The 1963 America’s Junior Miss Pageant is the subject of this color film. The film opens with 1962 pageant winner Jean Allen (mark 00:25) who calmly explains that the pageant “is the search for the ideal high school senior in the nation” and details the various competitions leading up to the Junior Miss Pageant as scenes from her competition are shown. After being crowned, Allen recounts her world wind year as Junior Miss starting at mark 02:25 with a montage of scenes from parades and personal appearances. (Interestingly, the pageant at this time did not appear to have any girls of color in the finals. It would not be until 1974 that an African American girl made it to Mobile.)
As Allen reminds the viewer, however, “we’re not here to talk about me” but rather the 1963 pageant as contestants arrive at a Mobile, Alabama airport for the competition (03:39) amidst pomp and circumstance. Among the participants, “Kentucky’s lovely Diane Sawyer” (mark 05:15). The film shows the girls as house guests of Mobile residents and site seeing including a trip to the Bellingrath Gardens (mark 07:30) where they are treated as celebrities. They participate in a pageant parade, submit to interviews, pose for photos, and prepare for the actual pageant. Allen continues her narration as we watch the first of three preliminary competitions (mark 13:11) including seeing individual talents including a Russian dance by Miss Alaska, a flute solo by Miss North Dakota, and a song-and-twirling-flaming-baton act by Miss Mississippi (mark 16:06). By mark 17:07 the field had been narrowed down to eight finalists “and tonight one of them will be touched by magic” says Allen. We again see Sawyer at mark 18:50 as she sings a medley during the talent portion. Allen appears at the competition to address the crowd at mark 22:06 before Miss Kentucky — Diane Sawyer — is crowned America’s Junior Miss 1963 (mark 24:45). Sawyer and Allen join each other in film’s clothing minutes starting at mark 26:25 as they reminisce about “all the happy funny things we did together.”
Incidentally, Sawyer is “that” Diane Sawyer, who used her pageant scholarship money to attend Wellesley College and later became a press aide to President Richard Nixon before switching to journalism and working for ABC where she became co-anchor of Good Morning America, anchor of PrimeTime Live and 20/20, and host of the network’s World News broadcast.
America’s Junior Miss is now known as Distinguished Young Women.
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