Miss USA prelims: Swimsuits, gowns and mini-bios
After several days of painstaking preparation, muted promotion (including tours of the National Civil Rights Museum and Elvis’ home) and coronavirus caution, 102 pageant queens on Friday night doffed their masks and donned tight two-pieces and flowing evening gowns to launch the 2020 Miss USA and Miss Teen USA competitions, which are being held in Memphis.
Participating in the pageants’ “preliminary” competitions Friday, the young women — representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia — strode like fashion models from the wings of the stage to a runway that jutted into the socially distanced crowd at the Soundstage at Graceland. Audience members sat at round tables, as in a nightclub, while the whooping and whistling that accompanied the recitation of each state name suggested the partisan hooting that occurs during a high-school graduation ceremony.
For the Miss USA competitors, the preliminaries mean “formal wear” (from Sherri Hill) and two-piece swimsuits (provided by Swimoutlet), with lightweight capes to match. For the younger (ages 14-19) Miss Teen USA contestants, the prelims included gowns and “active wear” (yoga pants and sports bras, essentially).
In other words, Friday night was all about poise and beauty. The girls didn’t talk or answer questions, although bullet-point highlights of each contestant’s impressive accomplishments were read aloud, to accompany her runway prowl.
Although the swimsuits and yoga pants were more or less identical, the scripted mini-bios were diverse, surprising and sometimes weirdly random.
“This future dermatologist is passionate about painting,” the audience was informed when Miss Hawaii Teen USA, Ki’ilani Arruda, took the stage, while Miss Teen USA Georgia, Shayla Jackson, was touted as a “master lip reader” who “once Hula Hooped for seven straight hours.”
Miss Missouri Teen USA Holly McDowell’s interests include “human trafficking” and “lawn care,” according to an announcer, while Miss North Carolina Teen USA Peyton Brown was identified as a “19-year-old Cher fan.”
Miss Massachusetts Teen USA, Annika Sharma, “can recite all the presidents and states in order.” Sharing a complementary interest, Miss Tennessee Teen USA and Munford High School grad Ansley Ecker — identified by a host as a “hometown” favorite — “has already visited five presidential libraries.”
Miss Texas USA Taylor Kessler is “a distant relative of Marie Antoinette.”
Meanwhile, Miss Ohio Teen USA Lily Mclaughlin is “renovating and flipping houses in three states.” And on a more purposeful note, Miss Utah USA, Rachel Slawson, is “the first openly LGBTQ+ woman to compete at Miss USA.”
The Miss Teen USA finals took place Saturday night (after The Commercial Appeal’s deadline) at Graceland, while Miss USA is Monday night. Chosen by a “selection panel” of judges, 16 finalists in each pageant will be announced near the start of each show.
Luring the pageants to Graceland was claimed as something of a coup by Elvis Presley Enterprises and Memphis Tourism officials, who said the international interest in the events would pay off for Memphis.
Memphis was not mentioned much from the stage during Friday’s prelims (which were livestreamed on the pageants’ social media pages), but Paula Shugart — president of the Miss Universe Organization, which runs Miss USA and Miss Teen USA — said: “Graceland has been amazing, honestly.”
She said the fact that Graceland reopened to the public in May made the tourism attraction “a great partner,” because Graceland officials already had testing protocols and other coronavirus measures in place.