There She Was ... Miss America
There She Was ... Miss America
#0There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:11am
"The dreams of a million girls who are more than pretty, might come true in" ... Dubuque, Paduca, Pascagula, Culver City?
It is a very, very SAD day for SOMMS. After an 84 year run the Miss America Pageant is leaving Atlantic City. I've had a seat in Convention Hall in mid-September for the last thirty years. As a Miss America volunteer, judge, producer, director and life long FAN it is heartbreaking that it has come to this. Change was inevitable and will be embraced, but the end of the TRADITION is very hard to accept.
#1re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:16amsee, now, i would have thought that you were younger than 84, or at least have more ex's if that is the case....
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#2re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:20amThat's so sad! I have the autographs of about 6 Miss Americas. When I was a child, I was convinced that I would, someday, win that competition. Then I realized that I have no talent, I look terrible in swimsuits, and I have appalling taste in evening wear. It's better for me to just watch from home.
I starred in a short film called Magnetic Personality. Check it out!
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#3re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:24am
"I have no talent, I look terrible in swimsuits, and I have appalling taste in evening wear."
The only problem I see for you, dear ~FF~, is that Miss America isn't supposed to lie 
#4re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:28amMy thought exactly D! And the tradition is little girls WANTING to be Miss America. Only 75 have been.
#5re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:30am
SOMMSY I was very sad when I heard this news this morning. 
Do you have to give back the crown now too?
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#6re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:30amhmm. 75 winners in 84 years. two years were cancelled for war, right? (or was it more?) but what happened to the other years? multiple winners (can that happen?)
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Updated On: 8/26/05 at 09:30 AM
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#7re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:37amYes, Robbo there were 4 years without a pageant due to war and two multiple winners (in the 20's before a rule change). Then there was the year that they changed the year of reign. (eg. crowned in 1948 but was Miss America 1949. I may be off one or two with 75. And then to muck it up there was Vanessa Williams year and two Miss America's.
#8re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:41amnotice how SOMMS skirts the crown issue?
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#9re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:43amSomms, that must have been very cool being a part of all that!
I hung out with Cheyenne Jackson in his dressing room waayyyyyy before he tickled D2. "unleash the girly"
Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch.
Puppies are babies in fur coats.
Tinfoil...The Terrorizing Terminator
#10re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:44amFor the record ... they won't pull that crown off my head until I'm at the Fisher Brother's.
Albin
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#11re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:47amthe telecast hasn't been the same since they started shortening the talent competition from all 10 finalists to the top 5 then only the top 2, as they did last year. Talent was the only reason to watch for me.
#12re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:47am
i love history! looks like that after starting in 1921, the pageant ran into a few snags in the late 20s/early 30s - from the official miss america website:
1928
March 3: Unfortunate happenings with the press and ever increasing pressure from women's groups and church officials make pageant organizers fearful that the pageant was beginning to give the city a bad name. Despite a $7,000 profit on the 1927 event alone, they vote 27-3 to discontinue the famed Atlantic City Pageant. The blow was softened with an agreement to look into its return when the vast Boardwalk Convention Hall was opened in 1929 or 1930.
1929
Boardwalk Convention Hall opened but no pageant was held. Instead another organization in Maryland formed a 'National Beauty Contest" to crown a Miss America. Amid controversy, Lilyan Andrus of Ohio would claim the title.
1930
Taking matters into his own hands, Pageant Director General of the 1920's, Armand T. Nichols, Atlantic City local and former Mayor's secretary, attempted to convince city officials to bring back the fabled Atlantic City Pageant. Despite being in the throes of the Great Depression, he convinced the city it was losing out on valuable revenues for having abandoned it. He sited a successful event of a much smaller scale staged in Florida where a "Miss America' (Tampa's Margaret Ekdahl) was crowned. But, Atlantic City Hotelmen refused to endorse its return.
1931
Isolated city pageants (newspaper sponsored) continued to crop up as Armand T. Nichols tried to redevelop contacts from the 1920s. But, Atlantic City businessmen remained adamant in their decision not to stage the pageeant.
1932
Wildwood, New Jersey picks up the ball and stages a "Miss America" pageant. A petite brunette by the name of Dorothy Hann took the title as Miss Greater Camden (New Jersey). Although not nearly the scope of the 1920s events in Atlantic City, it is considered a success. Atlantic City gave Armand T. Nichols the green light to hold the pageant once again in Atlantic City's Boardwalk Convention Hall in September 1933.
History of Miss America
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#13re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:50amthe vanessa williams/first runner up were counted as just one miss america for 1984.
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#14re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:52amTrue Robbo, but Suzette Charles was officially crowned at a ceromony after Vanessa was forced to relinquish the title. So technically two women were crowned Miss America that year.
#15re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:53amtwo women but only one miss america 1984, according to pageant history.
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#16re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:54am
Those bastards.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#17re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:57amIn 1937 Bette Cooper from New Jersey ran off with her boyfriend the night of her crowning. She is listed as Miss America, but she never completed her year.
#18re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:59amironically enough, williams and charles were the 1st and 2nd black women in history to win miss america. both in 1984.
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#19re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 9:59amOh that's right - you were still a hetero in '37, weren't you, SOMMS?
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#20re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 10:00amBetty Cooper sounds like a stupid bitch !!!
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#21re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 10:01amshe had the crown, prize money, septer and SOMMS. what more can a girl need?
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#22re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 10:02amA straight man?
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#24re: There She Was ... Miss America
Posted: 8/26/05 at 10:03amI was in a box seat two chairs off the runway for that glorious year. Suzette's rendition of "Kiss Me In The Rain" still gives me goosebumps. That's why I am so sad that Miss America is leaving Atlantic City. It just won't be the same in some big concrete box in whatever city it lands in.
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