Ginny Mulford’s talent was sewing, she wore her prom dress in the evening gown competition
Editor’s note: For the first time in more than 50 years, there won’t be a Miss Ocean City Pageant in 2020. It was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current title-holder’s reign was extended until next year.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – When Ginny Mulford was crowned as Miss Ocean City 50 years ago, she wore her prom dress for the evening gown competition and had her shoes dyed to match her one-piece swimsuit. Her on-stage talent? Sewing.
Mulford, then Virginia Lynch Cox, and the other 14 contestants were taught how to walk, how to sit and how to take an interview.
How to take an interview.
Learning that is something she still cherishes today and is why she believes pageants still have relevance because they instill confidence in young women.
The retired Ocean City High School art teacher remembers the excitement of the night she was crowned at the Music Pier in 1970 by her lifelong friend, Jo-El McLaughlin. The two girls became friends in fourth grade, grew apart when Mulford went to Ocean City High School and McLaughlin went to Holy Spirt, then reconnected at the Miss Cape May County Pageant, which McLaughlin won. Mulford was the first runner-up.
At that pageant, Mulford had to improvise for the talent competition. The plan was to present her sewing skills via a slide projector, showing photos of her in all of the costumes she made and the last of her inside a saltwater taffy barrel because she didn’t know whether to wear the mini, the middie or the maxi dress. “That was the big thing that raged back then, whether to wear real short or knee-length or to the ground,” she said.
Unfortunately, the projector was plugged into the same place as the radio station and it didn’t work right. “So I started telling jokes onstage,” she laughed. “That’s how I got first runner-up.”
McLaughlin was the first Miss Ocean City crowned at the Music Pier, in 1969, and in 1970, Mulford was in the running. The projector worked that time so she was able to use that as her talent.
Although the pageant has been run in pretty much the same fashion over the last half-century, the times were a little different when Mulford was competing.
She had just graduated from OCHS and was about to go to Atlantic Community College (and later to Glassboro State, now Rowan University) so she used her prom dress, purchased at the Dolaway shop in Ocean City. “Most of us all wore the prom dresses. We didn’t have pageant gowns, per se. A lot of us tried not to spend a lot of money. Remember, 1970, we were on a short budget. But I bought a new bathing suit. I remember that. You couldn’t wear a two-piece or a bikini back then. You had to wear a one-piece. Of course our shoes had to match our bathing suit, which made no sense. We wore high-heel shoes with the bathing suit. I remember getting them dyed. That was a unique thing.”
“When I was in Miss Cape May County, we got to pick out a Catalina bathing suit. We all had to wear the same bathing suit but you could choose your colors. At Miss O.C. we could wear whatever we want, as long as it was a one-piece, but we had to bring it to rehearsal so our chaperone could OK it.”
Pageants hadn’t been on her radar before she was “conned” into one by Tom Williams, who was actively recruiting candidates. At the time, it was new.
“It wasn’t like everybody did that. It wasn’t the big deal it is today. I was modeling at the time with my mother with Marie McCullough, Atlantic City Models Guild. She, of course, said, ‘You’ve got to do this.’”
The pageant hasn’t changed much over time. “We had interview, bathing suit, talent, evening gown competitions. And we had to perform on stage dancing in an opening number and a closing number. So it’s the same system. It’s a little more intense now. These girls are really good (now),” she said. “We had no idea what we were doing. I think there were 15 in the pageant when I won and I would say well over half of us were kind of new to it. I had Miss Cape May County behind me so I had that experience working with Tom on that. I kind of knew the ins and outs, but we were all, ‘What are we doing?’ ‘What’s happening?’ We were all getting ready for going to college, most of us. Some of us already had jobs. We had no idea what we were doing in the pageant. We were being guided. They actually taught us how to walk. We had some women come in; they taught us how to walk, how to sit, how to take an interview, which was probably the most important thing out of all the pageants today. It’s the interview.”
She said the judges want to hear authentic responses during the interview, but noted some contestants “got so professional over the years that their interview was more like a robot answer. You want to hear from the natural person.”
Mulford thoroughly enjoyed her interview.
“I enjoyed every part of that night except for the bathing suit because I was terrified. I remember the interview being poignant. One of the questions they asked me was, ‘If I was Miss Ocean City, what would I say is the best quality of Ocean City?’ I had to say the people. It wasn’t just the boardwalk, the beach, all the amenities you had living there, but the down-to-Earth, real live, year-round people. I remember that answer and they thought that was really cool.”
That is why she believes in the value of pageants.
“If you don’t do it for any other reason, do it for the interview. Get that experience of sitting down in front of a group of people and having them ask you general questions about who you are. How do you answer those questions? How do you feel about that? When you go for your real job in your real life you have some experience.”
She said over the years she “actually pushed a lot of kids to run for Miss Ocean City and I’m glad I did because they did so well in the interview because they were genuine.”
The whole pageant experience was valuable, she said.
“You gain respect for yourself, you have self confidence. You may walk up there being totally shy, incredibly conscious of how you look, but when you get up there, it gives you the confidence. You can do this. My family was in shock when they saw me up there. They said, ‘You can’t do this.’ I surprised them. Your family and your friends see you for one thing. You’re up there doing something like this it’s a whole different ball game. Your mommy can’t do it for you. That in itself catapults people.”
And winning, she said, “was amazing. It’s the same thing everyone goes through today. You’re in shock, you’re in awe, you’re like, ‘Are you kidding?’ I was just so amazed. I thought it was the greatest event. My parents were thrilled beyond words.”
Fun memories
Mulford enjoyed the year spent as Miss Ocean City because she was the official greeter for the resort, she got to help the New Jersey Lottery announce numbers at the Ocean City Music Pier, and she rode in parades and on a boat at the Night In Venice parade.
“Phil Turner built a float that was so high. I was at the top of the float. I had to duck down under the wires or get beheaded,” she laughed. “And he was so much fun to work with. Phil Turner designed floats that were just incredible. For the Halloween Parade, he had a real carousel horse on the float and he wanted me to sit on it and ride it. I was like, ‘Yeah, I like this.’ I was in a white satin gown that I had made. He picked me up and put me on it and I fell right off the other side. These things happen to me, nobody else.”
The biggest event was the Night In Venice parade. She was on a huge boat called the Blackjack, and while all the other contestants were relaxing, she had to climb a ladder to be at the very top.
“So I’m up there two hours before the parade actually starts and all the other girls were downstairs being served lobster sandwiches and having a wonderful time being entertained. And we had to wear sneakers on the boat. The thing was swaying because it was a rough sea on the inlet. It was fun. I had a great time.”
A crown for all the winners
When her friend, McLaughlin, was crowned as Miss Ocean City in 1969, she received a tiara “which fell apart. In 1970, the organizers bought a crown at Schoppy’s in Linwood.
“They wanted me to take it off and put it on the next girl. I said, ‘Oh no, I’m keeping this.’ I said you make sure she (my successor) gets the exact same crown because it was the nicest one. So Schoppy’s made it the official Miss Ocean City crown. Today the girl is crowned with the exact same crown that I had. I was the one who started that.”