Queen for a year

By R.Z. Sheppard

THERE SHE IS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MISS AMERICA by Frank Deford. 351 pages. Viking. $10.

Threatened institutions, like endangered species, have often demonstrated remarkable powers of survival. There is the Roman Church, the British House of Lords, the German General Staff and the Miss America Pageant. Criticized as lily-white by civil rights groups, demonstrated against by Women's Lib, condescended to by intellectuals and the New York Times (which has been known to spare two paragraphs deep inside to report the winner), Miss America annually blooms like a crop of late summer corn. The second Saturday night in September always finds more than 60 million televiewers tuning in as, live from Atlantic City, Bert Parks opens the last envelope, milks the last drop of suspense, announces the winner and launches the pageant's theme song: There She Is.

To get to that moment, the viewer has had to squirm through two hours of banal commentary, inane commercials and an amateur talent show that only mothers could love. There is also something for daddy--the swimsuit finals, which unwittingly mock the characteristic American dilemma of having to select from many tempting choices that all seem exactly alike.

CIA 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 Beneath the pampered hair, outdated--and sometimes padded--bathing suits, the girls are not all alike.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.

Jean Bartel, Miss America 1943, became a Broadway singer, but will probably be best remembered for her patriotism. In the year following her crowning, she sold more than $2,500,000 worth of war bonds. In the late 1940s she did a little CIA work in Lebanon. The most famous Miss America is undoubtedly New York City's Commissioner of Consumer Affairs, Bess Myerson Grant, who put a little too much truth in packaging at the 1945 pageant by tucking her 36-in. bust into a size 34 swimsuit. The most infamous beauty, alas, came from the pageant's home state. Janice Hansen, Miss New Jersey 1944, became a Mafia moll, a career that came up short in 1959 when she was killed by gangsters along with her companion, Anthony ("Little Augie") Pisano.

Checks Preferred. The kind of controversy that really upsets Miss America officials, however, is generated by girls who are outspoken about the unabashed commercialism of it all. "It's a form of prostitution," said Amelita Facchiano, who as Miss Winston-Salem was eliminated in the 1970 Miss North Carolina contest. Maria 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 sit-ins in 1960. She denounced the events in Atlantic City as not only racist but also antifeminist. After her husband, Millionaire Matthew Fox, died in 1964, Yolande moved to Washington, D.C., where she fell in love with a foreign diplomat--an ongoing romance she describes as "neatsy."

Certified Virqins? Most Miss Americas learn the ropes of the beauty-contest system at the small-town level under the sponsorship of the Jaycees, the young businessmen's organization. Ironically, the judges on the local level are usually more competent than those at Atlantic City, where the panel is stacked with national celebrities to add glamour and prestige. Not all of them have taken their jobs entirely seriously. Publisher Bennett Cerf, a judge in 1958, was overheard to inquire, "Do you think they're all certified virgins?" No such assurances are sought, although such extreme measures are taken to separate the contestants from the male sex that at times it seems as if the pageant were run by members of a Sapphic cult. Contestants are not supposed to be seen talking with their fathers. Under the heading "We Love Your Parents--But!" the contestants' guidebook tells why: "They [fathers] are generally too young and too handsome to be considered by the general public as anything but a 'gentleman friend.' "

There have been changes since the contest started in 1921 as a way of extending Atlantic City's summer season. Most noticeably, the slightly risque air that caused hotelmen to withdraw their support in the late '20s gave way in 1937, when Miss America began to get her Goody Two-Shoes image. Only one Negro has ever competed in the final pageant, although the pageant directors of many states now claim to be looking for black candidates. In Alaska, the search is on for a qualified Eskimo.

In 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 35 1/2-22 1/2-35 1/2), and the fact that there have been 228 contestants whose first names began with the letter M. To neglect such trivia is to neglect the whole point of the book.

-R.Z. Sheppard

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