#TBT: JOHNNY CARSON SERVED AS HOST OF THE 1961 MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT

By Katie Jackson | June 2, 2016 | People

A young Johnny Carson served as master of ceremonies during the 10th annual Miss Universe Pageant, held in the Magic City.

Future talk show host and master of ceremonies Johnny Carson poses with contestants in the 1961 Miss Universe pageant in Miami Beach, with (from left) Jetta Nielsen, Miss Denmark; Ritva Wachter, Miss Finland; Simone Darot, Miss France; and Nicole Ksionzenicki, Miss Belgium.

In the summer of 1961, the popular Miss Universe pageant made its way to Miami Beach for the second consecutive year. Millions tuned in to witness the world’s most beautiful women compete for the crown at the Miami Beach Auditorium (now the Miami Beach Convention Center). Even in black and white (color TV didn’t hit the masses until the mid-’60s), Miss Universe was a vibrant spectacle of dazzling dresses, exotic beauties, and unimaginable glamour.

As excitement for the pageant built, a similar hype was forming around a young comedian on the brink of mega stardom—Johnny Carson had already established a name for himself in television, appearing as host of his variety show, The Johnny Carson Show, and the popular game shows Earn Your Vacation and Who Do You Trust? For the pageant’s 10th anniversary, Carson was the first comedian to be chosen to serve as the master of ceremonies.

The glitzy tension paired with Carson’s charismatic charm and witty quips was a match made in prime-time television heaven, laying the groundwork and setting a high bar for future comedian hosts to follow (sorry, Steve Harvey). Pictured here in June 1961 (the actual pageant took place July 15), the funnyman posed with four of the 48 contestants, smirking and baring his calf with his signature “smize” (before Tyra Banks ever coined the term), drawing the viewer into the joke.

Marlene Schmidt, a 24-year-old blonde bombshell from Germany, was crowned the winner. But she wasn’t the only winner to emerge from that pageant—a little more than a year later, Carson was dubbed host of NBC’s The Tonight Show, where millions of television viewers would welcome him into their living rooms for more than three decades, catapulting him to comedic fame and into the hearts of generations of viewers.

https://oceandrive.com/when-johnny-carson-served-as-host-of-the-miss-universe-pageant