by juno jones » Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:07 pm
Someone speculated that OLM and other kiddie pageants might be conduits for organized child porn, etc. I suddenly remembered an essay I read years ago about OLM. Harlan Ellison had this to say about OLM in 1970:<br><br> "Then came someone named Mr. Lynn, a gentleman of questionable demeanor (I'm avoiding lawsuits in my phraseology, friends) who is variously referred to in the publicity brochure as “ the 'Bert Parks' of the OLM pageant”, “Nationally famous personality”, “Prince Charming of the children's pageant world” ... ”A kalidescope [sic] personality”, and in an advertisement he obviously took for himself in the brochure, ... “One of America's foremost authorities of femenine [sic] beauty.”<br> Mister Lynn, who looked to my jaundiced eye like the sort of failed hairdresser who lures little children into the basements of churches with M&Ms, simpered his way through a saccharine introduction in praise of Shari (Lewis) and Frankie (Avalon, both co-hosts of this show) ...<br> ...out came the six finalists in the OLM division ... All six had ghastly Miss America smiles on their little faces. That wholly unnatural rictus that denotes neither joy nor warmth ... I had a vision of these unfortunate moppets smiling like that through all the days of their lives, till they were put in the final box, smile still strictured.<br> Then they brought out the half-dozen La Petite division children. Ages three to six. Tiny. My God, small. Innocent. And...O Jesus Jesus, they had blue eyeliner and lipstick and that awful model's pose...three to six years old...Oh Christ! They look twenty-five!<br> How can they do it? How can they turn kids under six into jaded strumpets of twenty-five? Mother of God, they all looked like hookers!<br> It's been years since I've felt the need to cry.<br> My lady, Cindy, watching the pageant with me, said in a stunned voice, “The producers of this thing must be ex-convicts who've served time for child molestation.” "<br><br>and:<br><br> " And for all his lisping sentimentality about the wonders of little girls, the held the camera for just a few beats too long on the Prince Charming of the Children's Pageant World and Mister Lynn, with a monsterously sinister smile on his face, exposed his inner nature with one look. It was like looking out of the mad eyes of Vincent Van Gogh at The Starry Night. It was one of those inexplicable, unpredicted moments when one sees straight to the core of another human being, and in that glance was all the cynical rapacity of a man in no way above using children to further his own sick needs. The man caught unaware in that camera glare was not a man I would leave to baby-sit with my children."<br><br>To tell the truth, I never followed the original case, it seemed too sensationalistic and trivial, in fact never knew that Jon Benet's beauty pageant career was in OLM until this thread. Just wanted to show <br>that OLM goes back a ways, and it was seriously creepy even in 1970.<br><br>I reccomend the original essay, it's unfortunately not on line, but it is anthologized in "The Other Glass Teat" and "The Essential Ellison".<br> <p></p><i></i>
