History of the Beauty Pagent.

 When I visited Hawaii this past June, I sat out by Kuhio Beach in Waikiki, watching one of the parades with car after car of  beauty pageant winner. There was Miss Hawaii, Mrs Hawaii, Miss Teen, Miss Preteen, Miss this, Miss that, so many, my head couldn't keep track of things.

When I was young, there were only a couple of beauty pageants but over the years, more and more have been added until you can go from birth to middle aged competing in pageants.

The thing is, most of us associate the beginning of beauty pageants with the Miss America contest, so we assume that was the first one but in reality, the first beauty pageant happened in 1854.  Mr P.T. Barnum set up a beauty pageant after running contests on everything from dogs, to flowers, to babies but he had to cancel it after a huge societal protest.  Rather than give up completely, he told women to send in their daguerreotypes (early photos) for judging but it didn't succeed so pageants disappeared until 1921.

Atlantic City, NJ organized the first modern Beauty Contest in 1921 where it appeared as the "Atlantic City Inter-City Beauty Contest and designed as a way to increase and keep tourism in the area past Labor Day.  Young ladies came from around the east coast area to compete.  The winner was chosen by judges and by the audience clapping, each worth 50% of the final score.  The winner earned a trophy and those who lost could participate in a bathing suit competition the very next day if considered worthy enough.  This competition attracted around 200 entries from other competitions and the winner would get the "Golden Mermaid" Award.  Margaret Gorman who held the title of Miss Washington D.C.

Margaret Gorman entered the contest again in 1922 but because Washington D.C had already selected another woman to represent them, Atlantic City allowed her to enter as "Miss America".  The winner was expected to participate in a variety of events from giving speeches to making appearances.  Unfortunately, the 1937 winner considered the schedule too full and as soon as she won, climbed on a boat and driven away by her boyfriend.  She refused to talk about this with the press.

During World War II, there was a move to shut down beauty pageants as frivolous but those who ran these contests changed the focus to helping out the war by touring the United States and raising money for war bonds.

Thought the years, the Miss America contest came under fire for many reasons including the fact they did not include African Americans.  Although some African Americans made an appearance in the 1923 competition, it was only as participants in a dance number as slaves.  In protest, the African American population began holding their own competition in 1968 on the same day as the Miss America Contest. 1968 also signaled the year that American Feminists spoke out against the nature of a contest that scored women on their beauty.

In 1970, an African American won the Iowa state competition but didn't win at the national competition.  It took till 1984 for an African American to win the national level but just before the end of her reign, pictures appeared in Penthouse which forced her to resign from her position.

Over the years, other contests in the United States and other places have started such as Miss World, Miss USA and Miss Universe in the early 1950's, Miss International, and Little Miss America in the 1960's. Miss USA was created when the winner of the 1951 Miss America contest refused to pose in her swimsuit because she felt she was an opera singer, not a model.  So Catalina Swimwear pulled their sponsorship from the Miss America contest before starting Miss USA to promote its swimsuits.

By the time the Miss America contest began in Atlantic City, baby contests and contests for young children were already being held.  These contests were designed to recognize the "better" babies but disappeared briefly in the 1950's with the outbreak of polio.  Once the vaccine spread among the population, baby contests came back including the Little Miss America contest which opened the way for all the modern children's contests we see today.

It is quite an event because millions of people tune into these televised contests to watch and enjoy the competition until a winner is announced.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.