Atlantic City hopes there's no place like home for Miss America Pageant

SEVEN YEARS after Miss America hightailed it to Las Vegas, the mother (or is that big sister?) of all beauty pageants is back from whence she came.

Of course, you'll be pummeled with a stiletto heel by a Miss America Organization staffer if you actually describe the 92-year-old extravaganza as a "beauty pageant." It is, as MAO types are always reminding us, a "scholarship program," albeit one whose winners' attractiveness can be considered well above the national average.

But there's no denying that the pageant was conceived in 1921 (no doubt with the blessing of vice lord Enoch "Nucky" Johnson) strictly as a beauty pageant, and that it inspired everything that came after it, from Miss Universe to Miss Hawaiian Tropic.

The homecoming comes at a surprisingly reasonable price. In return for staging the pageant at Boardwalk Hall for the next three years, the MAO, which has remained headquartered in the Atlantic City suburb of Linwood, received $7.3 million, all of it from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA), which is funded by tax revenue from the 12 casinos. Compared with what it costs cities to stage a single Super Bowl or presidential nominating convention, that is pretty much chump change.

It's almost beside the point that Miss America 2014 will be crowned late Sunday evening in front of thousands inside another AyCee touchstone from the Prohibition Era, Boardwalk Hall, and millions more watching on 6ABC (the telecast is back from the wilderness of basic cable). For as high as the stakes are for the 53 young women in this year's competition (they represent all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands), this year's event is far more crucial to its host.

"No matter how successful we will be in repositioning Atlantic City for the future, if Miss America didn't come back, people would say, 'You did a great job, but Miss America didn't come back,' " reasoned Jeff Guaracino, chief strategy officer at the Atlantic City Alliance, the casino-industry-funded marketing entity that played a major role in bringing back Miss A.

Guaracino also pointed out that the beleaguered seaside resort is getting a potent "feel good" shot thanks to the homecoming.

"Civic pride, that's what's really being talked about here," he said. "It's really part of the DNA here. It's like the Eagles being a part of Philadelphia. The real big win has been how proud people are that it's back."

That's nice, but civic pride doesn't pay the bills, does it? Au contraire, insisted Guaracino, who compared the spectacle's return to the Phillies' magical "Red October" of 2008 that resulted in a parade down Broad Street.

He recalled how the region was blanketed with people wearing team gear or displaying the team's "P" logo on their cars and homes. All that signaled "a sense of a brighter step for the city, and that's what's happening here," he insisted. "It does indirectly pay the bills."

And so will the temporary local jobs created in order to bring the pageant to life Sunday night, he said.

Perhaps the biggest return on the investment will come in the form of positive media attention for a town that has, for years, mostly been portrayed as dying a slow death due to competition for gambling dollars from neighboring states.

Sunday's telecast will kick off with an eight-minute segment introducing the contestants. They were taped last week at various local landmarks, like White House Subs and Gardner's Basin.

During this week's run-up to the finals, 6ABC will air promos hyping Sunday's broadcast. Miss America, and Atlantic City, will get network attention on such shows as "20/20" and "Good Morning America." Scores of print, broadcast and Internet reporters are in town. Shows like "Access Hollywood" will provide coverage that should paint the town in a positive light.

In other words, Atlantic City's financial troubles won't be the focus here.

"They're going to be broadcasting from the red carpet off the Boardwalk," Guaracino said. "They're going to show the very, very best of what Atlantic City has to offer."

Miss America was conceived as a way to extend the Atlantic City vacation season beyond Labor Day. Nine decades later, nothing's changed. Whether hotels benefit remains to be seen. Results will likely be skewed because the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur is this weekend.

An online survey yesterday of all 12 casino-hotels found only four that were sold out: Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, Revel Casino Hotel, Trump Plaza (which is physically connected to Boardwalk Hall) and Trump Taj Mahal. Prices for a standard room at the others ranged from $263.20 at Harrah's Resort Atlantic City to $495 at Caesars Atlantic City.