"MISS HUNGARY."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 141, 16 June 1936, Page 13

"MISS HUNGARY."

BEAUTY QUEEN'S ROMANCE THE PRICE OF FAME. V "Public , boapty contests of any description such as have been held on ewy possible occasion and given wide publicity in the Press of late are strictly prohibited in the future. It is not desirable tlrat the ambition and imagination of young girls should be directed towards aims far above their own station in life, which they hope to attain by means of a public examination of their person. Such mentality tends to lower the moral standards of young girls and is likely to result in their unliappiness." Such was the official construction put upon the Hungarian Home Office's decree putting a stop to "Miss Hungary" elections in 1933 (states the "Illustrated Weekly of India"'). Ever since Boske Simon, glamorous Beauty Queen of Hungary for 1929, won fame for herself and her country by being elected "Miss Europe" at the international contest in Paris, every pretty Hungarian girl dreamed of achieving the same honour, v had visions of the glory, the homage, the wonderful clothes, and the good time that such a title involves. And, although "the loveliest girl in Hungary" every year returned after a few hectic months of glory to the less spectacular happiness of holy matrimony, the annual beauty contests certainly "put ideas" into the heads of thousands of pretty girls and their families, ideas that they would better have been without. Hence the Draconic decree of the Government, paternally anxious for the welfare of pretty little girls. The decree would probably never have come into effect had it not been for the unhappy romance that stirred up such an unpleasant scandal around the person of slim, dark, fawn-like Julia Gaal, Hungary's last Queen of Beauty.

Two days before the contest took place, Julia, sweet seventeen, was quite con- ' tent to sell stockings and jumpers over a countcr of "Tlie Spider," Budapest's large hosiery chain store. Then temptation came in the person of a friendly neighbour who said: "You ought to go in for the beauty competition, Julia — if you were nicely dressed you would be every bit as beautiful as Boske Simon." 5 Dazzling Prospects. Julia protested that she had no clothes nice enough for such an occasion. The neighbour offered to lend her own fur coat and to advance the money necessary to buy an evening gown and all accessories. "You will return the money when jou've made a brilliant match, or got rich through advertising firms, or when you're in pictures"; thus did the good lady dangle dazzling prospects before the" pretty little salesgirl. And, miraculously, they appeared to be coming true. On a dismal, rainy January morning, Julia Gaal was elected Miss Hungary in the ballroom of the Hotel Royal. At first Julia's wildest dreams seemed to be coming true. She was supplied with lovely things by the magazine that arranged the contest, her pictures and stories about her were in all the papers, and she was taken to Madrid for the international contest.. Here she had a Pjost delightful time, and only failed by a single vote to win the proud title of Miss Europe. Better still, happiness of a more lasting kind seemed to smile upon her when she met Jose Cline of Valparaiso, reputed to be a fabulously rich butter manufacturer. He was of Hungarian extraction and followed Julia when she returned to Budapest.' He called at the humble home to which the beauty queen had to return after the dazzling heyday of Madrid, and asked her father, a goldsmith, for Julia's hand in marriage. Of course, the papers made much of Julia's "great good fortune" and dwelt at length upon "the millionaire butter king's" enormous wealth. Until one provincial sheet discovered that Jose Cline was identically the same person as Joseph Klein, who had departed from the town of Szilagysomlo in Rumania some years ago, his destination unknown, leaving a number of debts behind him. Broken Engagement.' Unpleasant comments were made 011 tliil story and everybody felt sorry for the little beauty queen who had "fallen into the net of an impostor." The engagement was broken off, and Jose Cline-Klein hurriedly left Budapest, after sending a letter to the papers that attacked him, in which he said that he did not deny having left his home town on account of his accumulated debts, but that he would meet all his liabilities in due course of time. This sad story, gloated over by gossip columnists at great length, promoted the Governmental decision for the suppression of beauty contests —but that did not help Julia Gaal much. She was "the poor girl who was duped by a mountebank" —besides, as events ultimately showed, the Jose Cline episode had left a profound mark upon her feelings, only she did not care to tell anyone about them. She did not care to return to the stocking counter at "The Spider" after a taste of that very different kind of life in Madrid. She drifted from one thing to the other, she tried the stage, but got 110 further than occasional small parts. On top of it all, the kind neighbour who had put her up to entering th« contest showed herself in her true colours and sued Julia Gaal for the amount of her debt, including all,kinds of expenses which the temptress professed to have incurred in chaperoning the beauty queen at various functions. It was most unpleasant, and Julia was very unhappy.

Happy Ending. Then letters began to come bearing the exotic stamps of Chile—and they cheered Julia up. She told no one about tlieir contents, until one day a steamship ticket and a substantial cheque were enclosed in the envelope, and Julia told her father that she was going to Chile to marry Jose Cline. He luid made good as a "butter and egg man," had paid off every cent of liis old debts in his home town, and although he wasn't the crazv millionaire that the papers had made him out. to be, he had a substantia] income, and longed for nothing more than to share it with Julia. Inquiries made at the Chilean Consulate in Budapest corroborated his statements, and so Julia sailed on the s.s. Rienna and met Jose Cline at Havana and was married to him 01 board.