Miss America Pageant: Inner City Contest

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The Miss America Pageant was created by businesses interacting and leisure activities coming together on New Jersey beach. Atlantic city appeared as a beach resort for Philadelphians by the 1860s. In the 1870s a boardwalk was added. Over the next 50 years hotel's, saltwater taffy, hot dog stands, and arcades were all added to the holiday atmosphere for summer vacationers. In 1920 the Businessmen's League of Atlantic City came up with a plan, to keep fun and profits continuing past Labor Day. On September 25th, the Businessmen League organized a Fall Frolic. This is where three hundred and fifty people decorated rolling chairs. They were all men, they had to push the chairs. Although most people paid more attention to the women who sat in …show more content…
They appointed a committee to organize a “bather’s revue.” Newspapers sponsored beauty pageants based on photo submissions, newspapers from as far as Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C, were asked to sponsor a local beauty contests. The winner would participate in the Atlantic City contest. If the local newspaper would pay for the winners clothes the Atlantic City Businessmen League would pay for the contestants travel ticket to compete in the Inner City Beauty Contest. As the plans continued to work contestants were selected, a local Atlantic City newspaperman Herb Test proclaimed, “And we’ll call her Miss …show more content…
Neptune was surrounded by a costume ball with 20 black men and women, also known as “slaves.” The winner of the Golden Mermaid trophy and $100 was chosen by an equal combination of the crowd’s applause and the points given to her by a panel of artists who served as judges. The winner was a sixteen year old, Margaret Goman. She was from Washington D.C. They crowned her and wrapped her in an American flag as they paraded her around as Miss America. Samuel Gompers, the president of the American Federation of Labor said, “She represents the type of a womanhood America needs… strong, red blooded, able to shoulder the responsibilities of homemaking and motherhood. It is in her type that the hope of the country rests.” Over the next six years, parades and festivities had been expanded. The beauty contest was increasingly popular and the number of contestants had

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