On Television
KITMAN, MARVIN
ON TELEVISION By Marvin Kitman Beauty and the Beasts Forty-nine candidates were defeated in the Miss America race at Convention Hall in Atlantic City this year for reasons that were never made...
...Whatever we may think of Miss Illinois as a woman, I'm sure we will all support her in 1969...
...ON TELEVISION By Marvin Kitman Beauty and the Beasts Forty-nine candidates were defeated in the Miss America race at Convention Hall in Atlantic City this year for reasons that were never made clear to the television audience...
...Judith Anne Ford, better known as Miss Illinois, is an 18-year-old college physical education major...
...And so forth, until the moderator says, "Thank you, Mr...
...Miss America of 1945 can do this by her mere presence at these wasp-dominated beauty contests...
...Nixon: "Will you use the same talent scouts you used to find Spiro Agnew in putting together your cabinet...
...As I said of Debra Dene Barnes, who wasn't my first choice for Miss America of 1968, "I can live with her...
...The country, as represented by the Miss America judges, a cross-section ranging from Ed McMahon to soprano Licia Albanese, was in the mood for a show of strength...
...But it is important to remember the big issue in the 1960 tv debates was Quemoy and Matsu...
...To Vice President Humphrey: "Marvin Garson is in jail in Chicago...
...Having someone insert something, as a barbed shaft, up one's rectum.' Are you against smut when others use it, or is it acceptable when politic...
...The most qualified candidates for the job are usually discovered during the so-called "talent competition...
...The spectacle was even more frustrating than usual this year because I gave it my undivided attention...
...And Bess Myerson once again was in the anchor booth high above the convention floor, raising the religious issue...
...Robert Glatzer's Rules of Order will govern the evening...
...these looked like they were right off the racks at J.C...
...Nevertheless I wish nbc would stop covering an event of such importance to womankind so superficially...
...She didn't get past the semifinals, thus saving us from a credentials fight...
...But mostly they just sang and danced...
...A speech therapy major at college, Miss Massachusetts spoke exceptionally well with her hands...
...4. Don't bring up Vietnam at dinner...
...I'm not sure the two major candidates want to hear any further discussion about national tv debates...
...The police allege that Garson had a rock in his hand...
...Men of good will always tend to forget their differences after the convention is over, and get behind the winner...
...Presidential Candidates...
...Illinois, better known as Mayor Daley, didn't even quite match the high standards set by Miss Illinois for unflappability...
...Jesse (Big Daddy) Unruh has long been known as the thinking man's political boss, so it should not be surprising that he figured out the way to circumvent Section 315 of the fcc code, the equal time statute barring national tv debates...
...Ten semi-finalists receive about three minutes each to do their thing...
...Over the coffee and cigars, each candidate will be asked to address himself to a number of philosophical questions, such as whether a man in politics has the right to change his mind...
...Doing a split or waiting for the orchestra to give her a drum roll before flying through the air, Miss Illinois was unflappable...
...Since professional politicians at the conventions considered both men losers, neither has reason to fear a debate...
...To Mr...
...My theory is that Miss Massachusetts had the misfortune of being behind the times, possibly by as much as 10 days...
...Minnesota and South Dakota to a little gathering with his people which happened to be covered by television cameras...
...nbc didn't join this convention until its final two hours...
...My adviser explained it probably was set in cement...
...Nixon isn't planning to visit every state in the Union this year...
...Will you be putting in a telephone call to Barbara Garson, as President Kennedy called Mrs...
...Like the other candidates...
...The candidates, led by Miss Alabama, walked across the stage, bringing everybody up to date on the developments missed the first two nights...
...I don't mean to imply that the minorities were completely without representation...
...Illinois was human...
...Humphrey is planning to break off campaigning every fourth day or so and retire to his ranch house in Waverly, Minnessota...
...She did a number of tricks on the trampoline to demonstrate her physical fitness...
...Miss Massachusetts won all the primaries in her state before Atlantic City...
...The permanent chairman, Bert Parks, still looked like that happy-go-lucky fellow who was the trademark at George C. Tilyou's Steeplechase...
...Some kids were accussed of having stoned a car...
...2. Wipe feet on the mat in the entrance hall...
...Some people may think these questions have nothing to do with those matters which will concern the President in the next four years...
...Despite her compassion, sensitivity, intelligence and resemblance to Ava Gardner, Miss Masschusetts finished second to Miss Illinois...
...Even upside down, her blonde bouffant hair-do did not get mussed...
...I hoped one of the candidates would recognize the changes that have taken place in the cinema and theater since last year by appearing on stage naked...
...Actually, debating can only hurt the front-runner...
...Each has been following a strategy of invisibility in the 1968 campaign...
...On the chance that Sheridan and Klein think I'm only kidding around, I'd like to assure them that my ranch-style house has new wiring, and the members of the discussion group have already worked out the ground rules for the debate...
...Neighbors gather at my house in Leonia, New Jersey for political kaffeklatsch.es from time to time, and we'd be honored to have the candidates drop by to test Jesse Unruh's theory...
...Martin Luther King Jr...
...I have been advised that no secretary today would dare wear Miss America's clothes, unless she was trying to be camp...
...We wanted our Miss America to be strong, decisive and unflappable, a leader who wouldn't fall on her head under pressure...
...True, no matter what went wrong at his beauty contest, his hair never came undone as he sat on his throne in the Illinois delegation...
...during the last television debates...
...Nobody could argue that Miss Illinois was the most talented or most beautiful woman at Atlantic City...
...3. Only two drinks before dinner...
...Miss Illinois stood for brawn and Miss Massachusetts for brains...
...The hems of the late 1950 styles had been raised an inch or two...
...Miss New York, however, shattered one of the Convention Hall's oldest traditions by displaying real talent as an opera singer...
...By great coincidence, the states failed to send any black beauties to the national convention...
...None of the candidates lost because of their figures or faces, which without exception were above average...
...The most beautiful and talented did not win at the Chicago International Amphitheatre either...
...Underneath .his chiseled Irish marble exterior, Mr...
...There hasn't been such an unorthodox tactic since Henry Cabot Lodge took afternoon naps in 1960...
...A poll of the judges might indicate otherwise, but it's possible that Miss Illinois won for no better reason than that the judges sought to demonstrate their support for what went on at the other convention we've had on television within the last few weeks...
...Nixon: "Obscenity appears to be a major Republican issue in 1968...
...In the two hours the network devoted to the Pageant on the evening of September 7, one could hardly distinguish between the personalities of the 50 states' standard bearers, much less discover what, if anything, they stood for...
...The public wants the confrontations, though, and they are worth the political risks...
...These include: 1. Credentials will be checked at the front door...
...Miss Alaska may have been of Eskimo ancestry, although she didn't look it...
...Actually television hadn't seen anything like it since Mayor Joseph L. Alioto of San Francisco put Vice President Humphrey's name in nomination at Chicago...
...Not that it mattered which candidate emerged triumphant from the final roll call...
...As I wrote to Norman Sheridan and Herbert Klein, the Humphrey and Nixon press secretaries, "If you can fit this into your candidate's schedule, I'm sure the networks will be able to cover it...
...Do you feel groups such as the Wisconsin delegation had the right to come to Chicago...
...Penney...
...John Chancellor and Sandor Vanocur weren't on the floor to explain how this could have happened...
...California for solving one of television's major problems in covering politics...
...But he reddened when Mr...
...Of the five finalists, at least two of the front-runners seemed to offer a real choice...
...To Vice President Humphrey: "You have questioned the propriety of people coming to Chicago during a political convention to demonstrate...
...One thing can be said for Miss Illinois' act: It proved conclusively that she was fit...
...And it was not because of their clothes...
...To Mr...
...The Queen Mother, Miss Barnes, looked happier than the last time I saw her in 1967—by the end of the night, she would finally be able to wipe that smile off her face...
...Still, she found time to work with the physically handicapped during summer vacations, as she explained in the traditional last-minute appeal to the judges...
...The Dictionary of American Slang defines that verb as, '2...
...This year, however, I felt she appeared a bit more militant than usual, wearing on her bosom a diamond studded six-pointed star...
...Coming on the heels of another convention, which all the experts were saying had wide impact, I was rather hoping that Miss Wisconsin or Miss New Hampshire would throw Convention Hall into an uproar by shouting that the winner was nothing but a dirty old whore...
...You used the word 'shaft' on tv in your last campaign...
...While I'm handing out laurels, I'd like to praise Mr...
...Miss Massachusetts sang a song in the sign language of the deaf and dumb, an effective way to reach her audience...
...Then specific questions on the issues will be directed at each man...
...Unruh simply invited Messers...
...Connecticut (Senator Ribicoff) gave him credit for inspiring the events outside, and lost his temper once or twice...
Vol. 51 • September 1968 • No. 18
