Eat your heart out, Shreveport!

Gary Indiana Gary Indiana Gary Indiana

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Gary hangs its hopes for a new image on Miss USA

By Mike Conklin ChicagoTribune January 4, 2001

The city of Gary has never lacked for a distinct public image, what with the slag heaps, glowing steel mills and even a song that percolated through the musical "The Music Man."

But even its most loyal residents might snort at the idea that the stolid, gray Rust Belt burg would ever be associated with—take a deep breath—ravishing beauty.

In a mighty, perhaps futile and certainly incongruous effort to powder its public profile, Gary officials excitedly are gearing up to announce details Thursday in Chicago about importing 51 bathing-suit clad candidates for the 50th Miss USA pageant—the runway to being chosen the prettiest woman in the world, Miss Universe.

It's an event that will draw dozens of state pageant winners, not to scenic ocean shores for those famous photo ops but to a town associated with billowing smoke and a murder rate that was once the highest in the country.

"This should be great for our image because we haven't had the most spectacular one lately. We can show visitors the reality of Gary," said Ben Clement, director of the city's Economic Development Department. "We're going to roll out the red carpet."

This will be the first of three years the Miss USA finals will be held in Gary, in the downtown Genesis Convention Center.

Mayor Scott King said he appreciates the potential for good publicity, noting that even some northwest Indiana residents "haven't set foot in our downtown in 20 to 25 years."

Up to 12 minutes of promotional spots, which have been shot in the city in the last six months, will be aired during the live two-hour show on CBS-TV March 2.

"This gives us a chance to redefine ourselves on an international level," said King, noting Gary doesn't enjoy a reputation as a destination city. "Whenever someone like the BBC called in the past for an interview, it usually wasn't something that was good news.

"Even when the local media would come here for something good, they always seem to finish by shooting footage in front of an abandoned building in downtown. Now it'll be delightful to be appealing to some of those same audiences with positive stories."

While city officials see the event as a potential boon to its economy, not everyone is convinced.

Take Lucy Bravo, whose Los Tacos Bravo's Mexican-American restaurant is across the street from the Genesis Center. Her eatery caters to the nearby City Hall and courthouse crowd and a modest array of nearby small businesses. She sees the event being as self-contained as possible and most likely "will have food brought in."

"Who knows if it will help us," Bravo said. "I'm always happy to get more business, but we'll have to wait and see."

In an effort to get a maximum boost for the economy, nearly 30 days of festivities are planned leading up to the pageant, officials said. A Miss USA representative said the contestants will begin reporting Feb. 14 for promotional appearances, many of which will be in Chicago. This is the 50th anniversary of the event, which split in 1951 from the better-known Atlantic City-based Miss America show.

Donald Trump, whose riverboat casino is one of the community's dominant economic forces, is a majority owner of the Miss USA pageant and has CBS-TV as a partner. The hotel at his casino will house some delegates and contestants. Others with the pageant will stay in Merrillville. Gary lost its main downtown hotel years ago.

Miss USA spokeswoman Theresa Breyer said it was "not a priority" that the pageant is in the same town as Trump's casino. Past locations have been Branson, Mo.; Shreveport, La.; South Padre Island, Texas; Mobile, Ala.; Wichita, Kan.; and Miami.

The current Miss Illinois, Rebecca Ambrosi, said she's excited that the event will be so close to her home but could only recall being in Gary to visit the riverboats. Ambrosi won the state contest last year on her fifth try. A Libertyville High School alum, she graduated from DePaul University in 1998, lives in Lincoln Park and is taking acting classes at Second City.

"All my friends and relatives are thrilled it's in Gary because it's so near and they can all come to the finals," she said. "I'll be able to do a lot of appearances close by too."

City officials likened the event to a convention rather than a pageant, saying more than 300 Miss USA staffers and media will be housed in the hotels for nearly three weeks. The city also has a merchandising agreement with the event, allowing it to sell T-shirts and other souvenirs.

"We realize that when people leave here, they're going to want to go with something that has the name of the city on it," Clement said. "We're going to offer a wide range of items."

The pageant is the second good thing to come to the Genesis this winter: The Gary Steelheads, an expansion team in the pro Continental Basketball Association minor league, began play there this season. A schedule hangs on a wall at Los Tacos Bravo's.

The mayor said a $2 million "streetscaping" is on the drawing board for downtown Gary. King noted there also is serious talk of building a stadium to house a minor league baseball team.

Even the crime rate is down, the mayor said. In 1995 Gary had the highest per capita murder rate in the U.S., when 132 homicides occurred. That number has gone down each year since then and in 2000 dropped to 66, he said.

"Gary is a work in progress, no doubt about it," King said. "I've got a lot of people I don't know telling me how close we've been all these years and, 'Oh, by the way, can you get some tickets for me.' For years we've had people lamenting nothing was happening here, but now things are starting to happen."

The timing definitely has been good for Oret Spencer, a Jamaican-born owner of the Caribbean Flava restaurant two blocks from the Genesis Center. He opened just four months ago.

"I think [the pageant] is wonderful," Spencer said. "Here, we've had nothing like this before. Maybe new businesses will come to Gary. Gary is a beautiful place."

Freelance writer Mary Wilds contributed to this report.

-- Lars (lars@yahoo.com), January 04, 2001

Answers

"Gary is a beautiful place"

Larsie, you need to get out more.

-- (who_let_the_dogs_out@who.who), January 04, 2001.