“Show Us More Shoes”

Geoff’s Page: Show us more shoes!!

Location: Atlantic City’s Boardwalk

Dateline: August 30, 2013

 

AC History – 101 – We Were There: Part 2

Last week I wrote about the gay origins of the ‘Show us your Shoes’ catchphrase heard up and down the boardwalk during the Miss America Parade.

An excerpt from that column:

The official DO AC Facebook page puts forth the following:

ABOUT SHOW US YOUR SHOES PARADE

Since 1921, the Show Us Your Shoes Parade has been an opportunity for Miss America contestants to display their creative side to the public by decorating their shoes to match their unique personalities. And now, this is your opportunity to display your creativity too!

That column also told the background story of the gay community’s origin of the phrase in the 70’s on a New York Avenue balcony fronting the boardwalk in the then thriving gay district!

The power of social media often beats the power of advertising. But, this isn’t about power, it’s about Atlantic City history and gay history and merging the two where they belong. And that’s where Part two of this story begins:

So many of you have shared so much I thought I’d share again:

On Tuesday I received an email from with one statement and this link:

The sender’s only statement: They white wash the truth.

Also in this email was this link where one can read:

Show Us Your Shoes Parade

One of the most popular and beloved traditions in Miss America Pageant history is also returning: the Show us Your Shoes Parade. Although the exact origin seems to be debatable, most accounts agree that it began in the 1970s and was related to individuals on a hotel balcony overlooking the parade route. From that viewpoint they noticed that some of the contestants riding in the convertibles wore casual footwear or no footwear at all. “Show us your shoes” started as a teasing refrain and quickly caught on.

Tuesday brought another link from a 1986 article printed in Washington State in The Spokesman Review – Spokane Chronicle dated September 13, 1986.

The Spokane headline reads: Gay crowd cries out: Show us your shoes

Information continued to arrive: a New York newsletter dated 2002 about Miss America

The newsletter reads:

The “Show Us Your Shoes” tradition was started in the early 1970s. Drag queens dressed like Miss America were in balconies overlooking the boardwalk. Being above the contestants, they could see many of them were wearing slippers or were barefooted under their gowns. Seeing this, they began shouting, “Show Us Your Shoes!” Playing along, the contestants began raising their feet to show everyone at ground level their lack of proper foot covering. This traditional has grown to be an integral part of the Boardwalk Parade.

Still another link is to a book:

Page 106 of “Live from Atlantic City- A History of the Miss America Pageant” by Armando Riverol: “’Show us your shoes’ began in the late 1970’s. According to Virginia Mann, writing in The Record (New Jersey), this started in 1978. Because of their vantage point, seventeen men watching the parade from a hotel balcony could look into the cars driving by. They noticed what ground level audiences could not see. Some contestants were wearing slippers. They shouted: ‘Show us your shoes’”.

There is another variation to how this tradition started. During the parades of the 1970’s, a local transvestite, called Tinsel Garland, would crash the parade rank and files dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. The crowd would yell out, ‘Show us your shoes, as in ruby red slippers. Tinsel Garland stopped crashing the parades, but the tradition stuck. Each year, the gay bars along New York Avenue throw ‘show us your shoes’ parties. As the contestants ride by New York Avenue, the revelers cry, ‘Show us your shoes.’ Miss America contestants lift their gowns to show ski boots, bedroom slippers, fins, and other types of shoes.

The contestant that refuses to show her shoes gets booed and jeered at by the crowd.”

Whether it was 17 men on a balcony, Tinsel Garland, the different names mentioned on Facebook, or whomever, the only considerable conclusion is what we already know – it’s part of Atlantic City’s gay history and it seems the rest of the world knows this too.

When I asked Robert ‘Sandy Beach’ Hitchen his knowledge of Tinsel, he wrote back:

Yes, David Watts (Tinsel) was part of the group..Treetop, Tinsel, and myself were all in a show together at the Brass rail. In later years Tinsel dressed as Glinda at the parade…..years later- 1982 - I got to ride on the Golden Nugget float……when we hit New York Ave..the Queens went nuts as one of the shouters was now showing his shoes! 1989 I went to work for a Design company and built and came up with concepts for Parade floats….fun times!

Today I share a personal memory from 1984’s pageant and parade:

The September,1984 issue of Penthouse Magazine published nude photos of reigning Miss America Vanessa Williams. Al Marks, a former local director of the pageant, called for, and received her resignation whereby New Jersey’s own 1st runner up Suzette Charles was crowned Miss America.

The night before the scandal hit, I had the pleasure of seeing Miss Williams perform in a then yearly show for the service clubs and Atlantic City locals as a thank you. Even though Vanessa knew her resignation would be announced the following day (we didn’t), her performance was stellar. She adhered to the old show biz adage – The show must go on. In fact, the above mentioned book states this “bad publicity” increased ticket sales 20% that year.

Also through my AC Rotary club I was a volunteer usher at the parade. I was the youngest member of our club by 8 years. The next group of ‘older guys’ were in their 30’s having gotten too old for the Jaycees. Most club members were 50 and up.

When the girls went by my station on Texas Avenue, I heard one of my fellow Rotarians, an usher for close to 40 years, ask his peer: “What’s with the ‘show us your shoes’”? The answer: “It’s from the gays.”

Rotarians don’t lie.

So, let’s show them our Pride by supporting the parade and remembering where it began!! They can’t take that away from us!!

See you at the parade – I’ll be in sandals.

For those of you who missed last week’s Geoff’s Page, click here.

(These pictures of the back bay of Atlantic City at night taken by Geoff Rosenberger show a multitude of colors)

 

 

 

Email Geoff at: geoffrosenberger@comcast.net

Cell: 609-385-7585