There She Was ... Miss America

"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.

That'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.

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My thought exactly D! And the tradition is little girls WANTING to be Miss America. Only 75 have been.

hmm. 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

notice how SOMMS skirts the crown issue?

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For the record ... they won't pull that crown off my head until I'm at the Fisher Brother's.

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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True 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.

Those bastards.

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ironically enough, williams and charles were the 1st and 2nd black women in history to win miss america. both in 1984.

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Betty Cooper sounds like a stupid bitch !!!

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A straight man?

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I 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.