It’s enough to make even the most congenial of Miss Congenialities testy.
First, ABC dumps the Miss America pageant. Poor ratings and low interest, the network execs complained. Harsh words for an event that drew 85 million to their TV sets in 1960.
Then – for the first time since Warren Harding was in the White House – the nation’s most venerable beauty pageant (OK, scholarship pageant) announced it was too broke to stay in Atlantic City, the backdrop for 84 years.
So with the customary September crowning in the rearview mirror, Miss A. remains homeless.
And, frankly, a bit of a markdown.
After officials scrambled for cheaper digs, an undisclosed agreement was forged last summer with cable’s Country Music Television, so the 2006 pageant will air sometime in January. The exact date and host city remain undetermined.
So what, if anything, does it mean that an event once so huge to so many is now, well, not?
Some, like Marilyn Van Derbur Atler, a former Miss Colorado who won it all in September 1957, find the recent turn of events sad but inevitable.
Van Derbur, now 68, says her reign came in the heyday of Miss America, when a winner walked shoulder to shoulder with sports celebrities and movie stars. Everyone knew her name.
“The year I won, it was the single most watched show of the year,” she says.
Others, like Gerdeen Dyer, founder of pageant.com, an Atlanta-based website devoted to the pageant business, is more cynical. He says Miss America executives got what they deserved for not admitting that the pageant was in trouble and for not keeping up with the times.
“There’s a fine line between being retro and dated,” he says.
And then there are those who say it really isn’t anyone’s fault. Tastes simply change.
“Maybe the beauty pageant as a concept is just not needed anymore,” says Angela Nelson, chair of the Pop Culture Department at Bowling Green University in Kentucky.
With thousands of options available for today’s television and Internet audiences, viewers no longer must turn to a pageant to see a beautiful face or great body, Nelson says.
Walking around in that ever-curious combo of bathing suit and heels – even for scholarship money – seems downright ridiculous, she says. Not to mention all that talk about world peace.
Nevertheless, there are 52 young women whose voices have been strangely missing from all this tut-tutting.
They are the current state winners (along with the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands), who, with tiaras poised, have been all dressed up with no place to strut since summer.
On June 26, Jessica Urban, the 24-year-old who hours before had snagged the Miss Colorado 2005 crown, had just sat down to her buffet victory dinner at the Radisson Hotel in Longmont when she got the news:
The Miss America pageant would probably not be in Atlantic City, nor would it be in September, announced Wayne Dolan, husband of the Miss Colorado executive director Suzi Dolan.
“Just my luck,” thought a disappointed Urban, who hopes to go to law school on pageant scholarship money. She didn’t know when or if she could enroll in spring classes at the University of Colorado.
But that night, in true Miss America fashion, she found a silver lining. At least she’d get a few more months to work on her harp solo – an instrument she picked up only weeks before for the talent competition.
Urban, whose looks are a product of French-Czech and Scandinavian heritage, insists she has never been a “pageant girl.” She has entered four and has won three; in her first pageant in 2003, she was first runner-up. Her total scholarship winnings now top $10,000.
This year she represents Highlands Ranch, though she lives near Colorado Springs. The Miss Colorado pageant, which has fallen on hard times in recent years, broadened its local pageant boundaries to allow more contestants to enter.
“Pageant girl” or not, the ring tone on Urban’s cellphone is a wolf whistle. And, she admits, she wears her tiara around the house while vacuuming.
“What can I say?” she asks, straight faced with eyes twinkling. “It’s fun.”
The original Miss America Pageant in 1921 was nothing more than a publicity stunt cooked up by Atlantic City business owners who hoped to extend the tourist season into September. Seven Northeastern cities entered “beauty maids.” Miss Washington, D.C., won.
It was from there that the extravaganza evolved. The first television broadcast came on NBC in 1954. By the 1960s, more than 40 percent of American households tuned in to offer armchair critiques and to cheer on their state’s contestant.
The pageant was not immune to criticism. It wasn’t until 1970 that rules changed to allow women who were not “of the white race.” About the same time, women’s groups began yearly protests, calling it sexist and degrading.
By 1996, NBC dropped Miss America because of low ratings. ABC picked up the contract, but it was an uneasy alliance.
When the millennium turned, the network and pageant were frantically trying to woo shrinking audiences, introducing skimpy bikinis to the competition, cutting broadcast length and whittling the talent portion to practically nonexistence.
But after Diedre Downs was crowned Miss America 2004, ABC pulled the plug. Ratings for the broadcast had fallen to 9.8 million viewers with a median age of 51. To put those numbers in perspective, ABC’s broadcast of this year’s Academy Awards was watched by 42.1 million.
Miss America’s chief rival – her fiesty and sexier cousin, Miss USA – has suffered similarly. The April broadcast drew only 8.1 million viewers for NBC. A month later 9.2 million watched Miss USA compete for Miss Universe. But those pageants are now owned by Donald Trump, who has the cash and the clout to persevere.
Nevertheless, over at CMT, Miss A.’s 10 million viewers sounds pretty darn good. “That would be fantastic,” says network spokeswoman Lisa Chader. The previous big draw was their music-award show with 3 million viewers.
Urban says she was less than thrilled by the choice but has warmed to the idea. In fact, all of the buzz from the Miss America camp is about opportunity and re-invention. Change is good, they insist.
It better be, counters Dyer of pageant.com: “This is their Battle of Britain. If they don’t do well, they will continue their downward spiral.”
Urban’s not sure about any Battle of Britain. She just wants to know where and when her plane will be landing.
And, she hopes she doesn’t have to wear a cowboy hat.
Pageant History
1880 – The first recorded bathing-beauty contest takes place at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Inventor Thomas Edison is a judge. A bridal trousseau is the prize. Contestants must be under 25, not married, at least 5 feet 4 inches tall, and weigh no more than 130 pounds.
1921 – The first Miss America Pageant, called the Inter-City Beauty Pageant, takes place in Atlantic City.
1926 – Norma Smallwood, Miss America 1926, makes $100,000 in appearance fees, an income higher than either Babe Ruth or the president of the United States.
1929 – Religious groups and women’s clubs protest the loose morals of young women in the pageant. Bad press plus financial trouble shut the pageant down from 1929 to 1932.
1930s – A rule is established requiring contestants to be of the white race.
1938 – A talent competition is added.
1944 – Director Lenora Slaughter raises $5,000 to launch the scholarship programs.
1946 – The phrase “bathing suit” is banned; garments are now swimsuits.
1947 – Miss America is crowned in a swimsuit for the first and only time.
1950 – Winner Yolande Betbeze refuses to appear in a swimsuit, and Catalina Swimwear withdraws sponsorship.
1952 – Catalina inaugurates the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants.
1954 – Philco Television Sets purchases rights to the pageant for $10,000 and contracts with ABC for the broadcast. Twenty-seven million people tune in to see Lee Ann Meriwether win a $10,000 scholarship.
1955 – Bert Parks is hired as the pageant’s emcee. He introduces the theme song, “There She Is.”
1968 – Feminists crown a sheep and throw products like lipstick and hair curlers into a “Freedom Trash Can.” Pepsi Cola withdraws its 11-year sponsorship, claiming the pageant no longer represents the changing values of American society.
1970 – Rules barring nonwhites changed.
1983 – Vanessa Williams is the first black woman to hold the title. Penthouse magazine publishes nude photos of her taken when she was 17, and pageant officials force her to resign.
1997 – Swimsuit competition is modified, allowing contestants to wear any style, including two-piece and bikini. Two years later, rules bar string bikinis and thongs.
