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PNB interview, take 3:

Jim Gibson talks
to Patrick Nathaniel
Bartholomew III

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GIBSON: The wildest thing that ever happened was in West Virginia while a teen girl was being interviewed. This was on live television, too. I could see that she was hyperventilating, which is not uncommon when these kids get nervous. I got through her interview and moved to the next girl. All of a sudden, I heard a big "thud." I looked back and she had hit the floor. Passed out!

The beauty of television is that the crew could keep the camera on me. Fortunately, there was a commercial break soon after she collapsed. I went over and talked to the young girl. I told her, "The television audience doesn't even know that you passed out, and the judges don't care. They aren't judging you on that." So she relaxed and said that she could come out in evening gown. Sure enough, this poor girl comes out through the row of sabers and starts to hyperventilate again. She's about four steps from walking off the stage, and she hits the floor again. Passed out twice! I'll never forget that. I'll always wonder what ever happened to that poor little girl. I hope she overcame that traumatic, difficult time of her life.

PNB: Jim, you flew with Donald Trump on his plane from New York to Shreveport for the 1998 Miss USA Pageant. I am curious to find out who was on that flight with "the Donald."

GIBSON: I would say that the most interesting person on that flight was the ice skater Nancy Kerrigan. We talked a little bit. Nancy lives up in Boston. The model Frederikke was also on the plane, and she was very interesting. And the plane is spectacular. It's funny. I was sitting there at the table, and I looked up at this beautiful painting in Donald's plane. I noticed that it was signed by Renoir. I thought to myself, "This is an original and it must be worth some money. Later, I was talking to Trump, and I asked him, "What's something like this worth?" He said, "Let me put it to you this way. That painting cost me more than the entire airplane."

PNB: Jim, what are Donald Trump's goals for his three pageants?

GIBSON: Obviously, he wants the most beautiful women to win. He wants the most beautiful women to represent his pageants. He wants it to be glamorous. He wants his winners to be the type that he can put on the cover of Cosmopolitan. Trump always does things that he can make look bigger than life. That's what he does. That's what he is so good at. He can sell anybody anything. He can take the most simple product and make it look like it is the most special product in the world. He can do that with this pageant, too. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened quite as much as he would like. I think the reason that it hasn't happened yet is because his real estate empire has suddenly taken a huge increase again, which requires a lot of his personal time.

GIBSON: I got to know Donald fairly well back in the early 1990s. At that time, I was hosting for the American Dream Festival in the Bahamas, and they were looking for a new home. Donald had just gone through his divorce from Ivana. He had been married for a long time, and I said to him that this American Dream Festival could be fun for him. This was also at a time when he was still really fighting his image, with everybody saying, "Donald, Donald's on the bottom. He's lost all his money. He's a loser."

I said to Donald, "This could be something good. Let's do this pageant. It's called the American Dream Festival. We'll set you up as the American Dream icon. You're a guy who has built and built and built. You are America. We'll put it at the Trump Taj Mahal. We'll build the American Dream Festival around you." So we did it. We put it all together. The Trump Taj Mahal became the official host venue. Donald was in the audience. Marla Maples [later to be Trump's wife for a time] was a judge. Trump liked it. He thought that this was fun. At one time, he was considering buying the American Dream Festival. I think that kind of tweaked his interest in buying a pageant. He just liked it. He liked the fun. He liked the energy. He liked the youth. It invigorated him.

But instead of buying the American Dream Festival, he jumped into the big leagues, which is typical Trump style. He went straight to the Miss Universe Pageant. Donald asked me if I thought he should buy. We talked about it. We talked about the value. He even thought about buying the Miss World Pageant. He still may. It's funny. I think it's just the energy that it gives him. It's not a big money-maker in Donald Trump style. If it makes a half-million dollars or a million dollars a year, that's a good year. He makes much more on his other projects.

PNB: Has anything surprised you about Trump's ownership of the Miss Universe Pageant system?

GIBSON: The only thing that has surprised me a little bit is that I thought Trump might have brought the pageants to his casinos in Atlantic City to help self-promote, but he hasn't done that.

PNB: Is there any pageant that you haven't hosted that you would like to host?

GIBSON: I've hosted state contests in virtually every pageant system: Miss America, Teen USA, Teen All American, Perfect Teen, Miss USA, and Mrs. America. Obviously, I would love to host the national Miss USA Pageant. That's a given. People have always said to me, "When are they going to give you a shot at it?" Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. You have to be a name, not just in a local market, but in the national or world market, which obviously I have not attained.

Back in the 1980s, I was auditioning for Merv Griffin's game shows. If I had gotten one of those jobs, I would have hosted the Miss USA Pageant. Other than Miss USA, would I want to host the Miss America Pageant? Not really. I have the utmost respect for the Miss America Pageant, but my style is not their style, and I don't want it to be my style. There is a different host for them. I have hosted some of their state pageants, and I enjoyed it, but I always felt like a fish out of water there. I like to use a few quips. I can't always be serious. At a Miss America preliminary, I felt they wanted me to be serious from the first second I stepped onstage to the second that I stepped off, and that's not my style.

PNB: After a pageant, how do you know that you've done your job well as a host?

GIBSON: Whether or not you are a host, if you are a good entertainer you know when the audience likes you or when they don't. You know when the audience is happy and when they are not. You know. When I walk off the stage, the audience, the contestants, the winners, the non-winners, the directors, and the judges don't even need to say anything.

GIBSON: The biggest change that I see in pageants is the physical change in women. It amazes me. I see more of a difference there than in any other area. I see girls come out in swimsuit with abs and muscle definition, but they are still feminine. Personal trainers are much more involved. Twenty years ago, women's bodies weren't even close to the bodies now. Twenty years ago, girls went to gym class in school and that was about it. I am amazed at how women have progressed physically, in a beautiful way and an artistic way and an athletic way. That amazes me. I like that. It's not just pleasing to the eye, but I think it's great to realize that these women have progressed to that point. They like to sweat and pump some iron, and they feel proud of their bodies, which is good for their self-image.

More talk with Jim Gibson ...

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