The Show is UP: RIP Miss America '43

I was really thrown when I learned yesterday that former Vegas headliner Jean Bartel, the groundbreaking Miss America 1943, died on Sunday at 87. I had interviewed her for my column only six weeks ago! We had a lovely, insightful conversation, so I thought I'd play it on this week's show in her memory. Enjoy. As always, you can click on the date below to get it to play or right-click on it to download it to listen at your leisure. Or, of course, subscribe for free in iTunes or Zune. -sf

March 7: There She Was, Miss America

Less than two months ago, Miss America 1943 Jean Bartel was in Las Vegas for the pageant’s 90th anniversary celebration. She was the oldest living winner of the pageant and she had played the Strip as a singer at Bugsy Siegel’s Flamingo back in the day. Steve interviewed her for his Jan. 19 column for the Las Vegas Weekly, and she sounded hale and hearty then. But on March 6, she died at the age of 87, so we remember her by playing Bartel’s final interview. In it, she offers her recollections as a groundbreaking Miss America who led the charge to create the scholarship program that is now its hallmark. Bartel also was the first Miss America to go to college, sold the most bonds in 1943 to support the World War II and even helped the US with some espionage work during the Cold War. During this conversation, she tells of hanging out with Danny Thomas at the Flamingo, reveals that her crown is on display at the Smithsonian and recalls Beth Myerson, Vanessa Williams and many other former beauty queens.In Banter: A Provo adventure, a word about cousin Paul Stanley, Ruffin doubts on the Cosmo, Caesars takes Fontainbleau’s castoff show and more.

Links to Stuff Discussed:

Steve’s Jean Bartel column and her LA Times obituary
Follow Rod Schiffman on Twitter
Caesars Palace is turning a tower over to Nobu
Watch Phil Ruffin's 3/7 appearance on Sam Shad's Nevada Newsmakers program
The latest on Charlie Palmer’s hotel in downtown Vegas
Terry Fator’s gay puppet debuts on George Lopez show
VegasHappensHere.Com on the similarities between Fator’s cougar puppet and Lucy the Slut from Avenue Q
Steve’s Vegas pool reviewfor the LA Times
Report from Reuters on suicide at Cosmopolitan
Chuck Monster’s Vegas Tripping rant about his latest Cosmo misery
VegasHappensHere.Com, AOL News and the Las Vegas Weekly about the Las Vegas Mob Experience at the Trop
MGM Resorts’ press release extending health benefits for transgender care
VegasHappensHere.Com on the Vdara Kwik-E-Mart
Absinthe show opening March 21 outside Caesars
Steve’s AFP piece on Teresa Scanlan’s Miss America 2011 triumph

Miss America Stomps Miss USA In TV Ratings

Norm Clarke reported this morning that the Miss America pageant netted 6.6 million viewers on ABC on Saturday and declared it a success because that's a 47 percent uptick from the 2010 pageant's 4.5 million viewers in the first-run on the cable network TLC.

That seemed like spin to me because 6.6 million viewers is really not that great for network TV and at least on TLC the pageant enjoyed reruns that garnered even more viewers after the fact.

Then I went to compare apples to apples for quite a surprise: The Miss USA in 2010 broadcast on NBC drew just 5.25 million viewers in May and that was up 5% from 2009. And that's the pageant that all the tabloids adore because there's always a stray pole dancer or mini-Palin in the running. (The winner, 17-year-old Teresa Scanlan, a religious kid from small-town Nebraska who said she'd like to be president and thinks Wikileaks involves "espionage," is already being analyzed for her potential Palinistic attributes.)

Seeing how the media narrative leading up to Saturday's event involved the Miss America v Miss USA storyline -- with now-former Miss America Caressa Cameron snarking to me for AOL News that she'd never "heard anyone say she wanted to grow up to be Miss USA" -- the Miss America gang can be rightfully pleased.

I had a surprisingly good time covering this thing for Agence France-Presse on Saturday and offering a fun barb here and there via Twitter. It's not something I ever cared about before even though my own sister once won Miss Pee Wee New York or some-such and got to compete in some Miss America event in Atlantic City when she was an unbelievably cute 3-year-old. I've been friends with many gays who make Miss America a major, major thing and, in fact, that crowd certainly set Planet Hollywood aflame on Saturday.

I think it was most fun because I was seated besides Nebraska native Cara Roberts, Norm's other half, and behind a particularly jolly Robin Leach who was Tweeting via iPad. I had picked up a big bag of Jelly Bellys before the show and shared, which couldn't have hurt. I'm not sure Cara had really had them before because she was marveling at the buttered-popcorn flavor. Jelly Belly veterans know us from some buttered-popcorn beans.

Also, despite our recent scrums, Robin was incredibly friendly to me and even tried to let me access the Web via his Myfi card when my iPhone was, predictably, not cooperating. And he wasn't even in it for the Jelly Bellys, which he declined.

I'm hopeful I'll have an awesome Vegas-related Miss America column this week for the Weekly on a topic nobody else caught. It really depends on whether I can reach the one I want to speak to on Tuesday.

New "The Strip" Episode Up - Vegas' Magician March Madness

The latest episode of "The Strip" is up with lengthy discussion of our wedding, honeymoon and reaction to one homophobic -- but evidently devoted -- listener. Also, there's a fun interview with Lance Burton on the spate of new magic shows that are opening or have been announced for The Strip. Lance also discusses his own involvement in the dualing magician flick "The Prestige" starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. Plus, we discuss Legoland Vegas, the Grand Canyon Skywalk and the news that Miss America lost its TV contract yet again.

Listen by clicking here -- or right-click here to download the file and listen to it at your leisure.