newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ERIC MODEL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

JOURNEYS INTO NEW JERSEY

The weather’s still warm along the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, these weeks after Labor Day. Day trippers and gamblers dominate the scene, mostly in and around the casinos.

But, once upon a time this used to be a special time of year in Atlantic City. That’s when September meant the Miss America Pageant.

Like baseball and Cooperstown, the 500 and Indianapolis, Spoletto Festival and Charleston, Miss America was Atlantic City.

As author and former pageant judge Vicki Gold Levy once wrote, they went “together like America and apple pie."

It all started in 1921. But back then in that first year, it was not known as Miss America. Rather, it was called the Atlantic City Pageant. The idea was to try to keep tourists in town after Labor Day.

It would not be until the next year (1922) that the name Miss America Pageant would be used for the first time.

Initially the pageant was described as a beauty contest, a term that event organizers sought to avoid in recent years (As swimsuit and evening wear are said to comprise only 35 per cent of a total score).

The heyday of the pageant is considered to be the post-World War II period during the “golden age” of television. Programming was needed and Miss America fit the bill. Looking back it can probably be considered one of the earliest examples of “reality programming”.

The pageant was first televised nationally in 1954. It peaked in the early 1960s, when it was repeatedly the highest-rated program on American television, and to many it was considered a symbol of American life (some even referred to Miss America as the female equivalent of the President).

For a longtime, as famous as Miss America and the pageant itself was its host Bert Parks, who presided over the televised event from 1955 to 1979. Parks virtually become an American icon, singing the show's signature song, "There She Is, Miss America" as the newly-crowned Miss America took her walk down the ramp at the end of each year's pageant.

But, changing tastes and social patterns impacted the pageant.

The Miss America pageant was frequently criticized for “conservative values” and what some believed to be a less enlightened view towards women (Some claimed that women contestants were not expected to have ambitions beyond being a good wife) and Blacks (For a long time Blacks were excluded from the pageant. In fact, no African American women participated until 1970. Vanessa Williams would become the first African-American woman to be crowned Miss America in 1984).

Eventually, those societal pressures, and just as importantly, lower television ratings prompted event organizers to make changes, and often not good ones. Bert Parks were unceremoniously fired in 1979 prompting a large public outcry. Various other stunts were tried to modernize the pageant.

Then, in 2006, the pageant decide to leave town all together – seeking what it believed to be greener ($) pastures in Las Vegas.

The pageant’s departure from town, however, did not stop its decline. It is no longer shown on network television, and it remains but a shadow of what it once was when it called Atlantic City its home.

These days, the ties of Miss America to its New Jersey days are fleeting. A recording of "There She Is, Miss America" as sung by Parks is still used each year in the Miss America contest as the new reigning titleholder takes her walk down the runway in her newly-earned crown.

Back in Atlantic City, whatever buzz there is along the Boardwalk is attributable primarily to business at the casinos.

But over at the Garden Pier, the spirit of the Miss America Pageant and its important link to the city can still be experienced. There, the Atlantic City Historical Museum describes the history of Atlantic City, including memorabilia of Miss America’s years in town.

For example, the permanent exhibition, "Atlantic City, Playground of the Nation", displays artifacts, costumes, posters, photographs, song sheets, postcards, souvenirs, and an array of Miss America memorabilia.

In addition, a historical video, "Boardwalk Ballyhoo: The Magic of Atlantic City," is shown continuously throughout the day. The documentary includes original footage of the Miss America Pageant.