Otus the Head Cat
Pageant favorite heads up new parade.
Dear Otus,
For the 17th consecutive year, our family will be at the Miss Arkansas Pageant to cheer on our favorite, Miss Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area. But it will be weird not to be in Hot Springs. And I understand it’ll be on TV for the first time.
Also, can you update us on the marvelously talented Bruce Rogers, the pageant’s first transmorphodite contestant? That was a memorable year. — Vivian Ferguson,
Altheimer Dear Vivian,
It was wholly a pleasure to hear from you ahead of what promises to be an exciting week for the Miss Arkansas Scholarship Pageant.
Indeed, the big news is that the pageant has relocated to Little Rock’s newly renovated Robinson Center Performance Hall after having been in Hot Springs since 1958, when it was first held at Oaklawn Park Race Track (now called Oaklawn Racing & Gaming).
You are correct. This year all of Arkansas can join you in cheering for their favorite gal because the final night will be televised live, beginning at 7 p.m. June 17 on KATV. Channel 7 Daybreak co-anchor Chris Kane and Miss Arkansas 2009 Sarah Slocum Collins will serve as masters of ceremonies for the three-hour broadcast.
The program will include popular pageant segments such as the talent showcase, swimsuit and evening wear, and will culminate in the live crowning of Miss Arkansas 2017.
The other exciting news is that Bruce Rogers will be on hand to do the Channel 7 backstage color commentary and capture all the thrills as the girls prepare to go onstage.
For pageant fans who want to see Rogers up close and personal, he will be the parade grand marshal when the Contestant Parade travels from Eighth Street down Center Street to the Old State House Convention Center beginning at 12:30 p.m. June 17.
Rogers will be in the first convertible with Miss America Savvy Shields of Fayetteville and Miss Arkansas Savannah Skidmore of Calico Rock. Shields was Miss Arkansas 2016 before being crowned Miss America in September. First runner-up Skidmore took over Shields’ state title and will crown the 80th Miss Arkansas.
Skidmore, who competed as Miss University of Arkansas, said it was a thrill just to ride in the same car as the Tony Award-winning Rogers, who made such a splash in the 2001 Miss Arkansas Pageant, when the excitement was palpable and the adrenaline was olfactoryable and the synesthesia was neurological.
In 2001, Rogers (Miss Bella Vista) became the first (and so far, the only) transmorphodite to compete in a Miss Arkansas Pageant. His stunning, handmade evening gown was the hit of the show.
He was also articulate and impressive in all his interviews, but his fatal flaw was the swimsuit competition. He looked fit and trim in his WaterPro Polyester striped jammers with matching Speedo Colorblok Swim Tee, but his insistence on wearing heels to show off his calves proved too much for the relatively conservative panel of judges.
For decades the Miss Arkansas Pageant reflected only the small dreams of smalltown Arkansas. A pretty local girl could be Miss Batesville or Miss DeWitt and go on to Hot Springs, but that was usually the end of the road. Rogers’ ground-breaking entry ended all that.
Although he won only Miss Congeniality, Rogers took his talent to Broadway, where he is in high demand as a costume designer. He won a Tony for his work on 2013’s Kinky Boots.
Asked earlier this week to handicap this year’s contestants, Rogers said they “were all great,” but there were five particular girls (all Miss Arkansas Pageant veterans) to keep an eye on. Here they are in no particular order, with their hometowns, current title, advocacy platform and talent.
1. Ashleigh Walton, Texarkana, Miss South Fork of the White River, Yoga for World Peace, rhythmic gymnastics.
2. Britney McKinzie, Sherwood, Miss Little Rock Wastewater Utility, Being Keen for Green, jazz Hungarian cimbalom.
3. Megan Hovenmayer, Hope, Miss First Boyhood Home of President Bill Clinton, Fighting Sorghum Anthracnose, Scandinavian schottische dance.
4. Kristen McClellan, Springdale, Miss Joe Harden Lock & Dam, Saving the Baby Harp Spam, off-Broadway show tunes.
5. Courtney Caldwell, Blytheville, Miss I-55, Texting to Curtail Global Warming, mime tap dance.
Until next time, Kalaka reminds you that Miss Arkansas is a scholarship pageant. Keep that in mind during the swimsuit competition, which is technically called “Lifestyle and Fitness in Swimsuit” to mollify cheesecake accusations.
Disclaimer
Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat’s award-winning column of humorous fabrication appears every Saturday. E-mail: mstorey@arkansasonline.com