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The Miss Universe pageant commenced with a welcoming statement from Corinna Tsopei, Miss Universe 1964 from Greece, that segued to an opening number by all 61 delegates parading in their national costumes. Margie wore an original Auggie Cordero creation – a white mestiza dress with huge circular and oval prints, which created a “twist” to its whole ensemble.  She accessorized her dress with only three elements: a pair of simple, gold dangling earrings; a hair coiffed in a bun, and a beautiful face. She introduced herself in Tagalog: “Magandang gabi. Ako po’y si Margarita Moran, taga-Maynila!”
When Bob Barker announced the twelve semifinalists, Margie was the fourth one to be called. The other semifinalists that year were: India, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Greece, Japan, Lebanon, USA, Norway, Spain and Israel. During the interview, a lot of the semifinalists had a hard time understanding Bob as most of them could hardly speak or understand English, or perhaps, had only limited knowledge of the English language. Miss Argentina, Susana Romero, preceded Margie during the interview. When Bob asked Susana if she learned any English words during her weeks of the competition, she replied, “Father, mother, brother, sister, fraternity, one . . . two . . . three . . .four . . . ” for which Bob heartily laughed and readily said, “That’s enough, Miss Argentina. Thank you. That was sweet!”
Then it was Margie’s turn. Here was the exact account of her interview with Bob Barker:
BOB: “So here’s Miss Philippines who does know English.” (He was relating to the audience what had just transpired earlier in his interview with Miss Argentina who didn’t speak any English at all.) “Your name is?”
MARGIE: “Margarita Moran”.
BOB: “What would you like to do, Margarita?
MARGIE: “Later?” (Sounding a little bit perplexed about the question.)
BOB: “Yes, as a job?”
MARGIE: “Uh, I’d like to be a banker.” (The way she uttered the word, “banker” sounded like, “bunker”.)
BOB: “A banker? Why a banker?”
MARGIE: “Well, uh, first, I’d like to follow my father’s footsteps because he’s a banker (this time, she pronounced the word correctly) and, uh, besides that, I’m taking up a course in Business Administration which courses in banking and finance (the way she said “finance” was like “fee-nuns” but was still acceptable) and I like counting money.”
BOB: “You like counting money?”
MARGIE: (Smiled and nodded in agreement.)
BOB: “What will you do with the Ten Thousand Dollars if you win the Miss Universe Pageant?”
MARGIE: Uh, I’ll invest it . . . uh, probably I’ll build a hotel.”
BOB: “A hotel?”
MARGIE: “Yes and I’ll run the business and my sister will manage it because she’s taking up Business---uh, Hotel Management in school.”
BOB: “You know, I’ve made a discovery. (He was addressing the audience at this point.) This girl could be the Onassis of the Philippines before she’s through. Thank you very much, Miss Philippines!”
At this time, the audience gave Margie a big round of applause. Based on their individual interviews, I believed that she topped this portion of the competition because even if she had a very thick Filipino accent when she spoke her answers in English, she still managed to be direct, sensible and unrehearsed. She said what she meant and her answers came straight from the heart. Period.
Proceed to the next part of the story here: MORE >>
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