Miss World 1958

Miss World 1958 was the eighth edition of the Miss World pageant, held at the Lyceum Ballroom in London, United Kingdom on 13 October 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 →

At the end of the event, Marita Lindahl of Finland crowned Penelope Anne Coelen of South Africa as Miss World 1958. This is the first victory of South Africa and the second victory of Africa in the history of the pageant.

Contestants from twenty countries participated in this year's pageant. The pageant was hosted by Eric Morley.

Background

Lyceum Ballroom, venue of Miss World 1958

Selection of participants

Twenty contestants were selected to compete in the pageant. One contestant was appointed to represent her country in this edition after contracting an illness from the previous edition.

Replacements

Miss Belgium 1958, Michele Gouthals was scheduled to represent her country in this edition.^[1] However, she was unable to participate in the competition because her organization appointed Miss Belgium 1957, Jeanne Chandelle to represent Belgium once again because she contracted the Asian Flu during the Miss World 1957 pageant and only showed up on the day of the coronation.

Debuts, returns and withdrawals

This edition marked the debut of Brazil, and the returns of Turkey, which last competed in 1953, and Norway last competed in 1954.

Hanni Ehrenstrasser of Austria withdrew after winning Miss Europe 1958, making her ineligible to compete at Miss World. Elisabeth Schubel-Auer was set to replace Ehrenstrasser, but did not push through for undisclosed reasons.^[2] Leila Saas of Egypt withdrew for financial reasons. Pirkko Mannola of Finland, Hjördís Sigurvinsdóttir of Iceland, Lydie Schmit of Luxembourg, and Denise Orlando of Tunisia withdrew for undisclosed reasons.^[3] Australia withdrew after their organization failed to hold a national competition or appoint a candidate.

Janet Ohene-Agyei Boateng of Ghana was supposed to compete, but withdrew due to financial constraints. Krystyna Żyła of Poland was supposed to compete as well, but was barred by her government from competing. She was eventually found dead in December 1958.^[4]

Results

Miss World 1958 participating countries and territories

Placement	Contestant
Miss World 1958	South Africa – Penelope Coelen[5][6]
1st runner-up	France – Claudine Auger[5]
2nd runner-up	Denmark – Vinnie Ingemann[5]
3rd runner-up	Sweden – Harriet Wågström[7]
4th runner-up	Holland – Lucienne Struve[5]
5th runner-up	United Kingdom – Eileen Sheridan[8]

Pageant

Format

The number of placements in this edition has been reduced to six from seven in the previous edition. The six finalists were selected through a preliminary competition held on the day of the final competition consisting of a swimsuit and an evening gown competition.^[8]

Selection committee

• Claude Berr – Member of the Miss Europe committee
• Cowan Dobson – Scottish portrait artist
• Charles Eade – British newspaper editor; Member of the Council of the British Commonwealth Press Union
• Taina Elg – Finnish-American actress
• Barbara Goalen – British fashion model
• Charles Jacobs – American photographer
• Stirling Moss – English Formula One racer^[9]
• Cynthia Oberholzer – South African model
• Oscar Santa Maria – former Brazilian politician
• Shakuntala Sharma – Indian Princess and fashion designer

Contestants

Twenty contestants competed for the title.^[10]

Country	Contestant	Age[a]	Hometown
Belgium	Jeanne Chandelle	19	Brussels
Brazil	Sônia Maria Campos[8]	20	Recife
Canada	Marilyn Anne Keddie[11]	21	Flin Flon
Denmark	Vinnie Ingemann[12]	18	Copenhagen
France	Claudine Auger[13]	17	Paris
Greece	Mary Panoutospoulou[14]	19	Athens
Holland	Lucienne Struve[15]	19	Rotterdam
Ireland	Susan Riddell	17	Derry
Israel	Rachel Shafrir[16]	19	Tel Aviv
Italy	Elisabetta Velinsky[17]	18	Rome
Japan	Hisako Okuse[18]	23	Saitama
Morocco	Jocelyne Lambin[19]	21	Rabat
Norway	Åse Qjeldvik	19	Oslo
South Africa	Penelope Coelen[20]	18	Durban
Sweden	Harriet Margareta Wågström	20	Stockholm
Turkey	Sunay Uslu	18	Istanbul
United Kingdom[b]	Eileen Sheridan[21]	22	Walton-on-Thames
United States	Nancy Anne Corcoran[22]	23	Washington D.C.
Venezuela	Ida Margarita Pieri[8]	18	Carúpano
West Germany	Dagmar Herner	20	Bavaria

Notes

1. Age at the time of the pageant
2. Competed as United Kingdom for the first time in the pageant