African-American Miss America, 1983
No one was more surprised than Williams when, on Sept. 17, 1983, she was crowned Miss America: Only a handful of African-American women had ever competed in the pageant, which began in 1921. Williams "brought beautiful black women into the spotlight, having their beauty recognized by the rest of the country instead of just the rest of their family," says Barbara Summers, author of Skin Deep, a book about African-American models. But before Williams's reign was over, Penthouse published nude pictures taken of her in 1982, and she was forced to give up her crown. "It wasn't like my vocal cords were cut," she says. "It was a setback, not a defeat." Carefully rebuilding her career, the 35-year-old divorced mother of three has become a movie star (Eraser) and racked up 11 Grammy nominations. Thanks to her Miss America win, she says, "My daughters can feel gorgeous without wanting to look like an all-American girl."
Jake Steinfeld
Personal Trainer to the Stars, 1981
Eighteen years back, when celebs like Harrison Ford and Priscilla Presley wanted heavenly bodies, they turned to Jake Steinfeld, a bodybuilder who made house calls. While the stars shaped up, Steinfeld hoisted millions from TV, books and infomercials, in the process creating an occupation—personal trainer—that today numbers some 60,000. By "not working out of a gym," says Manhattan exercise guru Radu, "he made a tremendous contribution." Steinfeld got his start when a friend who'd asked him to help her shape up for a TV commercial sang his praises to celeb pals. Now 41 and living in L.A. with his wife and two children, Steinfeld produces Power Living by Jake for a cable network he co-owns, FIT-TV. "I love working out," he says. "It's my drug, my medicine."
Dolly
Cloned Mammal, 1996
Hello Dolly, indeed. The birth of the world's first clone of an adult mammal, a Finn-Dorset lamb, in Scotland on July 5, 1996, launched a news blitz, jokes and an epidemic of head-scratching among medical ethicists. People worry about "using the technique to make copies of people," says Dr. Ian Wilmut, head of Dolly's gene team, who hopes instead to "produce cells to fight human disease." How's Dolly? Last April, despite some concerns that clones might be sterile, Dolly had a little lamb—conceived the old-fashioned way.
Geraldine Ferraro
Female Vice-Presidential Candidate, 1984
Women nationwide cheered the history-making nomination of Geraldine Ferraro at the Democratic National Convention on July 19, 1984. "The excitement was amazing," says Ms. cofounder Gloria Steinem. The Dems were defeated, but "we took down the Men Only sign at the White House," Ferraro says. Presidential candidate Walter Mondale chose the mother of three and then-three-term congresswoman from New York City's borough of Queens to close the gender gap and draw attention to the race. "Any number of women could have done what I did," Ferraro, 63, says. "I'm grateful for what it has done for the future." After losing a recent New York senate bid and writing her memoir, Framing a Life, she's figuring out her next move. "I'd like to see a woman run for President," she says. "That would be the most important step."
Jane Fonda
Celebrity Exercise Video, 1982
A combination of vanity (becoming bikini-ready for the film California Suite) and altruism (raising bucks with then-husband Tom Hayden for political causes) led to the '82 release of Jane Fonda's Workout, which kicked off the fitness craze and launched a franchise of videos, audiotapes, books and exercise equipment that grossed more than $670 million. "We never dreamed the video would take off like it did," says Fonda, who tripped into aerobics when she broke her foot and could no longer practice ballet. Now 61 and living in Atlanta with third husband Ted Turner, Fonda has switched to yoga because, she says, "it's a coming together of outer body and inner mind and soul."
Barbara Walters
Female Nighttime News Anchor, 1976
No woman had ever anchored an evening newscast. But the ABC job, which lasted less than two years, was no picnic. Walters, now 67, caught flak about her million-dollar salary, and coanchor Harry Reasoner "didn't want a woman," she recalls. Still, her Oct. 4, 1976, debut, says 20/20 coanchor Connie Chung, was "a great moment for us all." Afterward, Walters focused on one-hour specials where she tangoed (verbally) with Fidel Castro and (physically) with Al Pacino. Recently she snagged interviewee-of-the-year Monica Lewinsky for 20/20. And though she also cohosts and is coexecutive producer of ABC's The View, Walters says, "It was a long, slow climb. I wasn't consciously trying to pave the way."
Sandra Day O'Connor
Female Supreme Court Justice, 1981
Her appointment "was a major step in securing opportunities for women in positions of significance," says O'Connor, 68, who graduated third in her '52 Stanford law class only to be offered a job as a legal secretary. She finally found work in the public and was a state appeals court judge when President Reagan (who, National Organization for Women president Patricia Ireland says, was feeling "the pressure of the women's vote") tapped her for the court in '81. O'Connor's gender made headlines, but it's her performance that has earned respect. Says Georgetown law professor Paul Roth-stein: She's "a very good judge."
Melissa Rathbun-Nealy
Enlisted American Female POW, 1991
The 20-year-old Army truck driver was captured by Iraqi forces near the Kuwaiti-Saudi border on Jan. 31, 1991. For 33 days, Melissa Rathbun-Nealy, one of 41,000 American military women involved in the Gulf War, lived in a 12-foot-square concrete cell. In sharp contrast to male prisoners of the war, she was treated humanely by her captors. "Being a female worked to my advantage," she says. After marrying fellow soldier Michael Coleman, she left the Army in '93. The Colemans now live in Texas with their two daughters, Briana, 6, and Dominique, 5. Currently taking computer classes, the former soldier, who still suffers from postwar medical problems, says, "What happened was God's plan. But I haven't figured out the purpose."
The Buggles
Music Video on MTV, 1981
"It made a statement," says MTV cocreator Bob Pittman of the Buggies' prophetic '79 anthem "Video Killed the Radio Star," which kicked off MTV's Aug. 1, 1981, debut and made one-hit wonders of Trevor Horn, now 49 and a successful record producer in England, and Geoff Downes, 46 and a record producer in Wales. When sales of the record increased, Pittman says he knew MTV "was having an impact." Horn praises the video venue but notes that to have a hit, "you still gotta have a good tune."
Nadia Comaneci
Olympic Gymnastics Perfect 10, 1976
She was 14, but the number most often associated with the Romanian sprite was 10, the first of what has become dozens of such Olympic gymnastics scores. To the gasping delight of the crowd at the '76 Montreal Games, Comaneci repeated the feat six times. Far more difficult was dealing with the hoopla. Leaving an exhibition match not long after, "I couldn't cross the street," she says. "People wanted to touch my ponytail." Now 37, Comaneci fled Romania in 1989 and married '84 Olympic gold medal winner Bart Conner seven years later. They live in Norman, Okla., where they run a gymnastics academy but travel frequently for personal appearances. "You make a statement when you're the first," says Comaneci. "It's something that's never going to be erased."
Morton Downey Jr.
Nationally Broadcast TV Talk Show Fisticuffs, 1988
The topic of The Morton Downey Jr. Show on Aug. 9, 1988, was African-American leadership. The verbal punches were in full swing when Congress of Racial Equality national chairman Roy Innis shoved Rev. Al Sharpton, because, Innis complained, Sharpton kept interrupting him. "That was the disrespect I was obliged to respond to," says Innis. The telecast got "sensational ratings," says Downey, setting the stage for Geraldo's broken nose and, later, Jerry Springer's slugfests. All parties maintain that the fight wasn't faked. But Sharpton says, "Downey helped create a climate for it." Downey's show, damaged by declining credibility, was canceled in 1989. At 66, living in California with his third wife and 5-year-old daughter (he also has three grown children), the lung cancer survivor now hosts an infomercial-like program, Discover Wall Street. "Downey set the bar for rudeness," says Philadelphia Inquirer critic Jonathan Storm. "At the time, he was more important than Oprah."
Frank Cannella
30-Minute Infomercial for a Product on Broadcast TV, 1982
Insomniacs and channel surfers owe a debt to Cannella. In the spring of 1982, the Chicago TV-airtime salesman ran a 30-minute national commercial for New Generation—a hair-growth product manufactured by Nevadan Bob Murphy—testing FCC regulations limiting the length of ads. In doing so, Cannella jump-started an industry that each year now sells about $75 billion worth of juicers and access to psychic friends. The FCC eased its rules in 1984, but "Frank got things going," says Phoenix marketing executive Nancy Langston. Today, Cannella, 41, a father of three, lives in Burlington, Wis., where he is linking TV and Web sites so people can choose which infomercial to watch.
Louise Brown
Test-Tube Baby, 1978
Two months after her July 25, 1978, birth in Manchester, England, "I had a proposal of marriage," Louise Brown told the Daily Mail in 1996. "Everyone wanted to meet me." Now the original product of in vitro fertilization has plenty of company. More than 300,000 children around the world (including Brown's sister Natalie, 17) owe their lives to IVF. "Our duty was to get a thousand others so Louise wouldn't be alone," says Robert Edwards, who, with his late partner Patrick Steptoe, masterminded the procedure that successfully united a sperm and an egg outside the womb. Now 20, Brown, a day-care nurse in Whitchurch, England, told the Daily Mail, "I might have come into the world differently than my friends. But in every other way, I'm the same."
Sally Ride
American Woman in Space, 1983
Starstruck spectators watched Ride—an astrophysicist who applied for the astronaut's job after reading a NASA newspaper ad—rocket to fame on June 18, 1983. She didn't care about being the first U.S. Space Girl. (The Soviets had sent female cosmonauts into space in '63 and '82.) "I wanted to fly in space," she says. Capt. Bob Crippen chose her for the mission "because I was looking for the best people, and Sally filled the bill he recalls. Divorced in '86 from astronaut Steven Hawley, Ride completed two more flights before leaving NASA in '87 and today is a physics professor at the University of California at San Diego. Meanwhile, 30 other American women have become astronauts. Says Ride, 47: "I'm proud to be a role model for girls fascinated with the space program."
The McCaugheys
Surviving Septuplets, 1997
Conceived with fertility drugs (as was sister Mikayla, now 3) and weighing less than 4 pounds each at birth, Kenny and Bobbi McCaughey's Nov. 19, 1997, special deliveries turned into the seven wonders of the world. "They could have lost any one of those children at any time," says Bob Brown, pastor of the family's Carlisle, Iowa, church. Two months after their arrival, a set of Saudi septs survived, and a Houston woman gave birth to octuplets (one later died) last December. Are mega-multiples the wave of the future? Oh, baby, baby, baby, baby....
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
