1981 Miss Universe Pageant

  • VENUE: NEW YORK, NEW YORK
  • NO. OF CONTESTANTS: 76
  • HOST: BOB BARKER
  • CO-HOST: ELKE SOMMER

    The "Big Apple" was the venue for the 1981 Miss Universe Pageant. It was in the hot and humid July that the city known as the "City That Never Sleeps", hosted 76 contestants who probably never got any sleep. This pageant marked the end of an era for the dynamic duo of Bob Barker and Helen O'Connell. It was specially hard for the television viewers to see another person doing the commentating after many years of watching Helen. But, like what they say, the show must go on and it did indeed!

    The stage was pretty typical "city back-drop" design which best showcased the magnificent sky scrapers of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge at nighfall. The theme song was of course, "New York, New York", which was just appropriate for the occassion.

    I knew right away that the European delegates will be dominating the semi-finals list only because there were quite a few that already stood out in the traditional parade of nations. Five out of the twelve semi-finalists were Europeans. However, Miss Tahiti, Miss Ecuador and Miss New Zealand got my votes right away. You could tell that majority of the audience were from the carribean nations because some of the loudest cheers were for contestants like Miss Curacao, Miss Jamaica, Miss Dominican Republic and Miss Puerto Rico. But the bigggest roars came when Miss Brazil, Miss USA and Miss Venezuela took their turns.

    The special swimsuit segment was quite interesting. The contestants were on board a boat and when they were introduced, the background changes as the boat moves around. It got me dizzy for a bit but the Manhattan skyline definitely took away the common beach scenery often used for that segment. And then, the lucky dozen was annouced.

    PRELIMINARY SCORES

    Miss Holland - 8.133

    Miss Ecuador - 7.967

    Miss New Zealand - 8.063

    Miss Sweden - 7.967

    Miss Brazil - 8.330

    Miss USA - 8.527

    Miss Norway - 8.259

    Miss Venezuela - 8.575

    Miss Belgium - 8.223

    Miss Germany - 8.400

    Miss Tahiti - 7.940

    Miss Canada - 7.913

    Nothing special about the interview competition...just the usual Bob Barker pageant humors, where someone always wins a refrigirator.

    The swimsuit and evening gown competitions were once again filled with never ending stairs, which most of the contestants probably hated. But what made that year's evening gown competition unique was having the contestants come down a flight of steps, down to a grand piano, then down another 4 steps.

    SEMI-FINAL SCORES

    Miss Holland - (INT)7.590 - (SS)7.633 - (EG)7.625 = 7.616

    Miss Ecuador - (INT)7.442 - (SS)7.300 - (EG)7.625 = 7.353

    Miss New Zealand - (INT)6.950 - (SS)7.492 - (EG)7.350 = 7.264

    Miss Sweden - (INT)8.658 - (SS)8.050 - (EG)8.179 = 8.296

    Miss Brazil - (INT)8.191 - (SS)8.416 - (EG)7.824 = 8.144

    Miss USA - (INT)7.427 - (SS)7.617 - (EG)7.653 = 7.566

    Miss Norway - (INT)8.435 - (SS)7.717 - (EG)7.838 = 7.997

    Miss Venezuela - (INT)8.966 - (SS)9.024 - (EG)8.887 = 8.959

    Miss Belgium - (INT)8.529 - (SS)8.881 - (EG)8.268 = 8.559

    Miss Germany - (INT)7.875 - (SS)8.041 - (EG)7.442 = 7.786

    Miss Tahiti - (INT)8.149 - (SS)8.137 - (EG)7.962 = 8.083

    Miss Canada - (INT)8.167 - (SS)8.133 - (EG)8.508 = 8.260

    For second straight year, the final result was quite obvious from the beginning. I personally think that even if Irene did not answer the final question, she still would have won the title. The biggest surprise was Miss Canada, who was last in the preliminary going to the semi finals. She was number 4 going into the final round and came on strong with the final question, where she ended up as first runner up.

    THE FINAL STANDING

    4th Runner Up - Miss Belgium

    3rd Runner Up - Miss Brazil

    2nd Runner Up - Miss Sweden

    1st Runner Up - Miss Canada

    Miss Universe 1981 - Miss Venezuela (Irene Saez Conde)

    OFF TO LIMA, PERU FOR THE 1982 MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT!!!

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    This site was last updated on May 26, 1998.

    All rights reserved. Copyright © 1998, Ben Kramer