Miss World 1958

Miss World 1958
Miss World 1958
	Miss World 1958 Penelope Coelen
Date	13 October 1958
Presenters	Eric Morley
Venue	Lyceum Ballroom, London, United Kingdom
Entrants	20
Placements	6
Debuts	Brazil;
Withdrawals	Australia; Austria; Finland; Iceland; Luxembourg; Tunisia;
Returns	Norway; Turkey;
Winner	Penelope Coelen; South Africa
	← 1957 1959 →

Miss World 1958, the 8th edition of the Miss World pageant, was held on 13 October 1958 at the Lyceum Ballroom in London, United Kingdom. The winner was Penelope Anne Coelen, who represented South Africa. She was crowned by Miss World 1957, Marita Lindahl of Finland.

Contestants from 20 countries participated in this year's pageant. The pageant was hosted by American Bob Russell.

Background

The 1958 edition saw the debuts of Brazil and the returns of Norway (since 1954) and Turkey (since 1953). The eight countries have withdrawn from the competition: Austria, Egypt, Finland, Ghana, Luxembourg and Poland wouldn't participated after their respective selected delegates Elisabeth Schubel-Auer, Leila Saad, Pirkko Mannola, Janet Ohene-Agyei Boateng, Lydie Schmit and Krystina Zylówna for undisclosed reasons. Iceland and Tunisia withdrew from the competition after their selected delegates Hjordis Sigurvinsdóttir and Denise Orlando was unable to compete for canceled their trips, according to their directors via telegram.^[1]

Results

Final results	Contestant
Miss World 1958	South Africa – Penelope Coelen
1st Runner-up	France – Claudine Auger
2nd Runner-up	Denmark – Vinnie Ingemann
3rd Runner-up	Sweden – Harriet Margareta Wågström
4th Runner-up	Holland – Lucienne Struve
5th Runner-up	United Kingdom – Eileen Sheridan

Pageant

Format

Sometimes in the recent year when has changed quite a bit, the contestants were trimmed down to 6 semifinalists, compared to 7 in 1957 and 8 in 1955. This semifinal group size was last used in 1956 and previously to be used in 1954. The initial semifinalists were selected through a preliminary competition——first in evening gowns and later, in one-piece swimsuit (include 50% of the score for the figure in a bathing suit, according of Eade himself)——held the finals night.^[1]

Judges

The ten judges for the final telecast were both male and female panel which included:^[1]

Charles Jacobs – photojournalist and editor
Oscar Santa Maria – former Brazilian politician
Cynthia Oberholzer – South African model
Cowan Dobson – painting artist
Barbara Goalen – model
Charles Eade – newspaper editor and member of the Council of the British Commonwealth Press Union
Taina Elg – American actress
Stirling Moss – F1' racer
Shakuntala Sharma – Indian Princess and fashion designer
Claude Berr – Miss Europe committee