the third sex

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Tiffany’s Theatre in Pattaya is getting ready to stage this year’s Miss Tiffany Universe beauty pageant, the finals of which will take place on May 30. If you are in Pattaya at that time, a visit is recommend. If not, there are extensive plans to broadcast the event overseas.

The organising committee staged a press conference to announce the contest a few days ago, and once again I was struck by how this has become such a well respected and accepted event.

The driving force behind Tiffany’s these days is Miss Alisa Panthusak, for although her father Sutham is the owner, he has plenty else to occupy him as he is one of the leading members of Pattaya’s business community.

Alisa is in her 30s. I know her slightly, and she is a charmer. Like her dad, she is also a greatly respected local figure. She was appointed last year to the national commission that was drafting Thailand’s new constitution, and that gave her such a taste for politics that she has just run for the position of mayor of Pattaya City.

Although Alisa lost out to a very powerful candidate last week, she did however attract a respectable number of votes and increased her standing with the public by fighting a very clean and credible campaign.

Making the announcement for Miss Tiffany’s Universe, she pointed out that the contest, which is entering its 11th year, has become a major media event in Thailand and in many overseas countries.

Significantly, she said, it now has at least 20 high-profile sponsors from many different business sectors. These, said Alisa, include manufacturers, hotels, IT companies, and even finance and banking houses.

‘It is recognized that the Miss Tiffany contest is a strong brand name, and is becoming more socially accepted,” said Alisa.

This is all a far cry from when the show actually started, nearly 40 years ago. It began life in a small transvestite bar in South Pattaya, no more than a couple of converted shophouses, and although it was a harmless kind of place it was repeatedly being busted by the police.

I met Sutham a few years ago, and he told me how he had started his career as an accountant in one of Pattaya’s first hotels, round about 1970. He had then launched out on his own, with one of his first businesses being Pattaya’s first foreign exchange service, serving the increasing number of tourists that were travelling to the emerging resort.

Another venture was the setting up of a shooting range on land he bought on Pattaya Second Road, which was almost rural at that time. Wondering what else he could do with the plot, he decided to build a theatre. At the very same time, a man named Ungthi, the owner of Tiffany’s, told him he was pondering giving the business up because of all the trouble he was having.

The two decided on what must have been a very risky venture by moving Tiffany’s into the new theatre premises. However, it has subsequently become one of Pattaya’s biggest attractions. How times do indeed change.

Visit: Miss Tiffany’s Universe