| Miss USA 1988 | |
|---|---|
 Courtney Gibbs, wearing Miss USA 1988 crown | |
| Date | March 1, 1988 |
| Presenters | |
| Venue | El Paso Convention And Performing Art Center (Abraham Chavez Theater), El Paso, Texas |
| Broadcaster | CBS, KDBC-TV |
| Entrants | 51 |
| Placements | 10 |
| Winner | Courtney Gibbs Texas |
| Congeniality | Elva Anderson (District of Columbia) |
| Best State Costume | Lagracella Omran (Nevada) |
| Photogenic | Rowanne Brewer (Maryland) |
Miss USA 1988 was the 37th Miss USA pageant, televised live from the El Paso Civic Center in El Paso, Texas on March 1, 1988. At the conclusion of the final competition, Courtney Gibbs of Texas was crowned Miss USA, becoming the fourth consecutive winner from Texas. [1]
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The pageant was hosted by Growing Pains star Alan Thicke, the first time in twenty years that Bob Barker did not host, and the pageant commentator was Tracy Scoggins. [2] Barker, an animal rights activist, refused to be involved because one of the winner's prizes was a fur coat. [3] There had been controversy surrounding the fur coats since the previous year, and Barker claimed he had asked pageant officials not to give away coats for years but that he had been ignored. [4] Other animal rights activists threatened to picket the pageant in protest at its fur policy and disrupted a pre-pageant press conference. [5] [6] In an unrelated attack, Scoggins was attacked in an elevator following pageant rehearsals. The attacker was charged with attempted sexual assault. [7]
This was the first time that the pageant was held in Texas and the only time it was ever held in El Paso. El Paso had hosted the Miss Teen USA 1987 pageant the previous year, and it was announced in November 1987 that the city would likely host Miss USA 1988. [8]
