Marjorie Wallace

Marjorie Wallace (born January 23, 1954) is an American actress, TV Host, model, and beauty queen. In 1973, she made history as the first woman from the United States to be crowned Miss World, but just 104 days later, pageant officials announced she would be the first Miss World to have her title taken from her. Years later, she helped launch the television program Entertainment Tonight as an original co-host.

Wallace was born in Indianapolis, Indiana where her family ran an industrial supply business and raised her in the suburbs, she told People magazine. With a population of about 740,000 in 1970, "dancing at the Holiday Inn was the biggest thing in town," she joked.

When she was 14, her parents divorced and Wallace was already showing her wild side. Once she suddenly went on a 1,200-mile road trip with a friend to Miami, Florida. But her teen years also included typical high school pursuits, such as competitive swimming and cheerleading, according to the magazine. Men began to play a larger role in her life. At age 17, she moved in with a guitarist in the Indy rock band "Pure Funk."

"My mother always says that if I ever have a daughter, I deserve to have one like myself," she said in 1976.

Wallace also began traveling the 180 miles between Indianapolis and Chicago, Illinois, to work as a model. A modeling agent pushed her to enter the Miss Indiana World and Miss World USA beauty pageants, which she won, opening the door to the 1973 Miss World contest in London.

On November 23, 1973, Wallace defeated 53 competitors at Royal Albert Hall in London as the first American to be crowned Miss World.

During her time in the UK, she dated celebrities including Welsh singer Tom Jones, Northern Irish football star George Best, and American Indianapolis 500 and Formula One driver Peter Revson, with whom she was reportedly engaged to be married. During her engagement to Revson, she carried on an affair with Tom Jones, being seen kissing him on a beach in Barbados. This violated Wallace's Miss World contract, which prompted pageant authorities to take away her title on March 7, 1974, 104 days after she was crowned. Contest officials announced that Wallace "had failed to fulfill the basic requirements of the job."

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Wikipedia