Date July 17, 1957 Entrants 44 | Presenters Bob Russell Placements 15 | |
Venue Long Beach Municipal Auditorium, Long Beach, California, United States Winner Mary Leona Gage
Maryland (dethroned)
Charlotte Sheffield
Utah (successor) | ||
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.
Contents
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, rumors about Gage's past and current circumstances began to circulate, and it eventually emerged that Gage not only had lied about her age (she was 18, not 21 as she had claimed), but was a twice-married mother of two children. Gage had broken several eligibility rules, and she was immediately disqualified.
The title and the associated prize package automatically passed to the 1st runner-up, Charlotte Sheffield of Utah. The other three finalists were moved one place, and the highest-scoring semi-finalist, Kathryn Gabriel of Ohio, become the 4th runner-up. Unfortunately, by the time the scandal broke publicly, the Miss Universe preliminary judging had already taken place, with Gage chosen as a semi-finalist. (She was allowed to participate pending the results of the investigation.) It was too late for Sheffield to compete, and it would be the only time the United States has not been represented at the Miss Universe pageant. Later that year, Sheffield was sent to London as the USA contestant for Miss World 1957, but she failed to place.
Delegates
The Miss USA 1957 delegates were:
States
Cities