On the runway

On the runway

Cork Film Festival, Miss Movie Girl

This black and white photo identifies this runway shot as part of the Miss Movie Girl competition. The competition had various rounds including ‘evening attire’ and swimwear. We note the Harp Lager promotional material providing a backdrop for an improvised runway in what looks like a hotel function room. The fair-haired model, wearing a light-coloured chaste bathing suit worn over nylon tights, is gazing straight down towards the lens of the cameraman on her right. A crowd is gathered around the runway, some with bags in hand, and look on.

While the idea of a Miss Movie Girl competition with a ‘bathing suit’ segment might bring a wry smile to our lips now it was very much in vogue during the 1970s, as we see with the Miss World pageant. Miss World originated in 1951, for the Festival of Britain, under the auspices of Eric and Julia Morley. During the 1960s and 1970s the pageant was one of the most-watched programmes on British television but fell out of favour as the decade progressed. Miss World still operates today, without that swimsuit segment, but is no longer televised in England or Ireland. A recent movie Misbehaviour (2020), directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, looks at the bizarre and somewhat extraordinary nature of the Miss World pageant in a light-hearted yet illuminating way – reminding us of how the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s made way for a narrative that continues to this day via #MeToo.

UCC, Cork Film Festival, Donal Sheehan

Cork Film Festival Collection

University College Cork

1970

Donal Sheehan

Photo
TIFF
JPEG

English, eng

1970
Cork, Ireland

Photo

256 x 201mm