Initial Successes
The estimated budget for the 1965-1966 Program Committee shows the increasing amount of resources that State's Mates put toward their annual beauty pageant, which was held in January of 1966.
Shortly after Mrs. NC State’s founding in 1962, the executive board of State’s Mates decided that the Second Vice President’s chief responsibility should be planning and putting on the pageant, showing the amount of time and energy that State’s Mates felt was necessary to make the show successful. The fashion and variety shows which had previously dominated State’s Mates’ social life diminished as more effort was placed in this single production.
This is shown in a budgetary estimation for the 1965-1966 academic year: whereas the program committee only required $4.00-$5.00 in other months, the month of the beauty pageant spent $35. In 2010 dollars, this means that State’s Mates spent $26-33 for monthly expenses, and $235 for the pageant
Brenda Whicker's report on the 1964 Mrs. NC State contest gives a good sense of how much time and effort State's Mates put into organizing the pageant. Whicker thanks fourteen other people, twelve of them volunteers from State's Mates, for their assistance.
State's Mates also invested a lot of time in the beauty pageant. Volunteers were needed to contact potential judges and masters of ceremonies, as well as decorate the space used to hold the pageant. Unlike with variety shows, which could be organized on a simple sign-up basis, State's Mates members had to fill out and review applications, and then type up "fact sheets" based on these for the Master of Ceremonies and local press. Brenda Whicker's report on the 1964 ceremony suggests the amount of time and effort that State's Mates members spent in making the Mrs. NC State pageant effective. It was not an event that could be organized by one, or even two, people.
The 1964 Mrs. NC State pageant received enough support from local merchants that all participants were able to receive prizes.
State's Mates solicited the help of merchants to make participating in the pageant more attractive. Winners received a large set of prizes from various merchants, but contestants received a prize even for participating. The amount of merchandise attests to the dedication of State's Mates in soliciting prizes, but also to the amount of support they received from the Raleigh community.
Betty Marcum, Mrs. NC State for 1965, had her photograph printed in The Raleigh Times.
The entire show took two days: preliminaries were held on the first day, and finals on the second. Initially, attendance was high. In the 1964-1965 school year, State’s Mates estimated that 175-200 people attended the preliminary round, and 250-300 attended the second. State's Mates found the attendance numbers highly satisfactory, and wrote off the pageant as a stunning success. The pageant and its winner were covered not only by The Technician but also by local Raleigh newspapers.
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