Blossom Festival 2010: When Bay beauties reigned supreme | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

Michael Fowler finds how life changed for the woman who became the Blossom Queen

Hastings' Blossom Festival was first held in 1950 and was the creation of Greater Hastings (note the provocative title), an organisation established to provide an Easter attraction (The Highland Games) as "there was nothing to keep people in Hastings, and nothing to attract visitors to Hastings".

The Blossom Queen contest was added in 1957. At the height of the Blossom Festivals in the 1950s, an estimated 50,000 people crammed the streets of Hastings to view the floats, decorated with paper crepe blossoms.

The rules for contestants entering the 1960 Blossom Queen Contest stated (among other things): they had to be aged between 18 and 28; unmarried; and possess: poise, personality, charm, beauty of face and figure, education, voice quality, speaking ability and be in good health.

No swimsuit parade would occur: "This is not a bathing beauty contest - but a blossom festival quest."

The winner would receive a wardrobe of clothes valued at £100 and go on a free, two week trip to Surfers Paradise. Greater Hastings would provide a suitable chaperone for the trip.

Helena La Hood (nee Hannah) was visiting relatives in Australia when she received a telegram from her father Paul, saying the Hastings Orphans Club had nominated her as a Blossom Queen candidate. After arriving back from her holiday, Helena had just two days to prepare for the first round of the competition.

Three Blossom Queen Concerts were held at the Hastings Municipal Theatre (now Hawke's Bay Opera House), until the judges selected 12 girls out of 23 contestants to advance to the coronation concert on September 1. The first concert night contained a quiz, and Helena was asked: "What are the three independent schools in Havelock North? What are the four great powers of the world? What impressions of New Zealand would you give if you went to Australia? If you won a great deal of money, what would you do with it?"

There was much excitement for her when she was selected in the final 12 girls. Judge Rolf Keys said the winner should "have the figure of Marilyn Monroe, beauty of Grace Kelly and the charm of a member of the royal family".

Famed quizmaster Selwyn Toogood would do his Magic Carpet quiz show at the coronation, which would be broadcast on radio throughout New Zealand - as well as announcing the winner of the Blossom Queen contest at 10pm. Helena's parents thought they would make her nervous at the contest, so they listened at home.

She won a vacuum cleaner at the Magic Carpet show, and a washing machine on Saturday night's It's in the Bag show with Toogood, but laughs as she remembers she never received the prizes.

It came as a shock to Helena when her name was called out as winner, and was crowned by Miss Paradise, Jean Clark from Surfers Paradise, Queensland.

Helena had made plans to be fitted for a bridesmaid's dress at the weekend, never thinking she had a chance to win.

Despite no sleep due to the excitement of being crowned Blossom Queen, she turned up to work the next day at the Loan and Mercantile Agency. Her manager told her not to worry about work that morning, and sent her home.

Many public appearances followed her win as Blossom Queen, including opening Napier's new Odeon Picture Theatre that year. She also went for a ride in a glider, rode go-carts, and handed out prizes at a boxing tournament.

Miss Paradise Jean Clark was a popular visitor to Hastings, becoming an instant celebrity, and was paraded from Stortford Lodge down Heretaunga St with a traffic officer motorbike escort the day before the Blossom Festival. Thousands of people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of her. As a Seventh Day Adventist, Jean declined to take part in the Saturday Blossom Parade.

When Jean left Hastings she wrote a letter of thanks to everyone, and said "she would not like to forget the Maori people". Jean was no doubt referring to young Ted Bennett, the handsome singer of Teddy and the Bears, who she met at a Blossom Queen Concert. Jean and Ted kept in contact, and later married in 1963. Tragedy later struck the marriage with their son Stephen, being in a coma for three years as a result of a car crash, while Jean herself was killed in a car accident in Newcastle in August 1985 - while her son was still in the coma.

Helena left for her trip to Australia - with no chaperone - in July 1961, with a yellow orchid corsage presented by Greater Hastings, which had to disposed of before landing in Australia due to the regulations.

Little did the army of press representatives that met her at the airport know that between her hair and hat was a yellow orchid corsage. While in Queensland, she met the mayor of Surfers' Paradise, and had morning tea with the Minister of Tourism. The trip was a fitting end to her reign, in which a lot was expected of her. Her last duty was to crown the next Blossom Queen for 1961.

Helena La Hood, James Morgan and Cynthia Bowers will be speaking on Blossom Queen, the 1960 Blossom Festival Riot and the history of the Blossom Festival at the Hastings District Library this Tuesday. The talk runs from 5.30pm to 6.30pm. Gold coin donation entry.