Thursday, August 25, 2005

Miss America: Outta A.C.?

The Miss America Pageant has been an Atlantic City institution since its inception back in the Roaring 20s.
That tradition is apparently about to end, according to Earthlink News:
In a surprise announcement, the organizers of the Miss America pageant said Thursday they want to move the 84-year-old contest from the only home it has ever known.
Officials with the pageant asked the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority to release the Miss America Organization from its contract to hold the pageant in Boardwalk Hall, a Depression-era landmark that has hosted the event since 1940.

Where will it go, if it leaves A.C.?
Let's look at the candidates that come to mind:
Nashville. The home of country music and an NHL team and approximately 250,000 starving singers looking for that one break. It's a primary candidate because CMT (Country Music Television) now has the contract to carry the pageant. Upside: They like beauty pageants down South. Downside: Would you want to look at 50-plus Dolly Parton lookalikes? (Down, boys, down.) Also, there are no large bodies of water around. Would the new Miss America take her first dip in the water in the Tennessee River?
Las Vegas. Also known as Atlantic City West. Gambling, gambling and more gambling, along with approximately 250,000 starving showgirls looking for that one break. Upside: Lots of people go to Vegas. Downside: By the time they're done gambling, they won't have any money to go to the pageant. Also, would you want the new Miss America to take her traditional first dip in some casino-hotel pool?
San Francisco. Eliminated as unfriendly to heterosexuality.
Panama City, Fla. Similar in size to Atlantic City, but has no casinos. It does have the requisite water, though, in the Gulf of Mexico. Upside: Home of Girls Gone Wild. Downside: Home of Girls Gone Wild.
Where will the pageant go?
For some unknown reason, I don't care.