Magnificent Obsession

British Impresario Eric Douglas Morley is the man who launched commercial bingo in Great Britain and inaugurated a television program in 1949 called Come Dancing that has been broadcast by the BBC ever since. Few things are as close to Morley's heart, however, as the Miss World beauty contest, which he founded in 1951. He established it as a racier international version of the Miss America pageant and served as the announcer and chairman of the beauty judges.

In 1979 Morley bought one-third of the contest for about $300,000. The following year, he bought the remaining two-thirds for a Scottish brewery he was then running. When the brewery ran into money problems last year, it decided to sell its interest. Who should step forward to buy it but Eric Douglas Morley, this time for himself. Since the show was first broadcast on commercial television three years ago, TV rights have been sold in 40 countries, and Miss World has blossomed into a moneymaker. Last year it netted about $360,000 and is now worth twice as much as it was in 1979. That means Morley will have to come up with $1.2 million to get full ownership of his creation. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.