115. In the Eye of the Beholder
Perhaps these two blogs on beauty could be construed as the ramblings of a “dirty old man.” It’s not my intention. I’m simply proud of the many facets of South African life that have reached into the international arena. Currently, two South African men are hitting the headlines in the US. The one is Elon Musk with his recent takeover of Twitter, and the other is comedian Trevor Noah who is fiercely opposed to Musk’s recent acquisition of Twitter. Regardless of rights and wrongs, these two men have made their marks in a country of well over 300 million from a country of about 50 million.
Coming back to the much more palatable subject of beauty, I’ll make brief mention of some young ladies who made a name for themselves largely on the basis of their looks, rather than talent. I’m referring of course to the beauty queen contests, often referred to unkindly as a “cattle market.” I knew two of these ladies and I have to say that neither was unintelligent. Penney Coelen, Miss South Africa and Miss World 1958, spent some time in the US and with the help of film star James Garner was given a screen test in Hollywood. She did not make it but went on to become a successful businesswoman with her own line of clothing and as a beauty consultant. She later married Michel “Mickie” Rey (a wealthy sugar farmer in KwaZulu Natal) but remains a well-loved figure in the Durban community.
From time to time, I did some photographic modelling and was selected for an international TV commercial promoting Signal Toothpaste. It was a simple story involving myself and a lovely lady in the shape of Penny Coelen sitting on Durban beach together and flashing toothy smiles at each other. Under different conditions, I would have been overjoyed at spending three days gazing adoringly into Penny’s exquisite eyes – but try doing that when the director of the commercial insisted that we gaze at each other, out of focus for us, about six inches apart in the heat of the summer sun for seemingly hours, as they got the lighting and other details right for the ten-second shot. Having been behind the camera for most of my life, I understood what they were doing but it was truly an ordeal. In between takes, Penny and I chatted. She was very charming and unaffected by her fame.
Another Miss South Africa and Miss World entrant in 1967, Wendy Ballenden, came to Killarney Film Studios in about 1968. She was vivacious, chatty and surprisingly interested in a number of unusual subjects. We had several long discussions. I was delighted to find that she had not just relied on her stunning looks. I had by then met and married my own beauty, Hero, who has more brains than most people I know, so I was no longer a bachelor in the hunt for someone new.
South Africa’s second Miss World was nineteen-year-old Anneline Kriel, a student who had just starred in a local Afrikaans language film. She was crowned first runner-up at the 1974 Miss World, held in the UK with Helen Morgan winning the title. Four days after the winner was announced, however, Helen admitted to being a single mother and was stripped of her title with Anneline becoming Miss World. She made more local movies and TV ads, where I worked with her briefly on a commercial. She later married “Hotel King” Sol Kerzner, who grew up in poverty and who went on to develop hotels and casinos all over the world. It was a tumultuous marriage and didn’t last. She subsequently married business executive Peter Bacon, and at 65 she has been retired on the island of Mauritius with her husband for the past ten years.
South Africa’s first woman of color to represent the country at the competition, Pearl Gladys Jansen, became runner-up to Miss World in 1970. She entered a non-white competition as Miss Africa South, which was held despite the already waning Apartheid policy of the time.
The country’s third Miss World, Rolene Strauss, won the title in 2014. She later graduated as a medical doctor and now has a large motivational business describing herself as Transformative Self-Confidence Coach under the umbrella of the Strauss Foundation.
Moving away from the beauty queen business, a young woman was born of Afrikaans parents in the small town of Benoni a few miles from Johannesburg. At the age of thirteen, Charlize Theron attended the National School of the Arts in Jo’burg doing ballet and drama. My daughter Tanya coincidently matriculated at the same school three years earlier in the art department. When Charlize was fifteen, her mother shot and killed her father, who had attacked her in an alcoholic rage. The mother was acquitted. The shooting was deemed self-defense.
Even at sixteen Charlize was incredibly beautiful. A talent scout spotted her and she went to Milan, Italy, where she modelled successfully for a couple of years before relocating to New York. She continued modelling but also did ballet at the Joffrey Ballet School until forced to stop with a knee injury. She had no luck trying to get an acting role in New York and went to Los Angeles. One day in a bank, she threw her toys at a teller who refused to cash her check and was again spotted by a talent scout. After a number of small roles, both her looks and her acting talent were noted and she progressed to bigger roles in movies such as “Mighty Joe Young,” “Cider House Rules” and “The Italian Job.” In 2003, she won an Oscar for her lead role in “Monster.” In order to prove she was not just a pretty face, she put on about 30 pounds weight to play the leading role of the female killer. She has been nominated twice more for an Oscar, in “North Country” and “Bombshell.” She is one of the highest-paid female actors in the world and continues to act in and now also produce movies at the age of 46. Even at an early age in her career she lost her South African accent, exchanging it for an American voice. A truly talented person.
Lesley Anne Brandt, a person of color, has also made herself known in Hollywood. She did eleven episodes of the TV Series “Spartacus” and currently appears in the TV series “Lucifer.”
Caren Pistorius was born in South Africa but moved to New Zealand with her parents, making some TV series but more recently starred in a Hollywood movie “Unhinged” with Russell Crowe.
Latin dance champion African Oti Mabuse became part of the British TV series “Strictly Come Dancing,” winning twice and is now one of the judges of “Dancing on Ice.” Her sister Motsi Mabuse is also now a judge on “Strictly Come Dancing.”
South Africa is rather like an underground spring which bursts out of the ground producing sparkling water. We have a huge reservoir of talent and it’s reassuring that more and more of its citizens of all colors and ethnicities are making it around the world. I think that the analogy also applies to ExoTech as it is already trickling out of the earth and about to become a huge bubbling spring of genius to spread itself around the globe.
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.