Dark Shadows
was a Gothic soap opera that ran on ABC-TV from 1966 to 1971. Its most
popular character was Barnabas Collins, a sexy, scary, and very wealthy
vampire. The series was a sensation in its time, but by 1970 was
starting to run out of steam. A feature film spinoff called
House of Dark Shadows
was released in September of that year. To promote the film, MGM
naturally staged a beauty pageant. Of course they did. It was called the
Miss American Vampire Contest. The genius part was that the top prize
was a guest spot on the TV show.
Ads were placed in
newspapers across the country, targeting girls, 18 to 25, who thought
they had the right “vampire looks.” One newspaper story about the
promotion, dredged up by the blog Dark Shadows in the Press, said that
contestants would be judged by their interpretation of the vampire
aesthetic, as well as “charm, poise, stage presence, and videogenic
qualities for television.” One TV ad for the competition read, “It’s a
contest you can sink your teeth into.”
Leading up to the release
of House of Dark Shadows, regional beauty contests were held in a number
of cities, from Dallas to Philadelphia to Miami. These prelims produced
a handful of finalists, who traveled to Los Angeles to compete for the
title on September 10, 1970. One of the judges for the New Jersey
regional competition recalls her experience in the book The Dark Shadows
Companion: 25th Anniversary Collection, saying, “It was fun for the
first five minutes. After that it got terribly depressing. Some of the
girls came in bikinis. Some of them came dressed as witches or vampires
or dead bodies. One girl stood in front of me and just stared.”
You might be surprised to find out who won that beauty pageant, and what happened afterward.
You can read all about it at Atlas Obscura.
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