September 11: “There she is…Miss America”
On 11 September 1955, Bert Parks began his 25 year career as host of the Miss America Pageant. This night also saw the first performance of “There she is, Miss America.” This is also the first year that the Miss American Pageant was televised.
The Miss America Pageant began on 7 September 1921 as a beauty pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The first winner of the pageant was Margaret Gorman. However, she was not crowned as “Miss America” until the end of her reign. She was the only Miss American not crowned shortly after winning the pageant. The grand prize for the beauty pageant was a three foot mermaid.
Lee Meriwether was the first young woman to whom Bert Parks sang “There she is, Miss America.” Before winning the title of Miss America, Meriwether had been crowned Miss San Francisco and Miss California. Later, she would become known as Betty in the long running TV series Barnaby Jones and as Lilly in the 1970s revival The Munsters Today. She also appeared in movies.
Bert Parks was not the only individual to make a first appearance on 11 September 1955. That evening, James Arness made his premiere as Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke. The series ran for 20 years with 635 episodes. Gunsmoke had originally begun as a radio program on 26 April 1952 with William Conrad starring in the role of Matt Dillon. The radio show would run until 18 June 1961.
When Gunsmoke made its television debut, the program was introduced by well known western actor John Wayne. In 1969, Meriwether and Wayne appeared together in The Undefeated.
- –Steven L. Berg, PhD
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Photo Caption: Lee Meriwether as Miss America. (top) Lee Meriwether and John Wayne in The Undefeated. (bottom)
While the prize for winning the pageant used to be a 3 foot mermaid, the pageant now wards the winner and her runners up with a scholarship to the institution of their choice. The Miss America Scholarship program has made more than $45 million available to the winners and runners up.
-Aaron Dowd