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Miss USA 1957

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Miss USA 1957
DateJuly 17, 1957
PresentersBob Russell
VenueLong Beach Municipal Auditorium, Long Beach, California, USA
Entrants44
Placements15
WinnerCharlotte Sheffield
Utah Utah
Mary Leona Gage
Maryland Maryland (dethroned)

Miss USA 1957, the sixth Miss USA pageant, took place in Long Beach, California on July 17, 1957 during the run-up to the year's Miss Universe pageant. The 1957 Miss USA pageant is noted as marking the only occasion to date on which the winner was stripped of her title by pageant organizers.

Scandal and dethronement

At the end of the pageant, Mary Leona Gage of Maryland was declared the winner and was crowned by the outgoing titleholder (and Miss Universe 1956) Carol Morris of Iowa. The following day however, rumors about Gage's past and current circumstances began to circulate, and it subsequently emerged that not only had Gage lied about her age (she was 18, not 21 as she had originally claimed), but she was also the twice-married mother of two children. As Gage had clearly broken a number of eligibility rules, pageant officials immediately disqualified her once the accusations against her had been checked and verified.[1][2]

The crown and the associated prize package thus passed to the 1st runner-up, Charlotte Sheffield of Utah, with the other three finalists being moved up a place, and the highest-scoring semi-finalist, Kathryn Gabriel of Ohio, being promoted to 4th runner-up. However, by the time the scandal broke publicly, the Miss Universe preliminary judging had already taken place (in which, ironically, Gage had been chosen as a semi-finalist by the judges, having been allowed by the organizers to participate while the allegations being made against her were investigated), so Sheffield was unable to compete in the pageant – the only time the USA has not been represented at Miss Universe.[1] Later in the year, Sheffield was sent to London as the USA delegate for Miss World 1957, but failed to place.

Results

Final Results Contestant
Miss USA 1957
Miss USA 1957
1st runner-up
2nd runner-up
3rd runner-up
4th runner-up
  • Ohio Ohio - Kathryn Gabriel
Top 15

Delegates

The Miss USA 1957 delegates were:

States

Cities

References

  1. ^ a b Woestendiek, John (April 10, 2005). "The Long, Unhappy Pageant of Mary Leona Gage". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved October 11, 2010.
  2. ^ Thursby, Keith (October 9, 2010). "Leona Gage, Miss USA For a Day, Dies at 71". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 11, 2010.
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