Democrat Taylor Marsh Blogs Politics, Iraq, and Culture.

Past

BLAST from the PAST

Everyone has one, a past, that is, and this is mine. It's been a very long time since I was singing, dancing and acting on the stage, but politics, radio, and political theatre is right in line with where I started. So, in no particular order, enjoy these pictures and a blast from my past.

Okay, this one is pretty obvious. Miss America Pageant, circa September 1974, one of the last years Bert Parks did the pageant. This is the parade down the Atlantic City boardwalk. One very vivid memory I have was walking outside the Chalfonte-Hadden Hotel, now long gone, and seeing N.O.W. outside, picketing us beauty pageant babes. One gal came up to me, in front of a throng of press (who called me "Mizzou"), and asked me how I could humiliate myself by parading on stage in a bathing suit. A 19-year old chickadee, with more attitude than pageant law allowed, I simply said, "You want to pay for my college tuition?" Then off I went in my limo.

This shot exposes my heart, soul and my escape as a kid. I was Broadway bound from the beginning. Dreaming about the Great White Way as soon as I was able to put on a tu-tu. I'm one of the very lucky ones. I actually made it.

Cheerleading was a lot of fun, but when I got into high school I eventually gave it up for pom-poms. It was reeking havoc on my singing voice, something that mattered to me very much back then. I was never a singer, but I could sing pretty well, still can. To clarify, Frank Sinatra was a singer. Though when it comes to feeling music at the base of my soul, well, I'm all over that one.

I guess this is also as good a place as any to talk about when I started writing. Putting my musings down on the printed page started in what is any young girl's favorite friend, her daily diary. I also grew up in a conservative household, which left me curious for the one thing nobody ever talked about: men, women, relationships and sexuality. Growing up during the most political time in American history was the backdrop. All hell was breaking loose between the sexes. Politics became personal for most women of my generation, because I was part of the first generation of eighteen-year-old voters.

These pictures are me acting and modeling in Missouri and New York City. What a hoot. Who did I think I was, anyway, the fifth Charlie's Angel?

As for where the pageants came in, well, I simply couldn't have gone to college without scholarships. It all started with the Miss Teenage America Pageant (you had to take a test to qualify), where I was actually voted "Miss Friendship," something my GOP adversaries find laughable today. Pageants became a way of amassing money, as well as proving that I was a go-getter, which used to matter when it came to college scholarships.

These are a few shots from shows I was in. The first is me portraying "Chrissy" in "Hair," one of the first productions of this show outside of New York. The next is a picture of the Morosco Theatre, which is now no longer standing. I was blessed to be a cast member of the last show, the Cole Porter estate's "Happy New Year," to appear in this magical space. It's also the show I got demoted from being first understudy to the lead, because I acquired an out-of-the-blue case of paralyzing stage fright. No one knew it at the time, though the fact that I suddenly couldn't get my voice past the second row should have been the tip off. The nun picture is me in my very first Broadway show, which I landed after my first audition. Talk about lucky break! Thank you, Jerry Herman. The last picture is the show that landed me on the east coast, performing in a baggy pants review, and gave me the shot at my Broadway dream.

These pictures are from rehearsals at the Miss Missouri Pageant, as well as me performing on talent night at the Miss America Pageant, the day I turned 20. I did a song and dance to "If They Could See Me Now," from "Sweet Charity." By the way, I was one of a handful of girls that showed up with short hair at the pageant. Back then, big hair was king. I bucked that trend and many others.

These last shots are me in the last eight years or so, from my stint as editor to the first site on the web to make money (I wrote a book about it all), up through launching my radio show, "Taylor Marsh, The Antidote to Right-Wing Talk," in Las Vegas.

It's been one wild ride so far. Entertainment, politics, and activism are threaded throughout my life. My latest venture, my live political show, which debuted in June in Los Angeles, is being edited and reworked. We'll just have to see where it lands next. I've come a long way since I dreamed of being a Broadway babe and making a difference through politics, and as far as I'm concerned, the best is still to come.