The Miss America pageant organizers, under pressure from Catalina, urged Betbeze to reconsider but she refused and held her ground. As a result, an enraged Catalina went off and a started a competing event, and thus Miss USA was born — launching its first pageant in in Long Beach, California. Catalina would also create the Miss Universe pageant, which would would become and remains the world's most watched beauty competition, airing in different countries annually.
Originally created by a group of Atlantic City businessmen in the s, the evolution of Miss America would see the event ultimately operated as a nonprofit.
Lenora Slaughter, a Southern Baptist and businesswoman, had made a name for herself in St. Petersburg, Florida, by working tirelessly at the Chamber of Commerce to put that town on the map. Slaughter came to the Miss America Pageant on a six-week leave of absence from St. She ended up staying, and in time would become director of the pageant, in a reign that lasted until The pageant became her passion.
She would bring the most significant and lasting changes to its structure. The newly revived pageant of marked the beginning of a concerted effort to attract an appropriate "class of girl" to represent the nation with the title of Miss America.
Unfortunately, Slaughter's early years were plagued with scandal and notoriety. In , a sculptor unveiled a nude statue of that year's Miss America, Henrietta Leaver. Later, Miss America , eighteen-year-old Bette Cooper, changed her mind about becoming Miss America and escaped in the middle of the night. Slaughter initiated an all-out crusade to improve the pageant's image.
First, she banned contestants who held titles that represented commercial interests, such as newspapers, amusement parks and theaters. Contestants were required to carry the title of a city, region, or state. This distanced the pageant from the crass practices of other pageants where the connection between money and women displaying themselves in public was obvious.
The contestants now had to be between 18 and 25 years old, and never married. And while in Atlantic City, they had to observe a 1 am curfew and a ban on bars and nightclubs. Slaughter initiated the talent competition in , introducing the idea that the contestants could be judged on more than beauty. Slaughter did not stop there. At the time, theaters, swimming pools, state fairs, and amusement parks ran local pageants. She persuaded local Junior Chambers of Commerce Jaycees to become sponsors, allowing parents to feel their daughters were in safe hands.
Further still, Slaughter persuaded socialites from Atlantic City's upper strata to act as hostesses and chaperones for the young women when they were in Atlantic City. A pageant judge once asked Slaughter what to look for in a winner. Slaughter's most significant legacy is the Miss America scholarship program.
She speaks with the media and is a representative of MAO with sponsors and partners, students and corporate executives. A first step to continuing her education and career, the job of Miss America is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that carries with it service above self. Close The Job. Close Scholarships. Close The Easy Questions. He was replaced by Gretchen Carlson, Miss America and a former Fox News host, who had recently left the network and received a twenty-million-dollar settlement in a sexual-harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes.
Carlson left the pageant after a shambolic year during which the sitting Miss America, Cara Mund, accused her and other officials of workplace bullying. They denied the charge. Delving into the history of Miss America, one is struck by the consistency of its critics. Political correctness is often presented as a function of time, a contemporary phenomenon forever on the rise.
Betbeze, the swimsuit apostate, received a hundred and sixty-three marriage proposals in the course of her reign. In the sixties, she was invited to return to Atlantic City for an onstage reunion with other previous winners. Met Spanish playboys! Chauffeur drove us home at 6 A. If Miss America is a job, its winners need a union.
The position offers little to no formal training, protection, or straightforward possibility for advancement. Pageant winners are awarded college-tuition money, but they are required to take time off from school in order to carry out their duties.
Many never go back. The scholarship money diminishes significantly at each ranking, so that seven finalists receive eighty-five hundred dollars apiece, enough to pay for a third of a semester at Georgetown, where Jade Glab, Miss New Jersey, is currently studying management.
Despite all this, pageants are an attractive option for many young women. Louis reportedly had her dimples insured for a hundred thousand dollars. Pageants have always been a means, above all, for young women to try to convert cuteness into capital.
One of them had a pixie cut. Others had bare midriffs. The winner, a begoggled pharmacy student from Virginia named Camille Schrier, basically gave a TED talk onstage, demonstrating the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide with exploding goo.
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