Card Girl Pulls No Punches, But Still Loses to a Knockout

Sandi Lee, blond of hair and full of figure, tugged at the spaghetti straps on her pink-fringed flapper dress. She peered into a tiny room backstage where the other, younger women were squeezing into tight dresses and squirming around a small mirror to apply makeup.

Those women, Lee said, had come to steal her job.

Lee had been a regular on fight nights at the Country Club in Reseda. The 29-year-old former Playboy bunny was the one who walked into the ring between rounds wearing almost nothing and holding up a card with a number on it.

The round card girl is what she was called. At first, the promoters had asked her to do it as a favor and for very little money. Now, a year later, they had gotten the idea of putting her job up for grabs, making a beauty contest out of it.

‘My Home’

“I’m here to defend my title. This is my home,” the Van Nuys woman said last week. “I think some of the other girls are physically more qualified but my style is more experienced.

“It’s that thing with the crowd--sex appeal without being a tease, humbleness within a context.”

Brenda Dempsey, a lithesome 22-year-old brunette, emerged from the dressing room. Lee excused herself and walked quickly away. Dempsey couldn’t figure out what all the fuss was about.

“There’s not much to it,” she said. “You just carry around a little number, right?”

The first Ten Goose Round Card Girl Contest was the idea of the Goosen family of North Hollywood, 10 brothers and sisters whose production and management company has been successful in bringing boxing back to the Valley. Their monthly fight nights had been playing to packed houses. Add a beauty contest, they figured, and you couldn’t lose.

Like more conventional contests, this one was divided into two parts--evening dress and bathing suit. Contestants were told they would be judged on poise, personality and physical appearance.

And the Goosen brothers had a table full of celebrity judges, including Tommy Chong of Cheech & Chong; Richard Moll, the immense, bald actor who plays Bull on “Night Court,” and former welterweight boxing champion Carlos Palomino.

Nine women were invited to the finals; only six showed up. There wasn’t much of a first prize: $200, a black satin jacket and first choice to work fights once a month for the rest of the year at $50 a night.

But the crowd was good--a noisy, smoky sold-out house that had come to see six fights, including the California Heavyweight Championship between Dee Collier and Mark Wills. When the contest was announced, they whistled and hooted.

Sandi Lee is approaching her 30th birthday. Gone were the days of being a Playboy bunny. And Lee figured she was about a decade past her prime as a beauty queen. Besides, this night she was up against some tough competitors.

Leslee Bremmer, 20, of Thousand Oaks was the odds-on favorite to take the title. With shining blond hair and perfect legs, she had won 25 beauty contests in 1985 and is the reigning Ms. Miller beer.

“I love competition,” she said. “I go out there to win.”

Tina Martin, 24, a model and actress from Van Nuys, was a Raiderette last year and a Los Angeles Express cheerleader for two years before that. Smile and eyes were her forte.

“Most of the girls in this are blondes, 5-foot-5, with perfect bodies,” she said. “I’m a brunette and I’m only 5-foot-2. It’s going to be very stiff competition.”

Surprise Entry

And there was Crystal Rudloff of West Hollywood. Several weeks before the contest, Rudloff’s chiropractor had handed her an official-looking document and told her to sign it. Rudloff thought it was a medical form. A week later she found out that she was going to be in a beauty contest.

“This is my first and last beauty contest,” the 23-year-old said, eyes wide, watching the other contestants move around her backstage. “I don’t even know how to walk when I go out there. God, get me out of here!”

Pitted against such youth, Sandi Lee expected that she would have to rely on brains and personality.

“I go with a class act,” she said. “I mean, let’s put it this way, I wear nylons.”

The first stage of the contest passed quickly enough, with the women taking turns coming out between rounds to walk around the ring wearing everything from elegant evening gowns to low-cut, black satin dresses. There were the obligatory rude gestures from the crowd of mostly men.

“You always get catcalls,” Martin said. “It’s just like walking down the street.”

The contestants gathered in a hallway behind the ring, chatting and watching one another walk out between rounds.

Sandi Lee was nervous. Bremmer and Dempsey, she thought, had received louder ovations. Then there was a glimmer of hope. Bremmer had forgotten to bring a bathing suit top. With a disappointed pout, she said she would have to drop out of the contest.

In the nick of time, someone produced a black sweat shirt and a pair of scissors. Bremmer went to work at the back of the dressing room.

Quiet Start

The swimsuit competition started quietly. The first contestant came out in shorts and a not-so-revealing top. The next woman was equally modest.

Then Sandi Lee came out in a gold bathing suit and torn T-shirt top. She drew a standing ovation and walked away laughing confidently.

“That gave me a big lift,” she said. “This is my crowd.”

All was going well until Bremmer stepped into the ring and stunned the crowd with a costume that covered even less than Lee’s. It looked as though Lee’s sentimental standing might not be enough.

The ring announcer told the crowd that he would announce the fourth-place finisher, then third, second and first. Sandi Lee was the first name he called.

At first, Lee stood stunned, slowly shaking her head. They called for her to come into the ring and accept the fourth-place prize. Tears formed in her eyes. Finally, she quickly walked up to take a $25 check, then disappeared into the dressing room.

Crystal Rudloff took third place. She squealed and laughed. But no, she would never, ever enter another beauty contest.

“I’m glad I didn’t win,” she said. “I’d have to come back here and do this every Tuesday night.”

Tina Martin finished second, just another contest for her. And, of course, Leslee Bremmer won. She dedicated the victory to her boyfriend.

“This is special to me. Everyone is so nice here,” she said before quickly leaving.

‘Old Friend’

The houselights dimmed and workers dismantled the boxing ring at the center of the deserted club. Sandi Lee leaned against a table by the side door.

“I know this place. This is an old friend,” she said.

A lingering fight fan shuffled by, patted Lee on the arm and said he thought she should have won.

“It wasn’t disappointment,” she said of the fourth-place finish, “it was disbelief.”

Then she smiled weakly.

“I think it’s time to appreciate this and reflect on it, to go on from here,” she said. “It’s time for a new phase.”