Pageant News Bureau - Miss America 2006

Miss America goes "retro"

First, a reminder of the basic facts: Jennifer Berry of Oklahoma was crowned Miss America on Jan. 21, 2006, in Las Vegas. She was the first Miss America ever crowned outside Atlantic City, and the first ever crowned on CMT.

The first runner-up was Monica Pang of Georgia, and the second runner-up was Alexa Jones of Alabama. Other finalists were Kristi Lauren Glakas of Virginia and Shannon Schambeau of the District of Columbia. Other semifinalists were Eudora Mosby of Arkansas, Nicole Brewer of Pennsylvania, Mari Wilensky of Florida, Erika Grace Powell of South Carolina and Morgan Matlock of Texas.

PNB was there in its place of honor, treated with great courtesy by pageant officials and an energetic young staff who made us welcome in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

And now, the thing for which the pageant will be remembered: This was the year Miss America saved itself.

The pageant saved itself from a peril that was a long time in the making, and that began with a strange cultural divergence in the late 1940s and early '50s. Around that time, just as America was discovering sex, the Miss America Pageant was backing away from it.

Those were interesting times. Americans, uprooted and energized by World War II, were ready to have some fun, maybe even test a few taboos. The bikini made a splash heard 'round the world, and Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot and Playboy magazine were on the horizon.

But the country's premier beauty pageant, tired of its chorus girl image, suddenly wanted to settle down and be respectable. The contest started to emphasize scholarships, talent, even morals, and to treat swimsuits as a necessary evil and beauty as optional. The Miss America message became "We are nice girls."

The final three -- Alexa Jones (Miss Alabama), Jennifer Berry
(Miss Oklahoma), and Monica Pang (Miss Georgia)

The last two standing -- Jennifer Berry (Miss Oklahoma) and
Monica Pang (Miss Georgia)

Jennifer Berry being crowned Miss America by Deidre Downs

For a while, the popular culture and the Miss America culture were pretty much in the same place -- like two long, slow trains passing each other in opposite directions. In the 1950s, when most of the fare on television was as square as the box it came out of, Miss America was the spiciest show in the living room. Dozens of pairs of bare, shapely legs all in a row looked exciting next to "Ozzie and Harriet." The pageant was a favorite of viewers, the stuff of mild fantasy.

But by the beginning of the 21st century, Miss America the show had become at best quaint and at worst tiresome. PNB was sounding the alarm in public. Nobody could be as wholesomely dull as these girls pretended to be, and everybody knew it, especially after a sex scandal in the 1980s and the party girl antics of some former winners in the 1990s. And, yes, you could see more skin during TV's family hour than during the pageant.

Finally, in late 2004, Miss America lost its network TV contract. It had become "niche entertainment."

Jennifer Berry being engulfed in metallic confetti

Then came the clever feat of reinvention. The pageant reached not for its roots, the 1920s, but for its days of glory, the 1950s. First it affiliated with CMT, a cable network oriented to country music. And it picked Las Vegas as a venue.

The Miss America glory days of the 1950s were based on a delicate balance of naughty and nice. As America got naughtier and Miss America got nicer, the balance vanished. But few things in American life exemplify that balance today as much as Las Vegas and country music.

Vegas is "Sin City," a place where indulgence is celebrated and anything is for sale. But it is not the decadent rich who keep its economy humming. It is the respectable people who come to let their hair down. Country music, adored by flag-waving, God-fearing, hard-working conservatives, celebrates alcohol and adultery above all else. The city and the music prove that wild oats are as American as apple pie.

And speaking of celebrating adultery (which we would never do), the host of Miss America in 2006 was one James Denton, star of "Desperate Housewives." That's a show about cheating, and not at poker.

Even the rumors were juicy this year, the kind you would never hear in Atlantic City. There was talk that one contestant was being "kept" by an older man with a shady past. One girl who finished below expectations was said to have been blackballed because her educational claims were fake. Were these rumors true? Probably not. But that would never stop anyone from repeating them.

On the "nice" side, the pageant brought back its most charming accouterment -- sashes. It gave the crown more attention, and it featured some of the best talent performances in years.

So Miss America got sexier without getting tasteless. It got frillier without being stiff. And best of all, it didn't try to replicate the past exactly. There was a certain timelessness about it, like being in a time machine in a holding pattern. What year was this exactly? And what happened to 2005? Everything seemed to be a mix of different eras. Classical music and low-slung bikinis. Hip-hop music and sumptuous gowns.

Can this pageant be saved? It has been saved. Now it's time to fly to new heights.