The 58 most beautiful women in the world are sitting in the bus, puffed up, exuberant and feverish.
A group of very angry feminists rages on the street.
They carry signs with slogans like "We are not pretty, we are not ugly, we are mad!", "Miss World Man's World" and "Cattle Market".
Another says "You poor cows".
Police officers cordon off the entrance to London's Royal Albert Hall, where one of the biggest TV events of the year will take place on the cold and damp evening of November 20, 1970: the Miss World Gala.
With around 100 million viewers worldwide, including 22 million in the UK.
But this time everything will be different - the demo in front of the hall is just the beginning.
When the bus stops, the women's rights activists hit it with their fists and try to tip it over.
At some point they sing "We shall overcome".
A couple of beauty queens on the bus join in, others lost their voices from fear.
Among them: Jennifer Hosten, flight attendant and broadcaster.
22 years old, 1.74 meters tall, dimensions: 91-60-97.
She tries to control her breath with yoga exercises.
Today she is 72 and a grandmother five times.
"At first I didn't understand what the women meant by 'cattle market'," says Hosten on the phone and laughs.
"The competition was a huge opportunity for me."
Because she is black and comes from an insignificant country, the island state Grenada, in the middle of the azure blue Caribbean Sea.
In the autumn of 1970, Jennifer Hosten proudly flew to London - to have the show stolen there by feminists.
The loud protest against the Miss World meat inspection is the focus of the film "Misbehavior" ("The Miss Choice") by British director Philippa Lowthorpe, which has been in German cinemas since Thursday.
Beautiful but invisible
Hollywood star Keira Knightley plays the women's rights activist and then history student Sally Alexander in the lead role.
Far less prominent: the black actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw slips into the role of Jennifer Hosten - the winner of the beauty pageant.
At this historic moment, sexism, racism and feminism clashed with each other.
"You would be exactly the right person to take part in the Miss World competition for Grenada": With this compliment "Miss Guyana", an airplane passenger, once made the tall stewardess Jennifer Hosten laugh.
She took part in the Miss Grenada Contest just for fun, as a favor for a friend whose mother was organizing the competition.
Hosten won against all expectations - and agreed to run for Grenada in the 1970 Miss World election.
"I felt it was a civic duty," writes Hosten in her autobiography "Miss World 1970", published in March.
Hosten jogged and sunbathed, bought a gold crochet dress for the gala in Trinidad, and pimped the history of her homeland.
The Caribbean mini-country took part in the beauty competition for the first time, and hardly anyone gave the newcomer a chance.
"People mistook Grenada for the Spanish city of Granada, the journalists didn't show much interest in me," says Hosten.
She was a "Miss Nobody", beautiful but invisible.
On the eve of the gala, organizer Eric Morley selected 15 girls - 14 were white.
Only they had the right to a dress rehearsal in the presence of the maestro.
Hosten was among the 43 others.
"On command we all had to turn around so the jury could inspect our buttocks"
Jennifer hosting
She rehearsed anyway, on her own.
Disillusioned and increasingly nervous: The night before the competition, left-wing terrorists from the Angry Brigade had attacked a BBC bus near the Royal Albert Hall.
Nobody had been injured - yet trepidation added to the excitement.
Before Hosten slipped into her golden dress, she washed down her discomfort with two Heineken.
What she could not have suspected: Some feminists had dressed up and cheated into the gala audience.
In their handbags were ratchets and rotten fruit, leaflets, stink and flour bombs.
They had planned to disrupt the event at the moment when all applicants step on stage in bathing suits.
"On command we all had to turn around so the jury could inspect our buttocks. I thought that was bad even then, in 1970," recalls Hosten.
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Butt parade: The 58 Miss World candidates had to present their buttocks at the behest of the jury
Photo: Rolls Press / Popperfoto / Getty Images
But feminists did not stay that long in their seats.
When US entertainer Bob Hope cracked one sexist joke after the other, spoke without irony of the "cattle market" and mooed like a cow into the microphone, Sarah Wilson's collar burst.
She jumped up and twirled her ratchet in the air.
Heavy lead crown
Her comrades-in-arms rose, chanted slogans and aimed their bullets towards the stage.
"We stood behind the curtain, heard the flour bombs explode, didn't understand at all what was going on out there," says Hosten.
Law enforcement officers rushed into the hall and led the feminists away.
Some were jailed overnight in Holloway Women's Prison and fined.
But nobody could take away their spectacular appearance in front of an audience of millions: The Guardian described the Miss World protest as the most dramatic feminist action since the suffragette Emily Davison threw herself in front of the king's horse in 1913 (it was a stallion ).
Numerous British women joined the women's movement after the 1970 event - the protest acted like a catalyst.
Jennifer Hosten, however, the first black Miss World, the feminists had screwed up the triumph.
In the turmoil it was also lost that the second place went to a black woman: Pearl Jansen, "Miss Africa South", beat "Miss South Africa" - the apartheid country had two misses at the time.
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Jennifer hosting
Miss World 1970: How I Entered a Pageant and Wound Up Making History
Publisher: Global Publisher Services
Number of pages: 153
Publisher: Global Publisher Services
Number of pages: 153
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The golden crown felt as heavy as lead, says winner Hosten.
Their pride was mixed with horror when a filthy British public debate erupted after the election.
"A game that has been agreed upon!", Poisoned the tabloids because Grenada's Prime Minister Eric Gairy was on the jury.
The supporters of "Miss Sweden" protested in front of the hall, Hosten's rivals also poured fuel on the fire: "She doesn't even have a good figure. Something was wrong there," scolded "Miss Ireland".
"She should never have won", "Miss Australia" added.
"I have nothing against black girls, but how they could win is a mystery to me," ranted "Miss Switzerland".
The beauty queen became a diplomat
The indignation did not subside even when the jury disclosed its voting procedure in order to evade the allegation of fraud.
"The time just wasn't right for a black Miss World," regrets Hosten.
For minorities around the world, however, she became a heroine, a symbol of hope.
"Wherever I went, whether to Maori women in Australia, India or Africa, people everywhere celebrated me and identified with me," says Hosten.
For a year she basked in the glitter of the title and toured the world with host Hope to entertain US troops.
Then hosting said goodbye to the glamor business.
The former beauty queen moved to Canada, studied political science and worked in the diplomatic service, for example in Bangladesh.
She also tried her hand as a farmer and property owner.
In his mid-60s, Hosten enrolled again at university, this time for psychology.
And worked as a psychotherapist until 2019.
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The real beauty queen and her actress: Jennifer Hosten and actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Photo: Joanne Davidson / Pathé
The film leaves that out.
"You did let the feminists of that time have their say. What I became after the competition, however, does not take place in 'Miss Wahl'," regrets Hosten.
This, however, could have been - besides the feminist agenda - another central, encouraging message of the film: "If you believe in yourself and don't listen to the complainers, you can reinvent yourself at any time. And even make it to the top." says Jennifer Hosten.
"Regardless of skin color, gender and origin."
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