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?√ß DAY I G H T lladison ?·>ijuare w No reason you shouldn't feel cocky stepping out In the slim, sleek silhouette of Madison Squares* A style for comfortable confidence in ail walks of life ?╟÷ both daytime and nighttime* Sizes: 6 to 12 $S?╜SS to $8.99 Deluxe Madison Squares fo $12.99 For name of nearest store, writes MADISON SQUARE 35 N, Fourth St., Columbus IS* Ohio mounted his daises and they continue to mount at the rate of fifty a year. Among his annual offerings are the Misses (in beauty-contest circles, the Miss and the Queen are interchangeable terms) Kumquat, Bird of Para- dise, Flame Vine, Chrysanthemum, Grapefruit, Rose, Orchid, Azalea, Orange Blossom and Bougainvillaea. At least one girl has held four dif- ferent titles. The throne room where Cypress Gardens girls are tapped for the ranks of royalty is a small, windowless office marked Little Vatican, where Dick Pope fidgets nervously like a bird in a cage. The day I first visited him there he was wearing black and white shoes, grey flannels, a blue yachting coat withlwo crossed water skis and the letters CG in gold sewn on the pocket. He is a stubby, moon-faced man, five feet six inches tall, with bushy, greying hair and a small paunch. He looked up from an endless pile of color photographs and waved amiably to me. ?╟úThe tourists love a crowning,?╟Ñ he said in a slightly rasping voice. ?╟úMakes them feel they?╟╓re in on something big. In the old days, I had a motto, ?╟ A queen a day keeps the sheriff away/ It?╟╓s gotten so that I have a hard time keeping my queens straight. My record was nine queens in seven days. We?╟╓re having a crowning today, in fact, I?╟╓ve got this load of chrysanthemums and I?╟╓d better get me a queen before they wilt.?╟Ñ Pope aimlessly shuffled his stack of photographs for a moment, and then reached resolutely for the telephone. He called the girls?╟╓ cottage, a thatched-roof dressing room used by the girl water skiers and models, and inquired who was around. ?╟úYes . . . yes . . . yes,?╟Ñ he said. ?╟úWell, who?╟╓s this Bonnie Bradley? Sounds like she might do. Send her up.?╟Ñ The queen's oversize ?╟úgrapefruits?╟Ñ Pope moved the photographs to a corner of his boomerang-shaped desk. He began tearing strips of paper. ?╟úThere are so many girls around here I can?╟╓t tell one from another,?╟Ñ he said. ?╟úSometimes I don?╟╓t even know who?╟╓s on the pay roll. The models--?╟÷most of them are queens?╟÷ make $42.50 a week to start. Somebody once asked me how many peo- ple work at Cypress Gardens. ?╟ About a third of them,?╟╓ I said. I guess that?╟╓s about right, too. Well, you never know when you?╟╓re going to need them. When we had Wide Wide World down here, they asked me if I could get them the Orange Queen. ?╟ Sure,?╟╓ I said, ?╟ and I?╟╓ll get you Miss America too.?╟╓ There were six other girls in the same act with the Orange Queen and I asked if they?╟╓d like these girls to be queens too. They loved the idea^and I crowned the girls*. Then Wide Wide .World begged me to find them a Grapefruit Queen. I said it would take about an hour. So they started rehearsals. When the narrator said, ?╟ Now we have the Grapefruit Queen,?╟╓ the girl stepped out, but she turned out to be over- size in the chest department. The boys were afraid it would stop the show. I said, ?╟ Well, I?╟╓ll crown another.?╟╓ I really gave the director of that show the Hollywood treatment. For him I had a camp chair, an electrically amplified megaphone and a cap, all marked with his name.?╟Ñ We heard rustling in the hall and a short, pert blonde with a good complexion and a bosomy figure entered the room wearing an antebellum dress. ?╟úSo this is Bonnie Bradley,?╟Ñ Pope said. ?╟úShe?╟╓s been on duty in the Gardens.?╟Ñ He inspected the girl briefly. ?╟úHow old are you, honey??╟Ñ he asked. ?╟úEighteen,?╟Ñ Bonnie Bradley said. ?╟úEver been a Queen??╟Ñ Bonnie said she had not. ?╟úWell, do the boys think you photograph okay??╟Ñ Bonnie nodded, and Pope seemed satisfied. He said, ?╟úSmile for me, honey. Great. You?╟╓re going to be the Chrysanthemum Queen. Shooting?╟╓s scheduled for three-thirty. We?╟╓ve got Miss America down here for a few days at $500 a day, and she?╟╓ll do the crowning.?╟Ñ He looked pleased. ?╟úWhere shall I go for the shooting??╟Ñ asked Bonnie Bradley. ?╟úTo the throne??╟Ñ ?╟úWe have a portable throne and stage on the lawn for crownings,?╟Ñ Pope explained, ?╟úbut I don?╟╓t think we?╟╓ll use it today. There are some reporters here from New York on a press trip. We?╟╓ll use a frame filled with chrysanthemums. Bonnie will stick her head through for the photographers and it will look as though she?╟╓s surrounded by a wall of flowers. You?╟╓d better hurry, Bonnie. You want to get your hair fixed, and don?╟╓t forget your robe and crown.?╟Ñ ?╟úOkay,?╟Ñ said the Chrysanthemum Queen. ?╟úThanks.^8 ?╟úMy only problem now is to find ail announcer around down here in Florida who can pronounce chrysanthemum,?╟Ñ said Pope in a rare mo- ment of disparagement against the Sunshine State. Cypress Gardens, 106 acres of tropical plants, cypress trees, pseudo- sylvan canals and parking lots, depends on a sort of three-pronged hook to catch the tourists. There are the girls, both the queens and the Scarlett O?╟╓Haras who sit in their long dresses throughout the Gardens, the water-ski shows which go on four times a day even during a freeze, and the Gardens themselves where 3,000 varieties of plant life are laid 122 ESQUIRE : September