|
|
 During the pageant night, fifteen (15) semifinalists were chosen out of the sixty-one (61) delegates. Gloria was the sixth delegate to be randomly called by TV personality Bob Barker, who was the host for the evening. The rest of the semifinalists were Australia, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Austria (who later became Miss World 1969), Israel, Japan, USA, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil.
Here was the actual account of Gloria’s interview with Bob Barker during the semifinals competition:
BOB: “Now, Miss Philippines is Gloria Diaz. She’s a student taking a business course and she has two brothers and nine sisters. My! That’s a big family!”
GLORIA: “Yes it is.” (beaming)
BOB: “Is it fun having so many brothers and sisters?”
GLORIA: “It really doesn’t make a difference. I mean, it’s just like a small family, I think.”
BOB: “How can it be like a small family when there’s so many of you?”
GLORIA: “Well, everybody goes through in his or her own ways. They just come back during lunch, dinner and breakfast.”
 BOB: “You’re just there at mealtime.”
GLORIA: “Yeah”.
BOB: “I’ll tell you what, Gloria. Our interview is planned. Here you are on television with this live audience. Let’s see, can you name your nine brothers and two sisters --- or nine sisters and two brothers?
GLORIA: “Oh yes! (smiling) Alphabetically or according to rank?” (the audience started laughing)
BOB: “ I think they’re all mixed up. Go ahead!”
At this point, Gloria started to name all her siblings when somewhere along her chronological answer, she paused for a second and almost forgot Aurora’s (one of her sister’s) name. But then, she recovered very quickly and continued to finish her answer. Bob said, “Very good! But when you get home, apologize to Aurora, won’t you? You dismissed that one, almost. Thank you, Miss Philippines!”
When the interview was over, the audience gave Gloria a warm applause. After all, she saved this part of the competition from total boredom!
The Catalina swimsuit and evening gown competitions followed next where Gloria had the chance to show her beautiful figure and natural beauty. Again, her confidence was pretty much evident in these segments. She was the shortest in the group and yet she appeared to be the tallest of them all. Her aura of confidence looked secured and not overbearing. Her movements were spontaneous but not out-of-control. She neither flipped her hair nor swayed her hips too much in order to flaunt her feminity before a live audience. All she did was to present her own unique self before the world without pretense or hypocrisy.
When Bob announced the top five delegates who would continue with the competition, Gloria was the fourth one to be called. The rest of the finalists were Harriet Eriksson (Finland), Chava Levy (Israel), Joanne Barret (Australia) and Kikuyo Osuka (Japan).
Proceed to the next part of the story here: MORE >>
| |
