The Beauty of Pageants Seen in O.C.

Orange County might seem a little less talented, a bit less articulate and a lot less cute this weekend, when 12 local women will be in Fresno competing for the title of Miss California.

Miss Placentia, a pianist and aspiring professional snowboarder, will be there. So will Miss Orange County, a hard-of-hearing woman who hopes to use the title to empower the disabled.

Even Miss Central California Regional, a Santa Barbara college student who dreams of becoming a pediatric heart surgeon, is from Newport Coast. Of the 48 women vying for the Miss California title, one-quarter live or attend school in Orange County.

Why so many?

Because, some contest officials say, the small-town pageant -- out of fashion in many other communities -- still thrives in Orange County.

The city of Orange, for example “is really proud of its history and sense of tradition,” said Mayor Mark A. Murphy. “The pageant is part of that sense of identity.”

Eight Orange County cities have pageants that feed into the Miss California contest. And, of course, there’s the county pageant and regional contests that gather girls -- in pageant parlance, everyone is a “girl,” even when they’re 24 -- from all over the Southland.

The winners of each are among those who vie to become Miss California and go to Atlantic City, N.J., for the Miss America pageant in September.

The secret to sustaining pageants seems to be in the size of the city, organizers and city boosters say. They must be large enough to back the program with money and volunteers, and small enough that citizens actually care who is wearing the tiara.

“In bigger cities, with so much going on, pageants seem to get lost in the shuffle,” said Stacy Margolin, coordinator of the contest in Garden Grove. “Miss Garden Grove is a big part of the city, kind of an institution.”

In some cities, hardly a ribbon-cutting or parade goes by without the local titleholder.

“Without Miss Garden Grove, we would have five middle-aged men standing around at our events,” said Garden Grove Councilman Mark Leyes. “When you get somebody young and attractive and wearing a tiara, it always helps to jazz up the photo ops.”

As this weekend’s competition loomed, Orange County contestants bonded during workouts and last-minute shoe-shopping trips. At a recent mock interview, the contestants greeted each other with tight hugs and traded hair tips while they waited.

Pageant critics have long complained that beauty contests are sexist and hopelessly old-fashioned, and television ratings for the national contest have steadily declined.

The judging components haven’t changed since Atlantic City started Miss America in 1921 as a gimmick to keep tourists in town past Labor Day. But as societal values changed, so did the emphasis given to each element.

Interview and talent now comprise 70% of the total score, and eveningwear and swimwear -- now called “physical fitness” -- only 20% combined. Before 1960, half of a contestant’s score depended on her looks.

The job of keeping pageants alive falls to local communities. More than a dozen California cities have seen their contests fold because of flagging interest. Without support, it’s hard to drum up enough volunteers or scholarship money to keep them going.

Reedley, a city southeast of Fresno with a population of 25,000 that calls itself “the World’s Fruit Basket,” last sent a representative to the pageant five years ago. The city has been growing and most of the pageant sponsors have died, said Betty Crum, executive coordinator of the Chamber of Commerce.

Since the preliminary rounds of the state pageant started Wednesday, Crum has been watching them on TV, wistfully remembering a time when Miss Reedley would reign over the city’s Fiesta in October.

The idea of reinstating the pageant has been mentioned repeatedly at chamber meetings during the last year, she said. “I feel it’s something we need to bring back to Reedley,” Crum said. “The interest is here. We just need to make sure the financial support is too.”

In the Bay Area city of Hayward, though, chamber officials said they were happy to see their pageant’s demise in 1993.

“There was a time when chambers of commerce were all about parades, pageants and pancake breakfasts,” said Scott Raty, president and chief executive of Hayward’s chamber. “Today, we’re more concerned with public policy and political action.”

The participants in Orange County don’t think there’s anything outdated about wanting money for college and a chance to represent their hometowns.

Jayna Altman entered 13 pageants before winning the title of Miss Orange County. She has tried not to spend her contest winnings on pageant preparation, instead borrowing a formal dress from a former Miss Tustin and asking for donations to cover much of her other pageant wardrobe.

A Trabuco Canyon resident who graduated this year from UC San Diego, Altman plans to use her prize money to pursue a doctorate in linguistics.

The scholarship component -- most pageants award winners several thousand dollars, and a combined $300,000 is distributed at the statewide contest -- has made fervent advocates of most city officials in Orange County.

In Stanton, where a pageant hasn’t been held the last couple of years, one councilman wants to see it reborn as soon as next year. The city last sent a contestant to the Miss California pageant in 1996, but it became difficult to find enough volunteers to keep it going, said City Councilman David J. Shawver.

In the last month, he has been talking with the city’s Recreation Commission about reviving the pageant, perhaps holding a tri-city event with Cypress and Cerritos to ensure enough support.

“It’s kind of neat when local kids have the opportunity to represent us at the big state event,” Shawver said. “We want to reactivate it and bring it back to its days of glory.”