TITLE    : Transsexual Beauty Contest
STORYID  : transsexual-beauty-contest
SUMMARY  : Mimi Marks won the contest, which was filmed as Tantasia.
AUTHOR   : Cal Y. Pygia@lit
DATE     : 2006-08-11
CATEGORY : reviews-and-essays
FLAGS    : 
TAGS     : |mimi marks|jahna steele|tantasia|transsexual|beauty|contest|thailand|las vegas|chicago|entertainment|


Each year, beginning in 2004, Las Vegas' Riviera Hotel and Casino has hosted The World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Contest in July. The winner receives $5,000 and a trip to the Virgin Islands.



Jahna Steele was the mistress of ceremonies for the first pageant, in which 35 transwomen competed.



Contestants must provide proof of their original sex. Both pre-operation (pre-op) and post-operation (post-op) transwomen are allowed to enter the contest. Entrants dress as celebrities. A Celine Dion look alike and a Joan Crawford mimic were among the hopefuls.



The pageant features swimwear, evening gown, talent competitions, and interviews. 



Entertainment Tonight and The Howard Stern Show were among the many media organizations that covered the debut show, which was also filmed for television and cinema releases as Trantasia, debuting at the Venice Film Festival.



The 2004 and 2005 winner was Chicago showgirl Mimi Marks, who had been crowned as "Miss Continental" in 1992. She performs at The Baton Show Lounge in Chicago, Illinois. Marks also won the Best Evening Gown award.



Erica Andrews was the first runner-up and Lucie Marie Pereyra was the second runner-up. In addition, she has twice won the "Miss International Queen" contest in Pattaya, Thailand, which was broadcast on ITV in Thailand. The Thailand contest was "sponsored by Coca Cola, Tiffany's Show in Pattaya (the world's largest venue for female impersonation and the first Transgender cabaret show in South East Asia), Royal Garden Plaza, and Pratunam Polyclinic."



Other winners included Erica Andrews, Best Talent; Lucy Marie Pereyra, Best Swimsuit; Vilanda, 1st Runner-up Evening Gown and 1st Runner-up Swimsuit; and Tara Willow Desy, Miss Congeniality.



In all, Mimi is the winner of three transsexual beauty contests: Miss International Queen, Pattaya, Thailand; The World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Beauty Contest, Las Vegas, Nevada; and Miss Continental, Chicago, Illinois.



Mimi was born in Waterloo, Iowa, as Mark. After undergoing sex-reassignment surgery, Mark became Mimi. According to Trantasia, a transsexual beauty pageant documentary that aired on ITV in Thailand, she has lived as a woman since she was 21 years old.



As a boy, she recalls feeling "uncomfortable in her body," and had her "most difficult time" in her physical education class because, she says, "I didn't fit in at all."



She says that, for transwomen in Chicago, the test of whether they can pass as women is to appear in public at Wrigley's Field, home of the Cubs: "If you could walk through Wrigley-ville, like, during a Cubs game and not get 'spooked,' and not have anybody call you out, you were like the 'girl-iest' girl, you made it. I called [a friend] and said, 'I am at a Cubs game on first base, eleventh row. I made it. I'm a girl!'"



Tantasia was hosted by former Las Vegas showgirl Jahna Steele, who created quite a stir when she was outed as being "a man." The documentary featured personal profiles of a number of the pageant's contestants, including the winner, Mimi Marks.



Norbert Aleman is the executive producer. He has produced numerous stage shows in Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States. Born in poverty in Paris, Aleman immigrated to U. S. in the late 1970's, where he created two Las Vegas stage shows: An Evening at La Cage and Crazy Girls.



Jeremy Stanford is Tantasia's director, producer, and editor. A graduate of graduate of Stanford University, Staford earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree from the USC School of Film and Television. He directed his first feature, Stepmonster, starring Alan Thicke, Ami Dolenz, Corey Feldman, Edie McClurg and John Astin for Roger Corman. Stanford also directed a Fox TV television series starring Bo Derek, Tippi Hedron, and Morgan Fairchild.



Executive producer Ted Smith is an Emmy-award winning Emmy-award winning TV producer who developed The Apprentice for Mark Burnett and is an executive producer for the AOL/Mark Burnett Production Gold Rush.



Chris Smith is Ted Smith's brother and a film and television distribution executive who started his TV sales career at Lorimar-Telepictures and has since worked with Warner Bros., Universal TV and NBC, distributing Will &amp; Grace, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, and Big Eden.



Other crew members include Stephen Brown, producer; Thomas Ethan Harris, co-producer; Joey Newman, original score; Sam Hamann, animated titles and graphics; and David Woods, post-production supervisor.



Tantasia resulted from executive producer Norbert Aleman's decision to cast an all-transsexual stage revue. To find cast members, he created The World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Beauty Pageant in 2004.



Ted Smith suggested that the pageant be filmed. After filming the three-day pageant, Stanford interviewed six of its contestants and their families, adding their personal profiles to the documentary.



Entertainment Tonight and The Insider "have chronicled the making of the documentary and profiled the film's transgendered stars in several separate stories. The San Francisco Chronicle also featured an article, "Pretty Women" concerning the documentary and the San Francisco Observer reviewed the documentary. 

