Helen puts microphone in front of koala bear and pauses, again, for the bear to "speak").

Helen: "Of course I will!"

And with that Helen gave the koala bear a great big kiss!

At the 1979 pageant, the stuffed koala bear was no where to be seen, but Helen didn’t seem to notice.  Instead, she gave us a close-up view of Skylab, which had fallen to earth and had landed in the Australian desert.  Her final assignment for the Miss Universe organization was in beautiful Seoul, South Korea.

For those who remember Helen as hostess of the Miss Universe Pageant, you will also surely remember that much of the dialogue and tasks assigned to her were rather hokey, and that is what made her so special.  She knew it was hokey, like talking to a stuffed koala bear, but she did it so seriously you were mesmerized how this intelligent woman could pull this off. The answer? Talent and a great sense of fun.  Aside from sharing cultural experiences with us, it was her job to introduce the commercials, and only Helen could pull off an introduction like this:  "Oh Mirror, Mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all? Here are some reflections from Joy."   She did this so seamlessly that you wondered if she didn’t need to take a break to laugh at it all when the commercials ran.

For pageant fans all over he world, watching the Miss Universe Pageant was not just about who would win the crown, but also about being exposed to countries and experiences heretofore unavailable on live television. It was Helen O’Connell who took us around the world, behind the scenes and whetted our appetites in appreciation of the diversity of cultures.

Helen was practicing multiculturalism long before it became politically correct here in the U.S.  She seemed to love to showcase a nation’s customs and traditions, whether she was wearing the traditional Filipina mestiza dress during the 1974 pageant, or during an interlude at the 1977 pageant, explaining how certain Dominican musical instruments were played.  She informed us, she made as laugh, and she also probably helped boost tourism in each of the nations hosting the pageant. Today’s hostesses do not take an active part in showcasing the host nation’s culture in the way Helen did. Can you see Marla Maples showing us how to eat with chopsticks?  Or Daisy Fuentes giving us an African geography lesson?  Since Helen left the pageant after the 1980 contest, no hostess since has come close to filling her shoes as a Tour Guide Extraordinaire.

Always a trouper, Helen O’Connell was touring with a big-band show when she died in 1993, at the age of 73.  To pay tribute to her unique contribution to the world of pageants, we close with this...

"Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who was the fairest of them all"?

We here at Beauty School have the answer.

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