SHORT TAKES : Just for a Song? Not Bert Parks
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Bert Parks said today that if he returns to the Miss America Pageant, he won’t do it for a song.
Parks serenaded the newly crowned beauty queen with “There She Is†for 25 years before he was fired as emcee in 1980 to give the show a younger look.
The pageant director who dumped him, Albert Marks, died last year. Marks’ successor, Leonard Horn, wants to bring back Parks for the pageant’s 75th anniversary this year. The pageant will be held Sept. 4-8 and shown on NBC.
Parks, 75, said Tuesday that terms of his return are still being worked out.
Horn said Gary Collins and Phyllis George will be hosts this year for the second time.
Parks wasn’t thrilled about that news.
“I don’t want to appear in something fourth-fiddle,†he said. And he said he will not appear merely to sing the traditional song.
“If it’s just that, we ain’t doing nothing,†Parks said.
