Pearl Gladys Jansen (born 1950 in

Bonteheuwel Bonteheuwel is a former Coloured township in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Famous people * Pearl Jansen Pearl Gladys Jansen (born 1950 in Bonteheuwel) is a South African beauty queen and singer who ends up first ru ...

) is a South African

beauty queen A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

and singer who ends up first runner-up in the

Miss World Miss World is the oldest existing international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has co-chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Miss I ...

beauty contest in the UK in 1970. She became the first coloured woman to represent her country at this level even if she competed as "Miss Africa South" due to apartheid.

Biography

Jansen was 20 when she entered the 1970 beauty contest, and she is portrayed in the film ''Misbehaviour''. She has stated that after the contest nothing changed for her because of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. She waited until she was 58 years old to fulfill her dream of becoming a singer.

1970 Miss World contest

The 1970 contest was held in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It began with a row because the organisers had allowed two entries from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

, one black, Pearl Jansen, and one white.BBC2, ''Miss World 1970: Beauty Queens and Bedlam, BBC2, review: the real stars were Pearl Jansen and Jennifer Hosten'

/ref> Then during the evening there were protests by Feminist movement, women's liberation activists and flour was thrown. The comedian,

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in Bob Hope filmography, more than 70 short and ...

, was also heckled. Jennifer Hosten, Miss Grenada, won, becoming the first black woman to win Miss World, and Pearl Jansen was placed second.

Bibliography

* Jennifer Hosten, ''Miss World 1970: The Craziest Pageant in History and the Rest of My Life'', Sutherland House Incorporated, 2020

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jansen, Pearl Living people Miss World 1970 delegates 1950 births People from Cape Town South African singers Cape Coloureds