Ideals of American femininity have changed since Phyllis Whitenack of West Virginia won the first Junior Miss Pageant in 1958. In the past 48 years, more than 700,000 young American women - including Diane Sawyer, Kim Basinger and Debra Messing - have taken part in Junior Miss programs across the country.

In 1957, local businessmen established a national scholarship program, and the first national competition was held in Mobile the following year. Originally conceived in the 1920s as a traditional beauty pageant to promote Mobile’s azalea blossoms, the event grew in the post-war years. “We like to think we pioneered that thought.” “When we began there were no opportunities for women for scholarships,” Bellew said. Since its inception, Junior Miss competitions have awarded nearly $90 million to participants across the country. The Miss USA program, owned by Donald Trump, attracted 8 million viewers in April. Traditional competitions are flailing helplessly behind more sensational contests such as Miss USA, which teamed up with “Fear Factor” this year to show bikini-wearing contestants covered in 55-gallon drums of live worms and fish oil.

The 84-year-old show, which had 85 million viewers in 1985, will air this year on cable’s Country Music Television. Miss America, perhaps the nation’s most successful pageant, was dropped by ABC last year after its television audience fell below 10 million. Last month, as Bellew was watching the show, a volunteer turned to her and said: “If I didn’t know the girls, I wouldn’t watch that for two hours.” Every former Junior Miss and volunteer in the room agreed.Īmerica’s Junior Miss is not the only distressed pageant. Yet even the program’s most devoted fans admit the show’s format was stilted. The contestants, she said, delivered the best reality they could. This year, Junior Miss relied heavily on local taxpayer support, with the city and county of Mobile providing one-third of the program’s $1 million budget.Īfter experimenting with a behind-the-scenes “reality” TV concept last year, the program was told it needed more cutthroat competition.” Yet the show’s popularity has dwindled since its heyday in 1965, when it began a 23-year run on national television and was sponsored by Coca-Cola and Kodak.

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