Word: deford
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Miss America by Frank Deford...
...Work. Beneath the pampered hair, outdated-and sometimes padded-bathing suits, the girls are not all alike. Insofar as Frank Deford has managed to dig out the differences, There She Is is a genuine bit of Americana and camp sociology. The standouts, naturally, are those contestants who have remained in the public eye. Chesty Rosebud Blondell, unsuccessful in 1926 as Miss Dallas, went on to a film career as Joan Blondell. Lee Meriwether, Miss America 1955, still combines television acting with movie roles...
...Fletcher, the girl who won that competition in 1961 and went on to be Miss America, was more philosophical: "The sooner you realize you're a product, the better." Dressed, coiffured and paraded up and down, contestants are like dolls for moms and dads. "Miss America," says Author Deford, "represents no more than what the older generation thinks youth should represent. She is a puppet of middle-aged values...
Yolande Betbeze was not only aware of her role when she won in 1950, she also used it effectively and profitably. Deford grants her the distinction of being the most acquisitive Miss America. When her home town, Mobile, Ala., wanted to honor her, she put a price on her appearance and noted, "Checks preferred." But Yolande was also one of the most liberal and active winners. By the early 1960s she was working for the N.A.A.C.P., CORE and SANE. Much to the dismay of pageant managers, she was on the picket line at the first lunch-counter...
...addition to lively anecdotes, Deford, a SPORTS ILLUSTRATED editor, provides mundane business details and splendidly unmemorable facts: Arizona's Jacque Mercer, the 1949 queen, was not only the lightest winner, at 106 lbs., and the second shortest, 5 ft. 3 in., but the last contestant not born in a hospital. Hefty appendices should be especially valuable to 25th century anthropologists. They contain such data as winners' measurements, figure trends (waists getting narrower, hips and busts balancing at the ideal of 35½-22½-35½), and the fact that there have been 228 contestants whose first names...