BEAUTY WITH A PURPOSE
Born in Stockholm, her full name was Kerstin Margareta Hakansson, but she was always known as ‘Kiki’.
Kiki had a brother called Gunnar and a sister called Gumbritt.
She grew up during the Great Depression and Second World War. Even though Sweden was not directly involved in the conflict, times were very hard.
When Kiki was a child, Gunnar teased her and her sister mercilessly. He used to say, “Gumbritt has the body of an angel and the face of a pig. Kiki has the face of an angel and the body of a pig.” This cruel comment was something she never forgot.
Gunnar always regretted his comments and tried to make amends years later.
By the time she was a teenager, Kiki had become extremely beautiful. She never had a boyfriend – but this didn’t stop boys from crowding round their house. They would climb the garden fence to get a glimpse of her.
Her parents thought this was hilarious. Her mother gave the boys cookies.
Kiki was a real live wire and a joker. She loved poetry, dancing and singing.
Aged sixteen, she fell seriously ill with rheumatic fever. It gave her a swollen heart, and she was off school for three months.
When she grew up, Kiki decided to take up fashion modelling. She immediately entered the beauty contest ‘Miss Sweden 51’.
The winner was decided by a postal vote. By now, her brother, Gunnar, worked at the central post office in Stockholm. He jokingly said he would fix the voting. Kiki told him not to be silly.
She won the contest comfortably, becoming Miss Sweden. Years later, Gunnar confessed that he had managed to ‘lose’ votes for other contestants.
Kiki was invited to the inaugural Miss World contest, in London in 1952. It was organised by Eric Morley, who was a swimwear designer. It was originally called the ‘Festival Bikini Contest’ and was seen as an extension of the 1951 Festival of Britain.
There were twenty-seven contestants. Twenty-one came from the United Kingdom, just six from abroad.
Kiki was flown in and stayed at The Grand Hotel in London. She arrived two days before any other contestant. Unfortunately, she had not received the instructions on what to bring with her. This included a white bikini that all contestants had been told to wear.
Eric Morley’s wife had to rush around London buying Kiki the necessary items needed for the contest.
Morley was using the contest to promote his swimwear items. Bikinis were a new fashion item. They were named after the post-war atomic tests held at Bikini Atoll, because, “They were so sexy it was like a bomb going off.”
The first Miss World contest was held at the Lyceum Ballroom on the 29th of July 1952. This also happened to be Kiki’s 22nd birthday.
The contestants were judged on beauty, figure, facial beauty, pose and audience reaction, NOT on personality or accomplishment.
Kiki was the winner – the very first Miss World. She was presented with her crown whilst still in her bikini.
The press release stated, “The brand-new Miss World not only shines by her personality but also looks great in a bikini. Without doubt, it is a very popular choice.”
Kiki’s prize was one thousand pounds (worth £40,000 in today’s money), a piece of jewellery and a bunch of gladioli. Eric Morley also gave her a black and white cat as a birthday present. She was allowed to take it to the post-contest banquet at the Savoy. A saucer of milk was put on the table, and it sat next to Kiki.
However, Pope Pius 12th was furious about the contest. He condemned Kiki to hell. Her response was, “Well, I’m Swedish and Lutheran, so what do I care?”
Other Catholic countries banned Kiki from entering their borders and their diplomats threatened to pull out of the UK.
The international outcry was so intense that bikinis were withdrawn from the following year’s Miss World contest (although they did come back some years later).
Nevertheless, Kiki and the girls who finished second, third and fourth, went on tour. Initially they went to various British cities, then Germany and Scandinavia – and despite being Catholic, both France and Italy let them in.
Kiki started appearing on Danish television, giving beauty tips.
She also did advertising work. She appeared in one advert pushing a lawn mower whilst wearing high heels and a bikini. She also appeared playing basketball (a game she had never even heard of) for a Chimney Sweep fundraiser.
Kiki also modelled for Christian Dior and Hermes in Paris.
Despite all this work, she was not paid a single penny, even though she was Sweden’s top celebrity.
Kiki was offered the opportunity to go to Italy for some film work. Her father refused to let her go – but she went anyway. “I was adventurous, I wanted to go.”
Kiki screen-tested for the film director Carlo Ponti. He offered her a contract, but she turned him down. Instead, Ponti turned to his second choice, an unknown actress called Sophia Loren (whom he later married).
Kiki then went to do some modelling work in Hollywood. She didn’t stay long. She struggled with the language and hated Hollywood – “With all those wolves.”
Returning to Europe, Kiki worked for the ‘Comite francais de L’elegance’.
By now, her father was seriously ill with cancer. He was worried the fame would go to her head. With Sweden being a very patriarchal society, he arranged a marriage for Kiki without her knowledge or consent.
Norwegian shipping tycoon, Ole Hartman, was so impressed by her beauty that he sent Kiki a dozen red roses every day. He had never met Kiki but asked her father for her hand in marriage.
The Hakanssons were invited to a large party in Oslo. During the proceedings, Hartman silence the crowd and announced his engagement to Kiki. It was the first she had heard of it.
Nevertheless, she agreed to the proposal. They were married at the church she used to dance at as a young girl, on the island of Skansen in Stockholm.
The newly married couple moved to Oslo.
Ole ‘allowed’ Kiki to carry on working as a model but would not let her accept any payment.
Their lifestyle was one long round of parties, drinking and dancing – and Kiki tired of it very quickly. She also found her husband overbearing, trying to control her life.
She wanted children but he didn’t. Consequently, Kiki asked him for a divorce. He refused.
Kiki went to a solicitor, who said he would have nothing to do with her case. To her amazement, she found every single solicitor that she tried to get to support her, turned her down (She later found out her husband had paid them all to reject her).
Eventually, Kiki found a sympathetic female solicitor, and despite threats from Hartman, she got a divorce.
Kiki went back to modelling. Her first assignment was working on a roller coaster – something she absolutely hated. At the end of a full days’ work, the company refused to pay her.
Her next assignment was modelling some red shoes. At the end of the shoot, Kiki received her first ever pay – the very shoes she had worn.
Kiki realised she could not live like this. She went to study Haute Coutre at college and became an accomplished seamstress and dress maker.
She also judged other beauty contests – providing the contestants were graded on personality, not just looks.
Kiki also became a leading advocate for the right of women in all walks of life to be paid properly.
British model, Twiggy, said that her success and fame was all down to the pioneering work of Kiki. She called Kiki the first ‘supermodel’.
Shortly afterwards, at a dinner in Lillehammer, Kiki met trainee sculptor Dallas Anderson. He was a Norwegian American from Wisconsin, who was studying sculpture in Oslo.
She was on a photo shoot, and he was on a short skiing holiday.
They moved to Copenhagen together, where they were to live for nine years. There, they had a son called Orell. They married three years later.
Whilst Dallas was studying, Kiki was the family breadwinner.
Eventually, Dallas was offered the opportunity to become the Royal Sculptor of Denmark. Simultaneously, he was offered the chance to become Professor of Sculpture at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, Utah. He chose to return to the United States.
If her husband had stayed in Denmark, Kiki could have continued her modelling career, but there was no work for her in Utah. Instead, she worked in a copy and print shop.
The couple had two more children.
Kiki was invited back to London as a judge for the Miss World contest. She noted with pleasure how much they had changed since she had originally participated. Julia Morley, who was now organising the event, said it was Kiki that had inspired the show to become ‘Beauty with a Purpose’.
There have been two Swedish Miss World winners since Kiki, in 1952 and 1977.
Kiki remains the only Miss World to be crowned wearing just a bikini.
After Dallas retired, they moved to California and then to Neenah, Wisconsin, Dallas’ hometown. Kiki never felt very settled in Wisconsin.
Dallas died in 2009.
When Kiki died, her son Chris said, “She was real kind, loving and fun. She had a brilliant sense of humour and wit – and a big heart.”
Her niece, Holland Allebes Anderson said, “Her efforts expanded women’s freedom to enjoy all the fulfilling aspects of life by giving women the choice to make a living from the type of work they wanted.”
Julia Morley said, “Kiki wasn’t just a beauty queen or a mother, but a woman who touched many lives.”
RIP – Robed In Prettymuchnothing
