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When emcee Dick Clark announced
Charlotte Lopez as winner of the 1993 Miss Teen USA Pageant,
her sister, who was watching the telecast at home, began screaming
so loudly that a frightened neighbor called the police. Officers
raced to the scene to investigate the crowning "crime."
In 1970, when the Miss America
Pageant celebrated its 50th anniversary, officials ordered a
specially-manufactured golden crown. During the telecast,
Phyllis George, Miss Texas, was named that year's winner.
Unaware
that the new winner was wearing a hairpiece, the retiring queen,
Pamela Eldred, discovered that the crown's hairpins would not
penetrate Phyllis' "hair." When producers urgently
signaled her to rush the crowning, Pamela nudged Phyllis toward
the runway for her victory walk.
Phyllis nodded toward the judges,
sending the crown crashing to the floor, splattering rhinestones.
Phyllis picked it up and carried it, making her the only winner
to drop her crown on live television. "It would have to
happen to me," she later exclaimed. "My big moment.
I’ve won Miss America, and my crown is in my hand!"
 When Diane Sawyer competed in
the America's Junior Miss Pageant, several judges considered
her too serious and sophisticated to serve as a teen titleholder.
Then, a silly stroke of luck changed their minds--and the course
of the crown. During rehearsals, nearsighted Diane walked headfirst
into a metal post in front of the judges and dissolved into girlish
giggles.
Charmed by Sawyer's silly side, several judges changed
their votes in her favor. That night she was named 1963 America's
Junior Miss.
Soviet Salute... During the
Moscow Beauty '88 contest, celebrating Soviet reforms, Maria
Kalinina was chosen as the first-ever Muscovite beauty queen.
The communist stage crew --unaccustomed to parades of pulchritude--
couldn't take their eyes off the sexy winner.
As she was being
crowned, one fellow in charge of lightly sprinkling the new queen
with long-stemmed flowers from an overhead bin, was so distracted
that he accidentally dumped the entire load of flowers on her,
knocking the crown off her head and causing the poor girl to
duck for cover.
 In 1967, Bert Parks got
over-enthusiastic while singing There She is, Miss America to the new Miss
America, Debra Barnes, of Kansas, and yanked out the microphone cord.
Unaware of the mishap, the emcee continued to bellow into a dead microphone,
giving the first "mime" rendition of the famous song.
As detailed in Miss America:
In Pursuit of the Crown, Bert recalled, "The audience in Convention Hall
never saw it because they were in an uproar at that point--but it sure was a
funny sight to see on camera!"
When Parks got back to
his hotel room that night, his wife, Annette, got a call from a southern
fan. "MizParks," he drawled, "How come your husband sang that song for
the rest of the country and not for us folks down heah?
When Mrs. New Jersey heard her
name announced as Mrs. America 1952, she passed out cold on-stage.
It took panicked pageant officials several minutes to revive
her.
Sources: Atlantic City Magazine,
Glamour, Miami Herald, Miss America Cookbook (Rutlege Hill Press),
Miss America: In Pursuit of the Crown (MasterMedia), People,
Press of Atlantic City, Union News, Tropic, TV Guide
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