The Miss America parade is getting a television-friendly makeover as the tradition returns to Atlantic City in September for the first time in nine years.
The Sept. 14 parade will be televised live for the first time, Miss America Organization CEO Sam Haskell told The Associated Press on Monday. It's scheduled to air live on WPVI-TV, the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, and again the next day as part of the lead-in for the Sept. 15 pageant finals, which will be shown on ABC nationally.
"We're supersizing the parade," Haskell said. "We're supersizing the telecast."
Some local groups have complained about the cost of getting a float in the parade this year — at least $2,000 compared with $200 in 2004, the last time it was held.
Haskell said higher fees will help pay for a more spectacular event designed to show off Atlantic City.
The parade on the boardwalk harks back to the roots of Miss America, when the pageant launched in 1921 as a way to drum up business for the shore resort after Labor Day.
The pageant is getting reacquainted with fans shouting "Show us your shoes!" to the contestants in convertibles, among other traditions, when it comes back to Atlantic City.
It's not clear exactly how long parade-goers have been shouting to the women. But Haskell said that since at least the early 1990s, the women have elaborately decorated their shoes — Miss Maine's have often had lobsters on theirs, and you can count on Miss Texas wearing cowboy boots — and obliging by displaying them proudly.
