Pageant News Bureau - Jimmy Steele interview

Jimmy Steele of Canada disproves the myth that pageant fans are ignorant and one-dimensional. At age 19, he is already a recognized expert on geography and is an accomplished linguist, pursuing a B.A. in Spanish, French literature and German. He is also one of the world's true experts on pageants, and he actually credits his interest in beauty contests with aiding his intellectual development

He was an original correspondent of the Pageant News Bureau when he was barely in his teens, and he launched Jimmy's Pageant Page (www.geocities.com/Pageant_2000), one of the most respected pageant sites on the Web, while in high school. For years, he discreetly concealed his true age from many of his pageant contacts, out of concern that they simply would not believe him. (He trusted PNB with the secret, earning our unending gratitude.) Patrick Nathaniel Bartholomew III caught up with Steele as the young man was preparing to travel to Hanover, Germany, where he will serve for some months as a kind of goodwill ambassador for Canada "He's truly one of a kind," Bartholomew said of Steele, and who can disagree?

PNB: Exactly how old were you when you started chronicling pageants?

Jimmy with friends Julia (left) and Diana. "My hair changes color frequently. The yellow you see here was in honor of my beloved Crawford (our House colors are yellow and black). It has recently seen shades of blue, bright red and auburn.

Steele: I saw my first contest on television at a relatively late age ... 8 or so. Some diehard fans that I know swear they have their first pageant memories at age 2 or 3, so I'm pretty far back in the pack in that respect.

It was Miss Universe 1989, and I fell in love with Angela Visser. Really, it's pretty hard not to! I was also a big geography nut, and I mean a big one. I was able to rattle off all the world capitals, currencies, major cities and all that. I know, I was a weird child. I started keeping track of the winners and all the statistics that very year, but I've since found other ways to keep my interest in pageants alive, aside from just noting this arcane but fascinating trivia.

PNB: You have quite an impressive academic background, especially for someone so young. What made you interested in the pageant industry?

Steele: Again, it stems from my interest in the world and foreign cultures. My parents are very bright people, and, at a young age, they had the chance to travel throughout Asia, the Middle East, and Europe together. When I was much younger myself, they would tell me incredible stories of their trips to Nepal, Jordan, Afghanistan, and many other parts of the world so I was able to capture an image of these places, which otherwise would have been just colored blocks on the map. They lent a human side to the world, and with this knowledge in tow, I was able to see anything and everything international in a different light, beauty pageants included. I'd always had a deep desire to learn and to expand my knowledge, and international and national beauty pageants helped me do that. I was also captivated with foreign languages. I would wander around the house reciting random phrases that the Latin American and European delegates would say in their competitions, and I would rewind the tape over and over again until I thought I had it down. Now that I've grown and become a little older and wiser, I've pursued this interest more actively, beginning with doing my own research into pageant history as well as dabbling a bit into the field of directing and judging. Establishing "Jimmy's Pageant Page" also taught me a lot.

PNB: Tell us about the development and growth of "Jimmy's Pageant Page."

Steele: I began JPP in June of 1996 by putting a list of Miss Universe titleholders on an empty page on the Web, and the rest, as they say, is history. Eventually, diehard pageant fans, adults, who had invested a lot of time in their interest, certainly more combined years than I had been alive in most cases, found JPP and donated a ton of information. JPP has grown from one titleholders' list, a links page, and a review segment where I told the world why I liked certain contestants so much, to the largest archives of its kind anywhere online. We have the history of more than fifty contests from around the world, everything from Miss World to Miss India-Canada.

Close to 300,000 hits have been recorded on JPP, which for a small page with a limited interest audience is fantastic. I'm really proud of all we've been able to do for pageant fans worldwide, and I am truly grateful to the many people from Canada and around the world who have contributed information, ideas, and suggestions. For almost two years, we had Pageant News Tickers that gave world news, just like the ones on the Pageant News Bureau, but I chose not to continue with the news reports because as a full-time student, it was a bit too time-consuming to maintain.

We have had a few problems along the way with theft of information. Several Internet sites took our first complete list of pageant winners and runners-up and posted it without our consent. I remember the first time I visited one of these other sites and saw the info from our page, and I was simply livid. While the Internet has made everything so much more accessible to individuals across the world, it has also opened up deep issues of ownership and copyright. I can't exactly copyright a list of names. Anyone could ostensibly head out to their local library and research the Miss Universe Pageant and come up with a similar list. However, none of the other sites have taken the time to do so. By taking the information off my site, they are taking the lazy man's way out. I've dealt with things in a mature way, but it is very hard sometimes. Hey, I'm certainly not perfect. Nobody is, but sometimes you have to be the bigger person. Fortunately, we've had virtually no problems for a couple of years now, and I appreciate everyone who takes the time to e-mail us and ask if they could use the info.

PNB: Is Canada a hotbed of pageant enthusiasm? Or is it just you?

Steele: Canada is ridiculously uninterested in beauty pageants. Our main national pageants, Miss Canada and Miss Teen Canada, were discontinued in 1992 and 1990, respectively. These pageants had regional directors in every corner of the country holding contests and sending representatives to the national finals from the Northwest Territories to the Atlantic. Having one single national contest which gets national TV and media coverage again in Canada is largely just a dream. There really is no huge interest in beauty pageants here, and that's too bad. Certainly there are a few fans of pageants, and an even smaller number of historians like myself, but the general public here just does not care anymore.

Jimmy as Crawford House Prefect. Crawford is one of four groups, known as Houses that comprise the House System at his high school. The House System is an integral part of life for all students at the University of Toronto Schools Each student is a member of one of four Houses, and they participate in athletic (track meet, swim meet, soccer) and non-athletic (Jeopardy, lip synch) events in order to gain points for their Houses. The House with the most points at the end of each year wins the Athletic or Literary Pennant. Competition between the four Houses is friendly, but the Pennants are hard-fought for. The House is led by four elected members the head of the House is the Prefect, the position Jimmy held in his final year of high school. "It was the highlight of my high school career," he comments. "The chance to continue being a leader in the student body was something I loved, and my year culminated with my Crawford House winning the Literary Pennant."

PNB: There are so many beautiful Canadian women. Why haven't the Canadian contestants been more successful in international competitions?

Steele: Again, it all stems from the apathy felt by the general public. There's so little interest in attending, watching, and competing in pageants. As any director can attest, it's virtually impossible to make money in the pageant business. The situation is even tougher in Canada. Right now, the two national contests we have to choose our representatives for Miss Universe and Miss World get very, very little media coverage and have almost no following.

One pageant has been surrounded by controversy for years, and the other got most of its entrants primarily from one province. However, far be it from me to be critical, since I'm not a director. Since there's almost no interest, you haven't heard so much as a whisper from Canada in the pageant world in many years. I wish the contests were marketed more. They are using the Internet, but it is the only tool being used to promote pageants in Canada, and by only one of these pageants to boot. I do have a preference as to which pageant I prefer, but I won't say which one it is.

Another big problem here is that there is so much bickering between many of the regional directors, primarily, again on the Internet. These people can get catty. The last Canadian to do well in an important international pageant was Lana Buchberger in 1995, and before that, Leanne Caputo in Miss World in 1989. We seem to have our short, almost random, moments of success once every five years or so. Canada is due for a semifinalist in a major pageant sometime soon, if you believe in things working in such a neat way, but this may not happen. [Editor's note: Shortly after this interview, Kim Yee of Canada was a Top 5 finalist at Miss Universe 2000]. However, it is important to note that there are some extremely well-run pageants in Canada. It's not fair to generalize about the entire pageant industry in Canada from the mistakes and the past problems of the two biggest contests. It's interesting to note that Canada does extremely well in ethnic pageants. Canada has had three winners of Miss Chinese International, two Miss India Worldwide winners and dozens of finalists in these contests and others.

PNB: How did you learn five languages? How fluent are you?

Steele: I've always had a love for languages stemming from the wonderful stories of the world that my parents told me. Here in Canada, French is compulsory since our country is officially bilingual, so I attacked the French language with vigor, watching French language television and reading French books. When eleventh grade rolled around, I started taking Spanish and German while continuing with French. In university, I've continued my study of all of these languages, and I've picked up Portuguese as well. I'm completely fluent in French and Spanish. I seem to be all right in English, although I have a funny accent. I speak quite a bit of Portuguese now, and I'm very close to fluent in German. In fact, I'll be working in Germany for five months beginning in May at EXPO 2000 in Hanover.

PNB: What will be your involvement in EXPO 2000 in Germany? How did that come about for you?

Steele: It's a really neat story. At my high school, when you are in your graduating year, you are paired up with one or two new students as a senior buddy to show them the ropes and answer any questions they have. One of my buddies was a guy named Jimmy Crawford, which is absolutely hilarious because not only does he share my first name, but his surname is the same as the name of the spirit group, Crawford House, of which I was the elected leader. Really, I was Jimmy Crawford, but this guy took that notoriety away from me. One day last January, I got an e-mail from him when I was at the University of Toronto, and it said, "Jimmy, I think this job may interest you, signed Jimmy." It was a position working at the Canadian pavilion at EXPO 2000, greeting the public and representing Canada abroad. My ultimate goal is to become a high school Spanish, French, and German teacher, so this chance to immerse myself in the languages was one too good to pass up. I was ultimately accepted for one of sixty positions working in Germany, from over two thousand original applicants. I'm really excited to have this chance, and at 19, I'm one of the youngest people going.

Photos courtesy of Jimmy Steele

PNB interview:

Jimmy Steele talks
to Patrick Nathaniel
Bartholomew III

A magnificent obsession
(one of many)

PNB interview:

Jimmy Steele talksto Patrick Nathaniel Bartholomew III

A magnificent obsession(one of many)

Jimmy Steele talks
to Patrick Nathaniel
Bartholomew III

A magnificent obsession
(one of many)