CONTESTANT IN CAR; DEMONSTRATORS
WITH PLACARD.




Initials PK/N/MR/ES


NO ACTUAL BRA BURNING FOOTAGE SHOWN

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: POLICE IN ATLANTIC
CITY, NEW JERSEY, STEPPED IN TO PREVENT ABOUT 65 WOMEN FROM STAGING A "SYMBOLIC
BRA' BURNING" PROTEST DEMONSTRATION DURING THE MISS AMERICA BEAUTY PAGEANT ON
SATURDAY (7 SEPT). INSTEAD, SOME OF THE DEMONSTRATORS PICKETED THE CONVENTION
HALL, SCENE OF THE CROWNING CEREMONY.

THE WOMEN, BELONGING TO A GROUP WHICH CALLS ITSELF THE WOMEN'S LIBERATION
MOVEMENT, HAD PLANNED TO BURN BRAS, GIRDLES, WIGS, FALSE EYELASHES AND CURLERS
IN A DENUNCIATION OF WHAT THEY DESCRIBED AS THE "DEGRADING MINDLESS-GIRLIE
SYMBOL" OF THE MISS AMERICA CONTEST.

THEIR PROTEST WAS THE FIRST OF ITS KIND SINCE THE CONTEST BEGAN 48 YEARS AGO.

THREE WOMEN WERE ARRESTED ON CHARGES OF DISORDERLY CONDUCT AFTER THEY ENTERED
THE CONVENTION HALL CHANTING "WOMEN'S LIBERATION".

THE CONTEST WAS WON BY MISS JUDITH FORD, AN 18-YEAR-OLD PHYSICAL EDUCATION
STUDENT FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. AT THE SAME TIME. AS SHE WAS BEING
CROWNED, ANOTHER PROTEST CEREMONY WAS GOING ON IN A NEARBY HALL, WHERE A
19-YEAR-OLD SOCIOLOGY STUDENT, MISS SANDRA WILLIAMS, WAS DECLARED THE WINNER OF
A MISS BLACK AMERICA PAGEANT.