Miss South Africa, Mitzi Stander, and Miss Philippines, Pinkey Amabuyok, step forward to present themselves in the 1968 Miss World parade of contestants. Pinkey made headlines earlier in the week when she told reporters that she was a nun and ran away from the convent to become a beauty queen. The 17-year-old later retracted the story and said she made it up, explaining " I guess my imagination just ran away with me."Fortunately for Pinkey, there was a lot of anti-South Africa and anti-USA sentiment at the time as a result of Apartheid and the Vietnam war respectively, and the rather drab looking girl cruised into the Top 7 on a "pity the oppressed people of South East Asia" ticket. Miss SA and Miss USA, both near the top of the list of bookmakers favourites, both failed to progress to the Top 15.
Miss USA said after the pageant that she was defeated by politics. Judges were more interested in Vietnam than in her 36-24-36 figure, she claimed. One judge is even alleged to have called her a "rapist of little countries". "I've been treated abominably ever since I got here" she said. "Just before I was to go on stage, a contest official called me a warmonger."
"And they ignored the fact Miss South Africa was gorgeous. Everyone thought she would come up close, but she didn't even place in the first set of finalists" she said.