If it’s 10 November, it must be… yes, of course: the day Sacheen Littlefeather was crowned Miss American Vampire by Regis Philbin as part of a promotion for American TV show Dark Shadows, before going on to be more famous for turning down Marlon Brando’s Oscar…
Not that’s her in the picture, obviously — or indeed, Regis Philbin. That’s from one of the heats, showing Dark Shadows actor Jonathan Frid crowning regional winner Christine Domaniecki, and the absence of any publicity shots of the winner is just one part of the mystery.
Our story starts with a TV show which didn’t make it across the Atlantic, which is why UK audiences stayed at home in droves when Tim Burton made a movie of it in 2012. In fact, if my best mate Richard Hollis hadn’t been in one scene, I’d never have known the film existed.
I digress. Dark Shadows was a gothic soap opera which began in 1966, and was, by 1970, faltering. A movie spin-off was on its way, however, and the beauty contest was intended to publicise its arrival in theatres that October.
If you visit the website of the Collinsport Historical Society (a fan site for the show — Collinsport, Maine, being the fictional town where it was set) you can see a promotional video from the time
The prize for winning was to appear on Dark Shadows — and it was awarded to, er… heat winner Christine Domaniecki, who appeared (with her name misspelled in the titles) in an episode which went out on 19 October 1970 — three weeks before Sacheen Littlefeather took the national title. Hmmm…
This doesn’t really add up — but then, quite a lot of it doesn’t. The article giving the 10 November date says Littlefeather is from Alcatraz, which is, of course, a small island in San Francisco bay whose only inhabitants were prisoners (or guards).
Sacheen Littlefeather — who was, apparently, Hispanic and called Maria Louise Cruz — was born in 1946 in Salinas, and the prison only became disused in 1963. She lived in San Francisco, though, so maybe she or the producers thought Alcatraz sounded cool.
(The island had been occupied by a group of Native Americans in 1969, apparently in “the hope of creating a Native American cultural center and education complex on the island”, so maybe that had something to do with the thinking.)
The fact that the announcement of the national winner went out after the TV show featuring the person who’d taken the prize suggests that the national final was just publicity — although it was broadcast on local station KHJ-TV (now KCAL, owned by CBS).
Also, there are no photos (that I could find) of Littlefeather/Cruz getting her crown — and whether she wanted a part in the show and didn’t get it, nobody knows. Although, of course, she did eventually gain international prominence:
Basically, I couldn’t figure out what actually happened here, but nor has anyone else. There’s more about this absurd and inconsequential matter on Atlas Obscura…
…but they think the final was on 10 September, which would be three days before the result of the heat was announced, which can’t be right.
Yes, this is all a bit silly, isn’t it? Never mind — let’s just enjoy Christine Domaniecki’s facial expression again, because she’s really committed.
