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FLORIDA PAGEANT
Miss Florida 1975
Noly Greer
On Monday night* May
19th, in the beautiful Persian
Room of the Marco Polo
Hotel on Miami Beach the'
curtain opened on what had
been billed as “the ultimate
pageant.” The beauty con
testants swirled in resplen-
dant chiffons, flashed gems in
their bathing suits, and
paraded and performed
through a tense evening of
Where We Are?
Continued from page 2
think that society owes us our
place, when in fact we must
earn it (EGAD, RESPON
SIBILITY). Society has a lot
of work to do, but gays must
clean up their act as well and
show a willingness to fit in.
People are interdependent,
and we sharply limit our
selves, if we restrict all
contact to a small segment of
society. The freedom to have
one’s own lifestyle should be
encouraged, but it cannot be
done at the expense of the
general welfare or by
damning everyone else.
We continue to suffer from
society’s wishes for us. We
bristle With our gay pride
when offended, but we still
secretly believe what they
say about us. That cheery
confidence is hard to come by
when a person is beneath his
peers. Many gays who claim
to be “out” still have written
on their personalities the
finality of their way of life,
and the attitude feeds on it
self. From our side of the
fence the struggle looks good,
but when a spy sneaks into
the enemy camp, things look
pretty much the same. If we
could mobilize the same
contempt and hostility for
heterosexuals as they feel for
us, open warfare would be 1
inevitable. Society wishes to
keep us confined, and will do
so until we resist mightily.
Separatism is not the answer..
keen competition. All the
elements of a beauty pageant
were there -- with one major
difference. The lovely con
testants w§re all men, men
competing in the 1975 edition
of the female impersonators
Miss Florida Pageant, a
Keith Landon Production.
From start to finish, it was a
glittering evening of en
tertainment, excitement, and
A gay state would obviously
last for only a generation. We
must ask ourselves if the
struggle is worth it, and if not
why not just give up? Maybe-
it has happened already: why
not just go on chasing cock
and let the rest of the world go
by? It won’t make any dif
ference. It is going to take a
lot of agitation to make any
difference,
An adult needs contact with
other generations. A sub
culture gay misses that if he
or she is immersed in self-
indulgence. Not that we have
a monopoly on self-
indulgence, but lack of
serious personal respon
sibility leaves a lot of
discretionary time to be
spent. The average straight
supports his family, and what
is left over he considers his. Is
being gay a locked-in
existence? If it is, liberation
doesn’t exist. If it is, it is truly
a dead-end to be avoided. Did
God really goof with us, and if
He did, is He still God?
Theory and theology have the
same root word, and we can
only speculate about how we
got this way. Billy Graham
quotes the Bible to prove we
are a perversion (whatever
that is), yet we turn to
religion for comfort. Most
people prefer set patterns of
behavior, predictability,
security. They can’t handle
new ideas, unorthodox
relationships, iconclasts. We
must grow within society or
die.
[L-R, front row] 1st Runner np with sponger Rene frnn Rene’s
Lounge; 2nd Runner up with Chick from, City of Night; 3rd
Runner up Hot Chock late with Robbie from Mama Dee’s Yum
Yum Tree. [Second Level] Keith Landon, pageant producer;
Noly Greer, Miss Florida 1975 with Pete Taylor from The Second
Landing.
priceless ihoments of totally
pleasing outrageousness.' In
short it was more than a
pageant, it was an event!
- Co-emcees David Vance,
highly praised photographic
artist, and Michael St.
Laurent, prominent female
impersonator, lead the
evenings festivities with the
grace and charm of a jet-set
Hugh Scott and Barbra
Walters. Highlighting the
evening were devastating
performances by Miss
Florida 1973, Emore, as
Shirley Bassey and show
stopping Roxanne Russell
with his highly acclaimed and
eerily accurate rendition of
Marilyn Monroe.
The talent competition
revealed artistry seldom ever
seen in ordinary beauty
pageants. Contestants daz
zled the audience with a
montage of props, costumes
worthy of Ziegfield, backup
dancers and a battery of
gimmicks, tricks, and effects
that would have confused
Billy Rose..
Noly, Greer-, the contest
winner, devasted the
audience with “The Party’s
Over,” in which he tran
sformed from a gorgeous
woman to a leather-bikini’d
beef cake mode, and exited
singing, “This is my life”
aboard a roaring motorcycle.
Bert Parks may not have
approved but the audience
certainly did, with an SRO,
turn away crowd.
The contest culminated
with the traditional crowning
and final walk of the runway.
Noly Greer will reign for the
next year with his court -
First runner-up Lorie Del
Mar, Second runner-up
Bobby Lake, and Third
runner-up Hot Chocolate.
There is even a Miss
Congeniality a part of the
pageant tradition. This year
it wnt to Tiny Tina. The
pageant committee even has
a highly honored
humanitarian award
dedicated to performer Billie
Boots, Mime artist and im
personator. Miss P. was
honored for his contribution
to entertainment with that
award.
We will have to agree with
producer Keith Laadon’s
advertising. The female
impersonator’s Miss Florida
Pageant is with out a doubt
the ultimate pageant.
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