Word: pageanteers
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Scandal is the coin of contemporary celebrity; it keeps the public interested. It makes Miss America a current affair. Funny how people have really cared about the pageant's politics: in 1945 the naming of the first Jewish Miss America, Bess Myerson; in 1979 the dumping of Bert Parks, the show's emcee for 25 years; in 1984 the dethroning of Vanessa Williams, the first winner of color, after sexually provocative photos surfaced. Race, creed, age, all have clouded the show. But like the winner at the moment of coronation--brandishing a mile-wide smile as she sobs...
This year we can be a part of the pageant. And not just by guessing the winner and dissing the losers. In a plebiscite, the I-can't-believe-it's-a-beauty-pageant pageant is letting viewers decide whether the swimsuit competition will be retained. Before every commercial during the first half of the three-hour show, two 900 numbers will appear--one for yes votes, one for no. The tally will be updated throughout the program. Normally the swimsuit competition is the first event of the evening; this year it will be the last--unless it is eliminated...
...didn't exist. But some people in Atlantic City thought they should give a prize and a title to a pretty girl. The town was the East Coast's premier seaside resort, so she probably ought to wear a bathing suit. And hoping to extend the summer season, the pageant's creators scheduled it for after Labor...
...great lengths in seeking it. Linda Yueh, a Harvard Ph.D. candidate and Georgetown law student, was denied the Maryland crown (though she had won the early competitions) after a wrangle over her eligibility. Last week, still hoping to be onstage in Atlantic City, she sued the state and national pageants. Dershowitz, who took time out from jogging beside the O.J. limo to advise Yueh, waxes apoplectic at the injustice: "The Miss America contest should not turn into the World Wrestling Federation. We don't want Miss America to become the Quiz Show of the 1990s." A New Jersey judge ruled...
...those who make it to Atlantic City, some have been pageanteers most of their life. Jennifer Curry, Miss Iowa, started when she was nine, was crowned Miss Iowa National Teenager and competed to be America's Miss Charm. Girls get the Miss America bug for all sorts of reasons: self-improvement, blond ambition, because it's there. In the pursuit of distant goals, kids can be wonderfully stubborn: some forge themselves into Olympic figure skaters, others into masters of the 18-ft. jump shot. The pageant hopeful may have this doggedness. She can't get prettier, but she can hone...