PBS looks past crown of Miss America
By John Curran
Associated Press
What is it about Miss America, anyway? And what does she tell us about ourselves?
Those are the questions at the heart of "Miss America," a documentary airing this month on PBS that weaves newsreel footage, period music and thoughtful analysis into a lively two-hour meditation on beauty, symbolism and 20th-century American women.
Refreshingly evenhanded, "Miss America" tackles the pageant's intersection with race, sex and women's liberation — among other things — without sinking into gratuitous pageant-bashing.
It's all here: the grainy black-and-white footage of the early years, the tearful runway walks, the awful talent routines, the Bert Parks firing, the disrobing and dethroning of Vanessa Williams.
Mercifully, it moves more quickly than the annual Miss America Pageant telecast.
The film, which was entered in the documentary category of this year's Sundance Film Festival, airs today (8 p.m. on KHET in Hawai'i), as part of PBS' "American Experience" series.
Producer-director Lisa Ades says she had no interest in making a movie that took a stand on the Miss America Pageant's worth.
"I'm not fond of mean-spirited documentaries," Ades said. "I didn't want to take cheap shots. I wanted to tell these women's stories and the story of the institution, which has created so much controversy and touched so many people's lives."
From the start, the Miss America Pageant, which began in 1921, walked a fine line, a "delicate balancing act of objectifying women but also giving them opportunity," narrator Cherry Jones says early on.
Yes, she had to parade in a swimsuit. But Miss America 1926 Norma Smallwood made upward of $100,000 in appearance fees — more than Babe Ruth or the president of the United States — during her reign.
Like other winners, she went from small-town unknown to crown-wearing champion in one night. That, "Miss America" suggests, is at the heart of the pageant's appeal.
Nationally televised for the first time in 1954, the pageant's it-could-happen-to-me fantasy fueled the Cinderella ambitions of thousands of young girls.
Comedian Margaret Cho and cultural critic Tricia Rose said the Miss America Pageant promoted a feminine ideal that was out of touch with many Americans, including minorities.
The pageant was 49 years old before the first black woman competed. The first black winner was Williams, who got death threats and hate mail after capturing the crown in 1983.
More often, the institution has had to defend itself. A women's lib rally on the Boardwalk at the 1968 pageant attracted attention with protesters carrying signs and pageant fans cussing at them.
"Where else could one find such a perfect combination of American values?" said Robyn Morgan, one of the organizers. "Racism, militarism and capitalism, all packaged in one ideal symbol: a woman."
