If you’re a big fan of Vilma Santos, then most probably, you are aware of her younger sister Winnie, a quarter of the group Apat Na Sikat who made their marks in the local show business scene in the 70s. The better singer (well Vilma doesn’t really sing, she only screams even when acting), Winnie once popularized her sister’s unofficial anthem – Paper Roses. Unbeknown to many, the song Paper Roses was originally sang by a beauty queen who comes by the name Anita Bryant.
Anita Jane Bryant was a former Miss Oklahoma titleholder who placed second runner up in the 1959 Miss America Pageant. Bryant, just like some titleholders before and after her, embarked in a career in the entertainment industry. As a singer, she scored four Top 40 hits in the United States, with “Paper Roses” reaching the #5 position. But it was not her musical career that made her even more famous but her anti-gay remarks that spurred her notoriety.
She started the “Save Our Children” campaign, which aimed to repel local ordinances that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation. She was one of the few people who was publicly “pied” as a political act on national television. As a result of her outspoken statements against the gay community, her contract with a leading orange juice company was scrapped following boycott of the said product. The negative publicity she gained did not only affect her declining career but also her marriage to her first husband Bob Green. As for the gay community, her name will always remain synonymously with bigotry and homophobia.
Quest for the Triple Crown
Miss USA is considered by many to be one of the biggest, most exciting and most followed national preliminary for the much bigger contest – the Miss Universe pageant. In order to compete on the Miss USA stage, one must win their respective state pageants. Many of these state pageant winners also once held the “teen” title wherein a separate pageant under the same umbrella organization was held.
In the 1984 Miss USA contest, 53 contestants competed for the crown – the original 50 states plus the District of Columbia plus two teen winners from the past two years.
Ruth Zakarian
Cherise Haugen
Ruth Zakarian, the first ever Miss Teen USA winner in 1983 and Cherise Haugen, her successor, were granted a slot that made them eligible to compete directly for the Miss USA crown. If only either one of them won both the USA and the Universe crown, then their name will go down in history as the first woman who captured the three crowns in the pageant system. Unfortunately, it was Mai Shanley who emerged victorious at the end of the event – a pageant where three former contestants from the rival Miss America pageant battled it out for the Top 3 finish.
Before Deshauna, there was Gracie
Shoe stealing, gowns and dress sabotaging, missing make ups, backstabbing are among the usual stories that circulates at the backstage of every pageant, so the possibility of finding a true and genuine friend among your co-candidates is almost slim to none. But imagine having a pageant friend who will do everything to protect you – even running after the ones who will hurt you while advocating for world peace - isn’t that great? Maybe a lot of you will agree that Gracie Lou Freebush is one of the most well-loved pageant contestant ever to compete on stage. Though she is only a fictional character played by the equally talented and fiercely beautiful Sandra Bullock, Gracie arm with her badge and a gun, sashayed her way into our hearts.
An FBI undercover agent and a “reluctant” contestant, Gracie undergoes the basic trainings a beauty pageant contestant would normally go through. Under the tutelage of a pageant coach played by Michael Caine, the once tomboyish Gracie transformed into a beautiful lady ready to compete for the crown, though her usual mannerism did stay the same. During the pageant pre-pageant activities, she portrayed herself as one who is not a pageant patty but someone who is there to have fun and usually break the norms. In the end, she may have not won the crown but she won the hearts and love by her fellow contestants – giving her the Miss Congeniality Award.