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| PNB: How did you receive your first opportunity to host a pageant? GIBSON: I was traveling with different bands, and I was a gun for hire playing as a musician. I had done some singing in the Chicago area. It's funny. Women always hear things at their hairdresser's. Tony and JoAnne Salerno are the directors of the Miss Illinois USA Pageant. JoAnne's hairdresser said to her, "I heard this guy sing and you really should hire him to sing at your pageant." This was in 1975. She called me, but I was on tour and I said I couldn't do it. Then, the engagement that was booked was canceled. The weekend suddenly opened up. I called her back, and I said, "I don't know if you still want me to sing, but I'm available." JoAnne told me to come over to her home and sing. So I went over and sat by the piano and sang a couple of songs. JoAnne said she would like to hire me. The pageant was on WGN-TV, which was the first superstation [a local station seen throughout the United States and beyond]. Some of the other state directors watched and said that they wanted that singer to come sing at their pageants. At that time, the directors always had somebody come out in the middle of the show to sing a song and introduce the judges. I became that guy. I'd come out, sing a song, introduce the judges, then sing to the Top 5. That's all I did. Then, I started hosting in 1979 for the Salernos in Illinois. Jim Whitehead [director of Miss Georgia USA and other contests] and the late Sid Sussman both asked me to host. Sid asked me to host all of his pageants, and he had a lot of pageants. Sid gave me a great deal of exposure, because so many of his pageants were televised back then. PNB: How many weekends in a typical year do you host a pageant? |
| GIBSON: I do it less than I used to. There was a time when I made this pretty much my sole income. I've done as many as 50 pageants in one year. That's when I was really grinding it out. Since then, I've backed off. I'm in my 40s. I've gotten involved in other businesses. I don't use hosting as my sole income any longer. Now, I'll do about 20 pageants a year. PNB: Which pageants do you most look forward to hosting? |
| GIBSON: It's changed over the years. I enjoy the Bahamas. I host an event called the American Dream Festival. I just like it because they treat me so nicely down there. The lifestyle is wonderful there. It's not so much the pageant as it is the place where we're doing the pageant. I always enjoy Jim Whitehead's pageants in Georgia. The Georgia crowds are great, and Jim is always a gracious host. I also look forward to the Salernos' pageants in Illinois. PNB: We know about your work on weekends as a pageant host. How do you spend your weekdays? GIBSON: When you are an entertainer, you have to become an entrepreneur. What's an entrepreneur? That's somebody who has a lot of different jobs that change all the time. You go where it's hot. I've been very fortunate. I've been involved in real estate. My father was an attorney and a land developer when I was growing up, so he was always in the home-building business. On my days off when I first started, I would buy up properties, renovate them, and then become the landlord. I became a real estate investor in the beginning. It has changed in the last ten years. I was a founder of a company that's on the Nasdaq market right now called Complete Wellness Centers. It's a health care company. As a founder, I am also the director of acquisitions. When I'm not traveling now, I'm involved in the health care world. I still have some real estate ties. Right now, I'm the general contractor for a big new school in Chicago. I should be finished with that project next month. On the entertainment side, a UPN station in Detroit is starting a new "Star Search" program, and they have chosen me to be the host. I'm going there June 11. |
| We are supposed to start taping at the end of August [1998]. It might become a syndicated show on all the UPN stations. Because I'm not married and I don't have children, I've always been able to spend a lot of time taking on new projects. PNB: Whom do you admire as a pageant host? GIBSON: There are not a lot of pageant hosts out there. What often happens, the pageant director will go down to the local station and get the local DJ or the weatherman. | 
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| They are very talented people, but I'm no more a weatherman than the weatherman is a professional host. Dick Lamb is an experienced pageant host, and I have the utmost respect for Dick, but I bring a different dimension than Dick does because I sing. I am still really the only singing host. There are former winners who host and sing, and they are very good, but it is not a profession. They are not going to be hired for the next 25 years as I have been. There are not a lot of hosts out there. I'd be curious to know who I'll hand the reins over to. |
More talk with Jim Gibson ...
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