Queens in Zines, special, the assistants (1)

Panorama magazine 19
2 – 9 may 1991

Many beauty queens in the 80’s and the 90’s became television show assistants. In this magazine there are 5 girls who all became household names as the assistant of the host of a (game) show. 3 of these where a beauty queen and represented the Netherlands sometimes at an international beauty pageant.

We start this series with Annabet Berendsen. She became 4th runner-up at the Miss Holland 1987 pageant. In 1988 she represented the Netherlands at the Miss Universe pageant in Taiwan.  After the Miss Globe pageant she was discovered and became an actress. In the Netherlands she was the assistant for several television shows.

Annabet Berendsen
“Het laatste woord’ and “Prijzenslag”, respectively 0,7 and 1,3 million viewers

Before Annabet became famous as the assistant of Marc Klein Essink and Hans Kazan, she travelled all around the world. This is how this happened: ‘Because I was not selected for training as a midwife, i went to the school for fashion and clothing. At the same time my boyfriend had secretly entered me for the Miss Holland 1987 pageant. I thought it was terrible, but because I had time left I participated and became 4th.
Two months later I got a telephone call if I wanted to take over some jobs of Miss Holland. There were some problems with the number 1 till 3. Immediately I had to go to Taiwan. After that  I had to go to Finland for another pageant. There I met the Turkish organizer of the Miss Globe pageant. I also participated at that pageant. The night before I was going to leave Turkey, a man fell from his chair when I entered a bar. Literally. The man called me his dream woman. It turned out to be Coskun Sabah. He is in Turkey as popular as Michale Jackson is in the USA. He wanted me the do the lead in his newest movie “Anilar”. I worked 4 months on this movie. Was a big hit in Turkey. In the Netherlands you can rent it in oriental video stores. When you put me in a Turkish coffeeshop, watch how popular I am.’
Through a casting she got a job for Prijzenslag (The Price is Right). In between the by now 400 broadcasts, she also assisted Marc Klein Essink 21 times. ‘The job is fantastic. The nicest are the candidates. Some react very enthusiastic. Sometimes the people collapse. Then you have to be there for them also. Thats what the show assistant so much more then the lady with the eternal smile.’

Soon we will publish the other 2 show assistants from this article.
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