Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 15, 1995                   TAG: 9507170062
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SHANNON D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THAT'S WHY IT'S CALLED A BEAUTY PAGEANT

It doesn't take a Phi Beta Kappa to figure this one out: Men want to see swimsuits in the Miss America Pageant.

And women do, too, it turns out.

A production crew from Jeff Margolis Productions of Los Angeles made a stop Friday in Roanoke, site of the Miss Virginia Pageant, to ask locals if they would like to keep the swimsuit competition in the Atlantic City pageant.

"We're getting more pros to keep them than to eliminate them," said Kelly Shenefiel, who interviewed passers-by at the City Market.

Her partner, Tom Ward, videotaped the interviews, some of which could appear during the Miss America Pageant on Sept. 16.

Because of controversy over the swimsuit portion of the pageant, an 800 number was set up for callers to cast their votes on whether the swimsuit competition should return this year.

The man-on-the-street interviews will have no bearing on the outcome, Shenefiel said.

Pageant producer Jeff Margolis, who also has produced the Academy Awards and the American Music Awards, will use the interviews during commercials to show people's opinions.

Pageant contestants won't know if they will have a swimsuit competition until nearly the day of the pageant, Shenefiel said.

The winner of the Miss Virginia title, Andrea Ballengee, was a preliminary winner in the swimsuit competition in Roanoke. Ballengee's credentials were called into question briefly when it was determined that accomplishments on her resume, including membership in Phi Beta Kappa, were false.

"Not many find [the swimsuit competition] to be sexist," Ward said. And those who say to get rid of the competition haven't all been women, Shenefiel added.

The production team is traveling from New York to Los Angeles, stopping in cities and towns to conduct the interviews.

After leaving Roanoke on Friday afternoon, their next stops were to be Nashville and Memphis.