Courting a Queen for Pasadena’s Royalty : Tryouts: Tournament of Roses judges start selecting from hundreds of young women.
Leave it to an architect to find a unique angle for picking next year’s Tournament of Roses Queen and her Court from among hundreds of hopefuls: Watch them going, as well as coming.
“I watch them walk away as well as walk toward us,” said architect Al Diaz, one of 10 judges charged with the difficult task of narrowing the field for January’s Pasadena royalty. “When they walk away, that’s when they let their guards down.”
Every year when the world sees seven tiara-adorned women riding down Colorado Boulevard, they are viewing only the survivors of a competition that annually draws hundreds of rivals in a monthlong weeding-out process.
And once again, that process began Saturday as the first wave of an anticipated 700 high school and college women from the Pasadena area--many in their best dresses or business suits--showed up at the Tournament House for the whirlwind first round of tryouts.
Like older sisters and girlfriends before them, many hoped to demonstrate just enough of the “right stuff” to be among the 250 who will be invited back next week. The winnowing continues until the Rose Queen is announced Oct. 17.
Most of the young women who showed up Saturday, however, will just have to settle for two free tickets to the Royal Ball--along with the satisfaction of trying.
And try they did. After a short lecture about the chance of becoming “overnight celebrities” who will appear before 450 million television viewers New Year’s Day, each young woman took the solitary walk along the Centennial Rose Garden pathway to meet the judges.
No one was allowed to give her name--such familiarities could influence the judges--so each was asked to introduce herself by contestant number and say why she is seeking the honor.
“When I was little, I always dreamed of becoming a princess, and I think this is the only way possible,” said No. 161, Meagan M., a 17-year-old senior at Muir High School in Pasadena. Quipped another: “I’ve got the wave down.”
Since each appearance lasted only about 15 seconds, the judges worked quickly to score contestants from 0 to 3 for poise and personality. Bruce M. Hayes, an oceanographic researcher and chairman of the Queen & Court Committee, was looking for steady eye contact and no canned statement.
“They’ll start talking and the mouth will keep going and going and going [because] they know what the next word is,” Hayes said about those who had memorized their words.
Judge Dottie Hazel, a homemaker, said she had a “knack” of spotting poise based on her motherly instincts. And Diaz said the poise--or lack thereof--that each individual showed as she walked away told him volumes about her true demeanor.
“I was doing real well until I looked at one [judge] who didn’t look too happy,” Nancy, a senior at Marshall High School in Pasadena, said to her girlfriend after the ordeal was over. Still, she said, it was worth giving it a shot.
“If you miss this opportunity, you’d wonder what might have happened.”