By
Richard A. Lee
For more than 80 years, the Miss
America Pageant was synonymous with Atlantic City, but in 2006, the annual
event moved to Las Vegas, where it took place again this year.
How ironic that Atlantic City, the
East Coast’s answer to Las Vegas, has lost one of its oldest attractions and
sources of identity to what once was its only domestic competitor for casino
gambling dollars. Even for those of us who love the Garden State, it is another
sign that New Jersey is destined to be a second-class state.
As far back as 1876, Benjamin
Franklin described New Jersey as “a beer barrel, tapped at both ends, with all
the live beer running into Philadelphia and New York.” Over a century later, we
are a state of 8.7 million people, yet we have no major television station of
our own, so we must rely on network affiliates from New York and Philadelphia.
New York, and to a lesser extent
Philadelphia, are the standards by which we judge quality. How many New Jersey
businesses use descriptions such as Broadway-quality theater, New York-style
pizza and authentic Philly cheese steaks to attract customers? There’s also the
matter of the two “New York” NFL teams, both of which have played their home
games in New Jersey for over 25 years. Likewise, most of the stars of MTV’s
popular Jersey Shore television show do not even hail from the Garden
State.
In Bruce Springsteen and the E
Street Band, we have one of the entertainment industry’s biggest attractions.
Yet, at Governor Chris Christie's inaugural ball, he had to settle for a
Springsteen tribute group called “The B Street Band” because the new Governor
and his supporters were unsuccessful in their attempts to get the real Boss to
perform.
And when Teresa Scanlan of Nebraska
was crowned Miss America on live national television last Saturday, the event
once again took place outside of New Jersey (even though the Miss America
Organization is headquartered here in Linwood).
As for me, I’ve had two brushes
with the pageant in my career. In 1978, my wife’s cousin, Paula Pope, was Miss
New York. At the time, I was a young reporter with The Montclair Times,
so I obtained press credentials to cover the pageant, hoping to impress all of
the relatives who were traveling from New York for the contest. As it turned
out, my “press seats” were a few rows behind all of theirs and they graciously
made room for me, so I could sit a little closer.
Paula did not win. The crown went
to Susan Perkins, Miss Ohio, instead.
A few years later, I had my second
encounter with the pageant when I was working for The Aquarian Weekly,
a New Jersey music and entertainment publication. Although most of my time was
spent interviewing the likes of the Grateful Dead, Pat Benatar and Phil
Collins, a publicist friend of mine asked if I would write a story about the
current Miss New Jersey, Suzette Charles, who was a singer. In keeping with New
Jersey’s stature, she had finished second in the pageant for Miss America 1984.
I agreed to do the interview; she and I had a nice conversation, and I wrote a
short piece about Suzette for The Aquarian.
Several months later, the reigning
Miss America, Vanessa Williams, resigned amidst a controversy over nude photos
that were taken of her before the pageant. As the first runner-up, Suzette
Charles became the new Miss America. But again New Jersey was short-changed.
Because Williams resigned ten months after winning the crown, New Jersey’s
Suzette Charles’ reign as Miss America lasted only seven weeks.
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Richard A. Lee is
Communications Director of the Hall
Institute. A former State House reporter and Deputy Communications
Director for the Governor, he also teaches courses in media, politics and
government at Rutgers University, where he is completing work on a Ph.D. in
media studies. Read more of Rich’s columns at richleeonline and
follow him on Twitter.
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