Fifty Wonderful Years

Fifty Wonderful Years provides a behind-the-scenes look at the 1973 Miss California Pageant. In the early '70s beauty pageants across the country came under fire from feminists who targeted them as spectacles that exploited women. Avoiding an overtly pejorative position, Fifty Wonderful Years lets the pageant organizers and contestants hang themselves. This video was one of the first documentaries shot on 1/2" open reel equipment to be broadcast on television. KQED, San Francisco "image-buffed" (rescanned it off of a monitor) the tape to maximize its signal stability.

This title is only available on Surveying the First Decade: Volume 2.