Photos of early Miss Universe contestants are a strange look at Jet Age ideas of multiculturalism

Sending Miss USA with Confederate flags in hand? Not a good look.

(left) Miss USA (formerly Miss Louisiana) Eurlyne Howell poses with flags. | (right) Various international contestants posing on the tarmac in Burbank. (University of Southern California)

By 1958 Miss Universe was still in its first decade of operation, but the beauty contest was already attracting a hefty following. A total of 36 countries sent delegates to the pageant that year, which was held in the beachside municipal auditorium in Long Beach and seen on TV nationwide. Contestants were predominantly European or South American, with women from just Japan, Korea, and Singapore representing Asia. Alaska, still six months off from statehood, sent an entrant too.

The winner, and the first Colombian to take the title, Luz Marina Zuluaga was beaming as she accepted her crown. “Five-foot-four, 36, 24, and 36, she’s on the threshold of fame. But no career for her—Luz just wants to get married,” detailed the television announcer. Indeed, the 19-year-old beauty queen would return to a politically volatile Colombia where she promptly built her family a house and became the director of tourism for her home state of Caldas. (And married a doctor.)

These PR photographs reveal a certain optimism for the internationalist ethos of the beauty pageant. Contestants are garbed in generalized motifs from their respective country’s cultures, some more overtly stereotypical than others. But as national representatives on the world stage, it is with all apparent pride that they step off a TWA jet onto the sun-drenched California tarmac, greet the cameras with aplomb, and take their place as ambassadors of a rapidly interconnecting globe.

Miss Iceland (left) with fellow contestants arriving in Burbank in 1959. (University of Southern California)

An international cast of Miss Universe contestants pose on the tarmac in 1958. (University of Southern California)

Marily Kalimopoulou, Miss Greece, arriving in Burbank, California, in 1958. (University of Southern California)

Marion Willis, Miss Singapore, 1958. (University of Southern California)

Tomoko Moritake, Miss Japan. (University of Southern California)

Miss Colombia, Luz Marina Zuluaga, poolside in Los Angeles in 1958. (University of Southern California)

Beatriz Boluarte as Miss Peru (left) and Eileen Cindy Conroy, contestant from Canada, (right) arrive at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium. (University of Southern California)

Audience at Miss Universe pageant, Long Beach, 1958. (University of Southern California)

Miss Israel, Miriam Hadar (seated), surrounded by autograph seekers and fans. (University of Southern California)

(left) Miss Australia, Astrid Tanda Lindholm, with the Netherland’s Corine Rottschäfer pose with trophys in 1958. | (right) An unidentified model with trophy, 1958. (University of Southern California)

Audience members in 1957. (University of Southern California)

Autograph hunters. (University of Southern California)

Contestants at a practice run for the 1958 Miss Universe beauty pageant. (University of Southern California)

(left) Winner and runner-ups from the 1958 Miss Universe beauty pageant in Long Beach, California. | (right) Miss Universe winner Luz Marina Zuluaga of Colombia is congratulated by third place runner-up Eurlyne Howell (University of Southern California)