Pageant News Bureau - Miss World 2004

It's the pageant question that stumps more journalists than any other. "How do they pick the American contestant for Miss World?"

Every autumn, newspaper and TV reporters ask this question of www.pageant.com. They're mystified that the oldest international beauty pageant in existence, which is watched annually by billions of people and has launched some of the most famous female entertainers on the planet, has such a low profile in America.

Gerdeen Dyer, the journalist who founded PNB, has always given a stock answer about how the American competitor is chosen: "Sometimes there's a pageant, sometimes there's a mini-pageant, sometimes it's a girl from another pageant, sometimes they just pick a girl, and sometimes a girl just picks herself."

2003 U.S. representative to Miss World, Kim Harlan
Photo by JoeWhiteko/ PNB

The last American to win Miss World, Gina Tolleson

Dyer's jaunty little jest had more than a grain of truth, but now it's obsolete. After years of shifting strategies, the Miss World organization will hold a major American pageant. It will be in Dallas, Texas, from Oct. 14 to Oct. 16, 2004. The winner will compete later in the year for the Miss World crown in Sanya, China.

Bruce Vermeulen, CEO of the US Miss World organization, told PNB that the deadline for American women to enter is mid-September, and the Web address for applications is www.usmissworld.com.

The two most famous Americans ever to compete at Miss World:

Halle Berry
Photo by Joe Whiteko /PNB

Lynda Carter

Vermeulen envisions making Dallas an American pageant center, since the city in associated in much of the world with glamour, opulence and intrigue. More importantly, he foresees a whole system of regional preliminaries, "at least 15 to 20 next year."

On the more distant horizon, he hints at having the Miss World Pageant itself in Dallas, which would be historic. (Founded in London by the late Eric Morley in 1951, Miss World has been staged only once in the Western Hemisphere, in Atlanta in 1991.)

Three PNB cover girls who represented America at Miss World:

Maribeth Brown

Sallie Toussaint

Carrie Stroup

Given the varied history of Miss World operations in the United States, pageant experts will be watching carefully to see whether this new order stands. But for now, the road to Miss World is open to Americans as it rarely has been before.

But time is of the essence.

P a g e a n t N e w s B u r e a u