Beauty pageants of old

Maybe because the Philippine delegates — save for Precious Lara Quigaman, who won Miss International in 2005 — had long been losing in pageants abroad, the interest of Pinoys in beauty contests had waned considerably.

This wasn’t the case in the ’70s and ’80s when beauty contests were big special events on television. Tats Rejante and Johnny Manahan (who eventually became her husband) had a monopoly of these pageants as writer and director. Oh, they did them all: Binibining Pilipinas provincial searches, pre-pageant and grand finals, Mutya ng Pilipinas, Miss Asia Quest, Miss Republic of the Philippines, Mrs. Republic of the Philippines (the winner became chaperone of Miss RP in the Miss World contest in London), Miss Magnolia, Miss Chinatown, Miss Philippine Press Photography, Miss Red Cross — everything except for Miss Easter Lily. “Yes, there was a Miss Easter Lily and we were upset that it got past us. What — we’re not doing Miss Easter Lily?” she laughs at the recollection.

Most enjoyable for her was Miss Chinatown — if only for the abundance of food during rehearsals and meetings: Rice toppings, siopao and dimsum galore.

Tats still remembers some of the beauty contestants and became friends with most of them. “The late Rio Diaz was a brat (she was only 17 then), but I liked her a lot. Although she was the shortest candidate, she was the smartest and I knew she would make it (Rio was crowned 1977 Mutya ng Pilipinas and placed fifth in Miss Asia weeks later). She had the Diaz sense of humor and it was her personality that saw her through,” recalls Tats.

Another beauty pageant contestant she remembers was Geraldine Bonnevie, who later became Dina Bonnevie of local movies. “She was shy, but already very pretty even then and was a standout,” remembers Tats. Geraldine Bonnevie emerged second to another Geraldine — Geraldine “Din Din” Lopez who eventually won the 1979 Miss Magnolia contest.

Among the pageant hosts, she considers the late Eddie Mercado to be one of the best, if not the best. “He puts everyone at ease,” Tats says. June Keithley, in her book, was also the perfect host “because she could think on her feet.” Most interesting was Ariel Ureta “because no one knew what he was going to say next.”

Tats also had the chance to work with Bert Parks, who hosted Miss America for the longest time — until it was deemed by pageant organizers that he was too old for the job. Ironically, the same year he was retired in America for geriatric reasons, he was invited to host a pageant for young women called the Miss Young International when it was first held on Philippine soil in 1980. Unfortunately, Tats doesn’t exactly have fond memories of Bert Parks, who was “nasty, condescending and occasionally gave side remarks about the Filipinos.”

The international pageant organizers, however, were all praises for the local television team that was tapped to work with the American crew. Aside from Tats, the Philippine TV staff also included Leo Rialp, Gerry Guillen (Laurice’s sister) and Ryan Cayabyab. The Americans were also impressed with the fact that the local crew was made up of very young people. The following year, Parks was finally retired and was replaced by Mercado, who did a fantastic job hosting the last ever Miss Young International search.

Like any live TV coverage, running beauty contests can be stressful for the production crew. The fun part for them only comes in the end — when everyone had gone home, except for the staff. Backstage, everyone — especially the boys — would clown around and pretend to be beauty contest winners by wearing the crown, the sash and the cape. That must be some great stress-buster after all the hard work and pressure they’ve gone through during the pageant season.

Tats Rejante-Manahan is now away from the hassles of TV work and had moved on to surface design and decoration, which she studied in San Francisco and in Venice. Today, she works on the interiors of hotels, private homes and even does restoration projects as part of her effort to help restore historic Filipino landmarks.

I’ve been fortunate to have a Tats Manahan work on my house after it was wrecked by Typhoon Milenyo and I have to say that I am very happy and completely satisfied with what she had done to my interiors. Modesty aside, it’s a beauty. It’s like living in a house with Miss Universe everyday.