Sunday, March 29, 1998 | 6:25 a.m.
"It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible." -- Oscar Wilde, "The Picture of Dorian Gray." Oscar Wilde, "The Picture of Dorian Gray"
ONE BY ONE, they strutted up onto the main stage of the famed Congo Room in the Sahara hotel-casino.
It's the same stage that in years past supported entertainers such as Marlene Dietrich, Bobby Darin and Red Skelton.
But on this Saturday afternoon in February, those who stepped into the spotlight included 7-year-old Brandy Duthie, adorned in a purple satin dress, who performed a magic act, and 3-year-old Jonathan McAfoos, elegantly garbed in a burgundy tuxedo, who recited a nursery rhyme.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are," Jonathan intoned while offering a bright, white smile to the judges of the Nevada State Finals of the Young American Stars pageant.
"That's very, good, Jonathan," said pageant director Gerry Aldarete. "Are you having a nice time?"
* Business is booming at Young American Stars, which is a welcome relief to Aldarete following 1997, "which was the worst year we ever had."
The reason: the tragic death in December 1996 of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, the winner of countless little girls' pageants including Little Miss Colorado.
With her thick, cascading blonde hair, soft facial features and big blue eyes, JonBenet seemed destined for stardom.
But when JonBenet's lifeless body was discovered the day after Christmas in the family's upscale home in Boulder, Colo., she would forever be known as America's sylphid beauty queen, done up like a trick pony on stage.
And in the days, weeks and months after her parents became the focus of the investigation into the murder, the youth pageant industry took such a hit that many in the business thought they'd never recover.
"Last year was horrible," Aldarete said. "That was all I heard -- that I don't want my child looking or acting like that. I'm lucky I'm still in business.'
But as the months have gone by since the murder of the Colorado tot, stories about the tragedy have become more and more sparse. And the public's memory of the murder has begun to fade.
* Brandy and Jonathan, who live in Las Vegas, were two of more than 60 children -- ages 1 to 18 -- who competed for recognition and trophies during the daylong Young American Stars state finals pageant. In the end, 30 children -- three from each of 10 age groups -- were selected to go on to the national finals, scheduled Aug. 2-5 in the Sahara showroom.
None of the children walked away from the Congo Room empty-handed. The winners -- nearly half the contestants -- were awarded sashes, crowns and trophies. The rest were awarded "Exemplary Participation" trophies.
"I make sure all the children walk away with something," Aldarete said. "The idea is to make them understand that they accomplished something, to instill confidence in a child, to make them feel good about themselves."
The parental chaperones agreed.
"Pageantry has helped Brandy a lot with confidence," said Laura Trapani, Brandy's aunt and chaperone. "Before she started a year ago, she was so quiet. Now, she's come out of her shell, and she's blossomed into a little girl."
Chris-tina Mc-Afoos, Jon-a-than's mother, also said the children benefit from pageant participation.
"Not only do they give the kids the opportunity for film work, but they also give them a lot of confidence. I've seen shy children who didn't want anything to do with the other kids become so confident they don't want to get off the stage."
Brandy and Jonathan were among the 30 chosen to go on to the nationals in August. Both chaperones reacted with excitement and apprehension -- excitement about the thought of the children competing before the eyes of talent agents and casting directors, and apprehension about the cost.
That's because pageant competition demands not only a personal commitment on the part of families of contestants, but also a financial one.
Participation in pageantry costs a great deal of money. Expenses include costumes, talent lessons, travel and registration fees, which range from under $100 for small regional contests to several hundred dollars for national competitions.
For instance: the registration fee for the state finals of Young American Stars is $149.95 for each contestant. For the nationals, which are conducted once a year, it's $550. For contestants like Brandy, who enters about a dozen pageants a year, the fees and other costs add up to thousands of dollars annually.
To make ends meet, Trapani uses her persuasive abilities to secure sponsors, which include her area K-Mart store and a local photography supply outlet. and she uses her seamstress skills to make Brandy's pageantry outfits.
"We do what we can, but it's not easy," Trapani said. "In this pageant (Young American Stars) there's a lot of hidden costs. There's $15 for the program book, and $20 to $30 for the meal, and another $10 just to get in. The chaperone doesn't have to pay, but everyone else does."
* Aldarete, who has owned and operated Young American Stars for six years, said that her pageant system -- the only national pageant headquartered in Las Vegas -- is "the least expensive in the country" and an asset to the community.
Indeed, a spokeswoman for the Better Business Business Bureau of Southern Nevada reports that Young American Stars, headquartered at 2648 State St., is a member of the bureau and boasts a "satisfactory business record."
Some of the things Aldarete said she does to help parents keep down costs is advise them not to spend a lot of money on clothing for the contestants, "to forget about all the makeup and the beads" and to try to secure sponsors. She also said she has to charge at the door of pageants to control the environment -- a practice that is common to pageantry.
"My, goodness, we're talking about taking pictures of children," Aldarete said. "We don't want people who aren't supposed to be there."
A survey of other national pageant organizations shows that the registration fees for entry into Young American Stars pageants are lower or about the same as those of other pageants.
For instance, the Cinderella Scholarship Pageant, headquartered in Baton Rouge, La., charges $150-$200 for entry into state competitions.
But president Fred Vollman explained that the entry fee generally includes a welcome breakfast or awards banquet. And while registration fees are much more expensive for national pageants -- as high as $1,000 -- this price generally includes hotel accommodations and meals.
"We offer it as a package, and we encourage the contestants to seek sponsors," Vollman said. "Our directors work with them and help them develop fund-raising opportunities."
Industry experts explain that generally the more prestigious the pageant, the higher the fees. For instance, the registration fee for the state finals of the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants is $825, not including rooms or meals.
Laura Hobbs, director of the state preliminary for the Miss Nevada Teen USA and Miss Nevada USA, explained that contestants are encouraged to sell advertisements for state program books to defray registration expenses.
"It's extremely expensive," said Alicia Jacobs, entertainment reporter for KTNV Channel 13 and Miss Nevada USA in 1985 and Mrs. United States in 1992. "You would think that it wouldn't cost so much to enter a little girl and stick a little dress on her, but when you consider clothing, travel, registration fees and the other expenses, it could cost up to $5,000 for just one event."
A notable exception is the Miss America Organization, a not-for-profit corporation "established solely to provide contestants with the opportunity to enhance their professional and educational goals and to achieve those pursuits with the assistance of monetary grants and awards," according to a company statement.
The organization does not charge entrance fees, according to Jeanne Bishop-Parise, president and executive director of the Miss Nevada Scholarship Foundation, a preliminary division of the Miss America pageant.
Bishop-Parise explained that contestants must win a pageant conducted in a local geographical setting and then must gain sponsorship from a local pageant committee before advancing to the state competition.
"We're an all-volunteer organization, and we don't make any money off these ladies, unlike some other organizations," she said.
* Critics of youth pageantry -- and there are many -- say it's not just the fee structure that bothers them. It's the whole idea.
"I'm totally against them," said Jackie Baskow, a Las Vegas talent and modeling agent. "Most of the talent agents don't believe in them. They're just a confirmation that one child is more beautiful than the other, and let's face it, everybody's child is gorgeous."
What Baskow means, of course, is that every parent thinks his or her child is beautiful, and the youth pageant industry turns these feelings into cold, hard dollars.
Another local talent agent is less critical.
"You need to look at (youth pageantry) as a hobby," Tena Houser, president of the Lenz Agency, said. "If you play golf, you pay for a tee-time. If you take karate lessons, you pay for the lessons and the costume. Pageants are the same thing. You pay the fees."
Lenz believes that parents with the right attitude can help their children benefit from pageantry.
"It helps if the parent teaches the child good sportsmanship," Lenz said. "It's just like Little League and soccer. Some (parents) are good, and some are bad."
Lenz believes youth pageantry does help children further themselves in modeling or acting -- but not because they are discovered on stage.
"I use a lot of pageant girls, because they tend to be better groomed than most, and they also understand professionalism. They show up 15 minutes early rather than 15 minutes late."
* David Atwell, a Las Vegas hotel broker, says he has three reasons to believe youth pageantry helps young women learn professionalism: Heather, 18, Abrie, 12, and Chelsea, 9.
All three of his daughters have entered numerous pageants in recent years. In August 1997, they competed in the "Little Miss of America" national pageant in Orlando, Fla., and Heather, who was 17, was designated "Overall Beauty." All three girls won trophies.
"We don't take it real seriously like some people do," Atwell said. "Some of them get almost fanatical about the competitions. We look at the competitions as more of a fun hobby."
Chelsea Atwell knows firsthand how competitive some of the contestants can be.
"Some of the girls go to the extreme. They wear a lot of makeup and extravagant clothes," Chelsea said. "Even the younger girls wear lipstick, eye shadow and hair pieces, and some of them spend thousands."
Chelsea said it's the mothers "who make their daughters look like Barbie" who are the most fanatical about the competitions.
"I think talent and personality are more important," Chelsea said. "I did a little gymnastics and dance number. My gymnastics coach choreographed it and we spent about a month on it."
Chelsea thinks pageantry has helped her older sister Heather secure some modeling contracts, but Atwell believes it has helped all his daughters in ways they don't yet fully understand.
"It helps develop poise, and it helps them feel more at ease when speaking before a large group of people -- which isn't easy. Pageantry certainly helps a young person develop self confidence."
* But for every positive comment about youth pageantry, it seems there are two negatives ones.
"I believe that's because there's both a good and a bad side to the business," said Polly Peluso, a former Hollywood talent agent who contracted with Playboy Enterprises to secure modeling jobs for former playmates.
Peluso, who lives in Las Vegas, has been asked to judge local pageants, but has refused.
"On the good side, some of the children in these pageants learn not to be afraid. They also learn poise and manners," Peluso said. "After all, many veteran stars have come out of pageantry. One of them is Brooke Shields."
And on the bad side ...
"Some of these kids are devastated by these pageants. They never should be on a stage," Peluso said. "And some of these parents, they'll sacrifice anything to get their children into pageantry. They dress so scruffy and to see them next to their children in the pretty dresses, it can be so sad."
Other criticisms come from premier pageant organizations.
"We believe that youth time and resources are better spent enrolling in classes such as dance, music and karate as well as academic support and community service," said Bishop-Parise of the Miss Nevada organization. "We don't support pageantry until the contestant is a young woman who is searching for funding for college."
Hobbs, Mrs. USA 1994, said: "I have an almost 7-year-old daughter, and I wouldn't (register her in a youth pageant). I feel it's a decision a young woman should make on her own."
This might seem like heady talk from a representative of a teen pageant system, but Hobbs noted that contestants in the Miss Teen USA pageant must be at least 15 years old.
Christiane Le Bon, a former French beauty queen, international model and former coordinator for the state preliminary for the Miss Nevada USA pageant, also doesn't believe in youth pageantry.
"The problem is you're always going to have stage mothers," said Le Bon, who once operated the now-defunct Las Vegas finishing school Charm Unlimited. "I don't believe in pushing the kids, but the stage mother says you're going to do it. I wish they would let the little girls be little girls."
But Aldarete said in the Young American Stars pageant system, stage mothers are quickly identified and are not invited back.
Mary Tanaka, California state director of Young American Stars, said the primary goal of the organization is to help children.
"They give the kids the ability to be focused, to follow directions," she said. "When they're in the classroom and the teacher calls upon them, they much more readily stand up and speak their mind. This is especially beneficial for the girls because so often the teacher calls on the boys first -- even though the girl might know the answer."
Tanaka, who lives outside Anaheim, puts her beliefs into practice by entering her two grandchildren into Young American Stars pageants. At the recent state pageant at the Sahara, both 3-year-old Shawn Kullman and 18-month-old Jason Kullman advanced to the national finals.
But isn't it improper for a state director of a pageant to enter her own grandchildren?
"Oh, heavens no. My last name is Tanaka (and the children have a different last name). I don't know the judges, and I didn't meet the judges. I couldn't even tell you their names."
* Does pageantry really help children get their foot in the door of modeling studios and acting playhouses?
"It depends on the organization," Aldarete said. "I live in this town, and I've seen the companies that come in here to hustle. And they don't give a damn about Vegas people, and there are some parents who are easily manipulated because they don't have the facts."
Aldarete, 56, said she knows the hard facts of show business.
A former pop and torch singer who, under the name of Geri Michaels, opened for stars such as Jimmy Durante, Sophie Tucker, Jerry Vale and Jack Jones, Aldarete said she survived on the strength of her determination and her voice.
"When I was on the stage, they heard every note in the back of the theater," she said.
Today, Aldarete says she uses the same determination to further the confidence and careers of pageant contestants.
"I love the children, and to see them flash those big smiles that say, 'Just look what I did,' you know it's helping them to build confidence," she said, adding that because of her show business experience, she knows who to invite to her pageants.
"The casting directors are always looking for a kid with the right look and a great personality, and they come in for our national competitions," Aldarete said.
One Las Vegas chaperone who thinks that pageantry will help her niece go on to a career in show business is Lula Howard, whose 6-year-old niece, Jessica Marie Bass, was among the winners selected by the judges to advance to the national finals of the Young American Stars pageant.
With her perfectly coiffured hair, big brown eyes and bright smile, little Jessica Marie certainly looks like she could land a role in the next Disney movie.
"Jessica is very talented, and she's a very good girl," Howard said. "She sings in the choir. She has a beautiful voice. She goes to church. She's also learning to be a model."
But critics say the reality of youth pageantry is that many parents spend money they don't have in the vain hope that their children will be discovered by a talent agent and go on to a successful and lucrative career in entertainment.
"You have a better chance hitting Megabucks than you do getting your child in movies through pageantry," Baskow said.
While opinions about youth pageants differ as much as the hair styles of contestants, one thing practically everyone agrees upon is that pageantry is an American institution -- woven into the nation's fabric like embroidery along the hem of a gown.
Industry experts believe there are at least 300 national pageant systems, an almost threefold growth from a decade ago.
This means that practically every weekend, as the youth pageant industry continues to expand, little girls with styled hair and pixie grins and little boys in tot-sized tuxes are taking to stages in cities and towns across America.
* "Pageantry is a business. You don't give anything away unless you have some source of income. You wouldn't be calling me if you weren't getting paid," said Charles Dunn, publisher of Pageantry, a trade magazine based in Orland, Fla., with a circulation more than 100,000.
Like several other industry representatives, Dunn was a little reticent when telephoned by the SUN.
The reason, of course, was in the aftermath of JonBenet's murder he and other pageant officials endured a media feeding frenzy.
"All the media did was make money from that tragedy," said Carol Fleming, California state coordinator for the West Coast Finals of the Little Miss and Mister pageant, a division of Hawaiian Tropic International.
Fleming, who works in Sacramento, said the media used carefully chosen photos of JonBenet and suggestive headlines and captions to portray all children's pageants as exploitive.
"Did the pageants make any money because of that tragedy?" Fleming asked rhetorically. "No, People magazine did by selling magazines to a lot of people who are ignorant -- who have never been to one of our shows."
Dunn said the tragedy had nothing to do with "being a pageant person. It was just a hook for the media, and some of them did a horrible job of reporting. I was embarrassed by the news media. I really was."
Some of the headlines following the Ramsey murder: "In the strange world of children's beauty contests, tiny tots in pretty dresses mean big business"; "Looking sexy way beyond their years," and "Little girls in perilous times: Slaying of tiny beauty queen sparks debate over sexuality, abuse, growing up too fast."
"Sadly, ... the media tried to bring sex into everything," Dunn said. "It had nothing to do with a pageant."
Fleming said one fact that's hardly been mentioned by the media in its coverage of the JonBenet tragedy is that children's pageants assist needy organizations.
"A lot of our shows benefit Toys for Tots," she said.
Vollman explained that national and international Cinderella contestants are required to volunteer their services to a charity or worthwhile organization such as a local hospital or a senior center.
For a while, Dunn, Fleming, Vollman and others in the industry feared the publicity surrounding the tragedy would spell an end to the youth pageantry industry. But, a few months after the murder, the stories started to disappear, and children's pageants started to become more and more popular.
"There's been a resurgence, and they continue to grow," Dunn said. "I think it's because the word is getting out about the prizes -- some of them are phenomenal," Dunn said. "Miss America gives out about $40 million in scholarships to contestants."
About the Miss America pageant, Dunn is not far off. National corporate sponsors made available $32 million in scholarships for women in 1997.
But critics point out that the Miss America Organization is much different from most other pageants that promise expensive gifts, scholarships or cash awards, when in reality only a small percentage of participants actually walk away with anything valuable.
"Most of the contestants get a trophy. And for that they spend thousands," Baskow said. "Hey, I'll give them a trophy for free."
Others in the industry believe the old axiom that "there's no such thing as bad publicity," and the media's treatment of the JonBenet tragedy served to inform much of middle America about the existence of pageants for children.
"Calls on our contestant hotline doubled after all that publicity, and a lot of people told me they wanted to know how to get started (in pageantry)," said Mike Maki, president of EPIC International Associates of Beaverton, Ore., which represents pageant judges, directors, contestants and vendors.
A generation ago, pageants flourished mostly throughout the South and the Southwest, Maki said. But today, they are nationwide. And all of a sudden pageants are big business.
"It's a $5 billion industry," Maki said. "Think about the money that's spent on costumes, shoes, travel and meals. The list goes on and on."
Maki strongly disagrees with critics who say youth pageantry benefits only the organizers.
"I think it comes down to two things," Maki said. "First, pageantry is a stepping stone for people looking for a way to get into modeling or a movie career. Take, for example Halle Berry and Vanessa Williams. Both came out of the pageantry system. The other thing is the prizes."
Vollman explained that he's heard the criticisms that children who enter beauty pageants would be better off devoting their time to other activities. But the Cinderella international organization does exactly that.
"The good thing about our organization is that it encourages kids to develop their talents through dance, music and poetry recitals," Vollman said. "You see, the emphasis today is not on beauty. It's on talent."
* Is it exploitive to enter a child in a beauty pageant?
"There's never been a study that showed there was any harm to a child from pageantry," Maki said. "I know some psychologists who actually run pageants."
Efforts to find psychologists who have actually conducted child pageants were unsuccessful. But some of those who are not in the pageant business have strong feelings about the subject.
Rosalynd Munson, a former Hollywood child model and actress who today is a Las Vegas marriage and family therapist, said she does not believe children should be in pageants.
"I'm not in favor of it until the child is 10 years old," Munson said. "Pageantry should be something you work up to. When the child is very young, what the child is being trained to do is win, win, win, and this can have a marked effect later on."
Speaking from personal experience, Munson said she believes many parents "are meeting their own needs" by putting their children in beauty pageants.
Norman Gould, a Las Vegas clinical psychologist, said pageantry can affect a child in positive or negative ways.
"It can work in a positive way in terms of lifting the child's self-esteem, but when carried too far, the child could grow up to be a narcissistic person and live in an artificial world," Gould said.
Finally, Robert Horne, a Las Vegas psychiatrist and past president of the Nevada Psychiatric Association, said youth pageant competition can be as good or as bad for the child as the parent makes it.
"As long as the parent is sensitive to the child's desires and doesn't push the child, it can be a very positive experience," Horne said. "In the same way that parents may be into ice skating, ballet and tennis, they should be sensitive to the child's desires, talents and assets."
Fleming said there has never been any evidence that pageant children are harmed in any way -- and she wishes this were true with other children's organizations.
"They're saying we exploit and take advantage of these kids. Where do they get off?" Fleming asked. "There's never been anything to support allegations of abuse of children who enter pageants. But in every other organization from church to schools to the Boy Scouts, there have been (abuses)."
Ruben Rodriguez, director of the exploited child unit of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington, D.C., confirmed that there is no research to support allegations of abuse of children in pageantry.
"We're always looking at the issue of child victimization and no studies have come across my desk," Rodriguez said.
Maki also pointed out that only a small percentage allow young girls to wear a lot of makeup, as JonBonet did when she won the 1995 Little Miss Colorado pageant.
"In most of the pageants you're downgraded for wearing too much make-up or for dressing like an adult," Maki said. "They like the contestants to be age-appropriate."
These criteria are used by judges of Little Miss and Mister pageants, which accept girls and boys as young as infants.
"Contestants are judged on natural beauty, with an emphasis on facial beauty," Fleming said. "Excessive makeup is not recommended or necessary. Remember, this is a children's pageant."
Dunn believes pageantry is not unlike any other children's activity in that the candidates who succeed are generally those who get an early start.
"You generally won't find an ice skater who wins a gold medal unless she starts competing at an early age," Dunn said. "It's the same with gymnastics, and I would dare to say it's the same with pageantry."
* Among the critics of youth pageants are researchers and former beauty queens who question the workings behind the entire pageant industry.
"I think it's a shame that a kind of cultural endorsement is put on beauty pageants by rewarding the winner with college scholarships," said Ellen Rose, director of women's studies at UNLV. "As if there were any intrinsic connection between your body proportions and your intellectual abilities or ambitions."
Rose said all the talk of talent competition in pageantry is just so much window dressing.
"We all know what's being judged is appearance. I don't think anyone has ever won a pageant because of talent," Rose said.
While some boys enter children's pageants, industry experts acknowledge that they are greatly outnumbered by the female contestants. And as the contestants get older, the percentage of boys greatly decreases.
Researchers say there is a reason for this.
It's because pageantry is merely an application of Western society's outlook on women.
Barbara Brents, a UNLV professor of sociology, said not just beauty pageant judges but most people tend to judge women by particular standards. And the three things that matter most are youth, beauty and slenderness.
"Models are thinner today -- much thinner," said Brents, who explained that 20 years ago models were 8 percent thinner than the average woman. Today they're 23 percent thinner.
"They're also younger," Brents said. "Look at the Calvin Klein advertisements. And consider the effect. Look at how many people get plastic surgery."
Brents said she doesn't want to put down the pageantry industry "because we judge by particular standards ... and the pageants measure those standards. But the problem with pageants is when they promote a singular view of what a good woman should be."
One former beauty queen who looks more warily at pageantry today is Jackie Brett, domestic tour and travel manager with the Nevada Commission on Tourism.
"I was the St. Patrick's Day Queen for the City of Chicago, but I ain't telling the year," Brett said with a smile.
A former model, actress and pageant judge, Brett has known countless others whose beautiful smiles have helped them earn a living in modeling and entertainment over the years.
"Once I knew a singer-actress who ended up in a show in Las Vegas," Brett said. "She was a beautiful girl, and she said something to me once that I'll never forget: 'I didn't get my quota of compliments today.'"
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