PICTURE OF THE WEEK

"World Tour '99
The Pride of Poland"

With this week's Picture of the Week, Beauty School kicks off our "World Tour '99."

Each week from now until the 1999 Miss World Pageant on December 4, the Picture of the Week will showcase the winners and countries of the Miss World title. Along with a fabulous photo, we'll include interesting tidbits about that year's contest and the winner's country.

The first stop on our "World Tour '99" is Poland.

Poland has a rich history of producing some of the most influential people of our time. From Copernicus to Madame Curie, and from Joseph Conrad to Chopin to Paderewski, Poles have made us sit up and take notice.

In November 1989, the stunning Aneta Kreglicka followed in the footsteps of her forebearers when the judges took notice of her at the Miss World Pageant in Hong Kong.

Here are several tidbits about the pageant that year...and the country that took the crown:

1. With Aneta's victory at 1989 Miss World Pageant, Poland became the first Eastern bloc country to win the prestigious title. Poland had another Eastern bloc first in 1989, too. In the country's first free elections in over 40 years, Tomas Mazowiecki was elected primer minister and became the first non-Communist head of an Eastern bloc nation.

2. The 1989 Miss World Pageant was the first to be held entirely outside the United Kingdom.

3. The Soviet Union send its first representative to the Miss World Pageant in 1989, Anna Gorbunova, a 22 year-old secretary, who won the Miss Photogenic title.

4. And in yet another first, the 1989 Miss World Pageant was the first one in many years not to be televised live on British television. Thames Television, which had televised the pageant for most of the 1980's, refused to renew the contract to screen the pageant, saying it was "outdated, sexist, and not appropriate for modern Britain."

A special thanks to our Esteemed Benefactor for sharing this wonderful photo with us.

Sources:

"Another First for Poland," Washington Post, November 23, 1989.

"Representante de Polonia coronada Miss Mundo," El Universal, Caracas, November 23, 1989.