Miss Vivian contestants are ready to buy your votes

Published 3:06 am Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Local pubs and saloons are begging, borrowing and bribing their way toward the 2006 Miss Vivian Pub Crawl crown.

The fundraising event for the Astor Street Opry Company production, “Shanghaied in Astoria,” is running full force until the annual Shanghaied Costume Ball in August.

This year’s competition includes nine bars and taverns, each selling buttons adorned with their candidate for “Miss Vivian,” the show’s notorious saloon owner whose patrons risk getting shanghaied through her bar’s trap door.

The contestants range from classy, pretty and sweet to odd and ugly, said Judy Niland, ASOC publicist. One establishment chose to feature an unusual “pair” with twin representatives, she said. Another is auctioning off meals with its male contestant serving steaks in drag.

Participating bars sell their buttons “for whatever they can get for them,” Niland said. “It’s a campaign that is bought, essentially.”

Proceeds benefit “Shanghaied in Astoria.” Whichever pub raises the most money lands its representative the 2006 Miss Vivian crown.

Featured businesses include the Cannery Café Lounge, The Chart Room, The Desdemona Tavern, Mary Todd’s Worker’s Bar & Grill, the Moose Lodge Lounge, Portway Tavern, Rogue Ales Public House, The Schooner 12th Street Bistro and The Ship Inn.

At 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, “Shanghaied” fans can board a “trolley bus” for a tour of Astoria’s trap doors, voting on special cocktails and purchasing buttons of bartender contestants until they arrive at the annual Shanghaied Costume Ball, where Miss Vivian 2005, Kama of the Worker’s Bar & Grill, will crown 2006’s winner.

The ball starts at 9 p.m. Aug. 19. Admission is $5 and minors are welcome. For more information or to sign up for the pub crawl, call (503) 325-6104.