1970s Miss Universe Pageants Were Wild

This was a major decade for pageant diversity

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During the 1950s and 1960s, being Miss Universe almost always meant that you would need to be white, though body types were a little more varied. During the 1970s, women who entered the pageant were more diverse when it comes to ethnicity, and judges loved it!

In 1970, Marisol Maralet of Puerto Rico won the crown. Not too long after, Filipina Margarita Moran took home the crown. 1977 saw the first black Miss Universe, with the award going to Trinidad and Tobago’s Miss Janelle Commissiong. The very next year, Miss South Africa won the crown.