Armi Kuusela

Unexpected romance is in the air when a young woman from Finnish boarding school meets an American millionaire.

The true-to-life story of Miss Finland Armi Kuusela who was crowned Miss Universe in the first Miss Universe pageant held in 1952. In 1953, some nine months after she won the Miss Universe title, Armi was invited by the Philippine International Fair Committee to crown that year’s Miss Philippines, in the course of her stay, she met Virgilio Hilario, a Filipino businessman, through a blind date in Baguio, the two were eventually married in Tokyo that year. Kuusela chose to relinquish her crown shortly before her reign ended as Miss Universe

When 78 beauties are assembled from the far corners of the globe in order to select the most beautiful girl in the world, the results are bound to be spectacular. And so it was with the staging of the 1952 Miss Universe Beauty Contest.