HAPPY NEW YEAR T H E CAPITAL® G•R•I•L •„L • E approximately 10 judges, will be expe- riencing nonstop togetherness. "These girls will go through a gru- eling seven-day period where they are being assessed every minute," reports Jacobs. "There will be lunches, din- ners, cocktail parties and meetings, and they will be doing an awful lot of impromptu speaking and mingling. "I will be watching them to see how they interact and work the crowd. The first six seconds I meet the girls is very important. Did they make eye contact? Did they give a firm handshake? Did they smile?" Powerful vocal delivery also is a part of the winning equation. "I am looking for someone who speaks in well-organized sentences and who doesn't qualify everything she says," adds Jacobs. "These are all first and lasting impressions." Jacobs acknowledges that very few Jewish women vie for the jeweled crown. "I think it's because the emphasis for Jewish girls has been on brains, and we somehow don't think that beauty and brains go together. Jewish mothers aren't telling their daughters to go out and be Miss America — they are telling them to be doctorg and lawyers. "We think that if we focus on beau- ty it somehow trivializes brains," says Jacobs, "but that's not true. In the Miss America pageant, over $32 mil- lion is given away in scholarship money. So it isn't about just being pretty. It's also about being bright." But competing in pageants taught Jacobs "the importance of personal packaging," she says. "Early on I learned it's often not what you say, but how you look and sound when you are delivering the message." Jacobs' pageant experience also influenced her decision to pursue a career in television, and later in public . relations. Right out of college, she landed jobs as a news anchor and a weather girl in Lansing, Flint and Jackson. With an equal passion for the per- forming arts, Jacobs auditioned for a part in Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? As a member of the road company, she wound up with a run at the Birmingham Theatre and a short stint on Broadway. When her theatrical career ended, Jacobs wanted to shift gears and make use of the communication skills she'd learned from all her endeavors. "A friend of mine suggested that with my combination of television news and professional theater experience, I might be well-suited to head the media department of a PR firm, and I took her advice," she says. After acquiring a loyal clientele at another agency, Jacobs started her own business. That was 11 years ago, and since then she has made her mark in the industry, specializing in improving the presentation and interviewing skills of successful_professionals. She directs seminars on how to get ahead, helps launch new products and teaches men and women how to com- municate with confidence. Her clients include Harvard Medical School, the Sarah Lee Corporation, Colgate- Palmolive and Johnson & Johnson. "It's all about establishing relation- ships," says Jacobs. "You have to try to reach out." In fact, she adds, this is a quality the new Miss America should possess. "Before I cast my vote on Sept. 19, I am going to make sure that when she uses pronouns, it's not "I, me, and mine" but "we, us and ours." ❑ "The Miss America Pageant" airs 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, on ABC. The One And Only Jewish miss America I is been over 50 years since Bess Myerson walked down the runway in Atlantic City wearing the coveted Miss America crown. "Yet, after all these years, we still associate Bess Myerson with Miss America, more than any other win- ner," says Susan Dworkin, author of Miss America, 1945: Bess Myerson Own Story. "I think it's because she has accomplished so many remarkable things, because she was and is the only Jewish woman to hold the title and because of the anti-Semitic cli- mate of the country at that time." Dworkin's biography about Myerson and how she went from the Sholem Aleichem housing pro- jects in the Bronx to Atlantic City was originally published in 1987. Dry-aged Steaks, Chops, Large Lobsters "A dassic upscale steak house... The Capital Grille is an oasis of elegant genteel calm... Fresh Seafood Somerset Collection North 2800 West Big Beaver Road Troy, Michigan 48084 (248) 649-5300 Jane Rayburn The Detroit News "The national reputation of The Capital Grille has crowds beating down the doors." Lunch: Monday through Saturday, . 1130 am unti13:00 pm Dinner: Monday through Thursday, 5:00 pm- 10:00 pm Friday and Saturday, 5:00 pm- 11:00 pm Sunday: 3:00 pm - 9:00 pm "The Capital Grille is the place to see and be seen." The New York Times k . 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