Timeline of major beauty pageants
Pre 1900s
[1]
- Early 19th century: Bathing Beauty Pageant of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware begins.
- 1854: P.T. Barnum was the man behind the first American pageant.
1920s
[2]
- 1921: Atlantic City, New Jersey hotel owners desire to stage a fall festival to encourage tourism past Labor Day.
- The festival includes a National Beauty Pageant Tournament (NBPT), with the winner to be titled "Miss America". Eventually, by 1941, the event itself became known as the Miss America Pageant.
- Newspaper editors are invited to run photo contests to pick winners to represent their counties at the new pageant.
- Eight contestants compete.
- Margaret Gorman a 16-year-old from Washington, D.C., is crowned the first Miss America (1921).
- Starting the tradition of the bond between pageantry and the film industry she is said to be a dead ringer for matinee star Mary Pickford.
- 1923: The popularity of the Miss America Pageant increases to 70 contestants.
- Mary Katherine Campbell from Columbus, Ohio wins the Miss America Pageant for a second time (1922 and 1923) enacting a rule that the title can not be held more than once.
- Controversy ensues as Miss America officials forget to install a "no marriage" rule and discover that contestant Helmar Leiderman is not only married but a resident of a state different from the one she was representing.
- 1929: The Miss America Pageant is discontinued from 1929 to 1932 due to the effects of the Great Depression.
1930s
[3]
- 1934: The Miss America Pageant is revived in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
- Marian Bergeron a 15-year-old is the winner.
- Controversy ensues when it is learned that she is underage.
- She is disqualified, but her crown is stolen from her hotel just hours after her crowning.
- The contest is cancelled due to financial troubles.
- 1935: Lenora Slaughter is hired to run the Miss America Pageant.
- Reflecting the nation's fascination with Hollywood the contest adds a talent competition.
- Winners receive a professional screen test.
- Silver screen agents representing moguls like Howard Hughes scout for potential starlets.
- Dorothy Lamour, a 1935 contestant, later co-stars in Bob Hope's Road to film series.
- 1937: Controversy ensues as Bette Cooper disappears with her bachelor chaperon Lou Off.
- A state wide police search is launched, only to reveal that Bette and Off had just returned to her hometown so as to attend school.
1940s
[4]
- 1942: The Miss America Pageant is threatened during World War II, but it continues in the idea that pageants are good for the American spirit.
- 1945: In ironic historical coincidence Bess Myerson, Miss America 1945, becomes the first Jewish woman to win a national pageant shortly after World War II along with a first ever pageant scholarship award of $5,000.
- 1948: Reporters attempt to boycott as it is announced by Lenora Slaughter that Miss America Pageant winners will be crowned in a modern gown rather than the traditional bathing suit.
- As a concession runner-ups pose in swimsuits while Bebe Shopp is crowned Miss America in a gown.
1950s
[5]
- 1950: Yolande Betbeze, Miss America 1951, refuses to pose in a swimsuit insisting that she is a classical singer not a pin-up.
- Catalina swimwear, a major sponsor, quits their support of the Miss America Pageant and starts the Miss Universe Pageant.
- 1951: With the popularity of American pageants the Festival of Brittan starts the Miss World Pageant with the slogan 'Beauty with a Purpose".
- Variety Clubs International joins them in order to raise funds for world charities.
- Kiki Haakonson from Sweden is the winner.
- 1952: 30 women compete in Long Beach, CA for a new Miss USA Pageant, a preliminary to Miss Universe.
- This title is won by Jackie Laugherty of New York.
- 29 women compete in a new Miss Universe Pageant.
- This title is won by Armi Kuvsela of Finland.
- Reigniting the pageant's connection to the silver screen, actress Piper Laurie crowns Armi.
- 1953: The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II worldwide royal mania which popularizes public idolization of pageantry and royalty...enter the "American Queens".
- 1954: First live coast-to-coast broadcast of the Miss America Pageant.
- Lee Meriweather is awarded the crown.
- Movie queen Grace Kelly is a judge.
- Songwriter Bernie Wayne, of Blue Velvet fame, composes "There She Is, Miss America" in the pageant's honor.
- 1957: Controversy ensues as Leona Gage resigns after her mother-in-law informs the press that 18-year-old Gage is married and the mother of two children.
- Leon explains that she entered into the pageant to earn money to support her husband's military salary.
- 1958: Mobile, Alabama's Azalea contest is expanded into the Junior Miss Pageant (AKA America's Junior Miss, now known as Distinguished Young Women), a scholarship program to recognize outstanding achievement by high school seniors.
1960s
[6]
- 1960: CBS begins televising pageants.
- Corrine Huff becomes the first black woman to compete in a major national pageant, the Miss Ohio-USA Pageant.
- 1962: Miss Haiti Evelyn Miot becomes the first black woman to make an international semi-finals, at the Miss Universe Pageant.
- Late 1960s: Pageants are now broadcast in color.
- 1966: Miss America Pageant contestants travel to Vietnam to entertain servicemen with Bob Hope.
- This starts another pageant tradition.
- 1967: Sylvia Hitchcock becomes the first American in seven years to win the Miss Universe Pageant.
- She does so representing Alabama where she attends school instead of her hometown of Miami, Florida.
- 1967: The Women's Liberation Front protest the Miss America Pageant.
- 1968: The Miss Black America Pageant is held in Atlantic City to protest the absence of black women in the Miss America Pageant.
1970s
[7]
- 1970: In a historical coincidence, Cheryl Browne, an African-American, wins the Iowa title in the Miss America franchise soon after the formation of the Miss Black America Pageant.
- She does not make the semi-finals.
- Phyllis George from Texas is crowned the winner.
- A specialty golden 50th anniversary crown crashes to the floor during her crowning splattering rhinestones along the runway.
- 1971: The Miss National Teen-aged Pageant is started in Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1973: The Miss Universe Pageant is broadcast live worldwide via satellite from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece.
- 1974: Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos spares no expense to host The Miss Universe Pageant, even calling in the military to seed monsoon clouds to prevent an approaching typhoon.
- Amparo Munoz from Spain wins.
- 1979: After the Miss Universe Pageant in Australia, the stage collapses as 200 reporters and contestants rush forward to congratulate the winner Maritza Sayalero of Venezuela.
- Two people are hospitalized.
1980s
[8]
- 1980: The Miss T.E.E.N. Pageant program honoring teen excellence is founded.
- Susan McDonald is the first winner.
- In the 1980 Miss America Pageant, a black woman, Lenola Sullivan from Arkansas places in the top five and wins the swimsuit competition.
- Shawn Nichols Weatherly from South Carolina becomes the first American in thirteen years to win the Miss Universe title.
- 1984: After a scandal the runner up from 1983, Suzette Charles, takes Vanessa Williams' crown.
- Yet another teen pageant is founded. Debbie Brooks of Modesto, California wins the title.
- Mai Shanley of Philippine and Irish parentage becomes the first Eurasian winner of Miss USA.
- Laura Martinez Herring, a naturalized Mexican-American, and Deborah Carthy-Deu of Puerto Rico become the first Hispanics to win major titles.
- 1986: Miss Black USA Pageant is started by Karen Arrington.
- Another pageant, Mrs. United States, is founded with Sharon Kirkby as the winner.
- A pageant television series Dream Girl USA is cancelled after only one season.
- Laurelle Brooks was asked to be one of the contestants of Dream Girl USA and to return for the final show.
- 1987: Kaye Lani Rae Rafko, an oncology nurse from Michigan, wins Miss America.
- She voluntarily devotes part of her year to advocating hospice care promoting the nursing platform and setting a new precedent of social activism for title holders allowing them to be role models of public service.
- The first Miss Black USA Pageant is held at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Washington D.C.
- Tamiko Gibson from Maryland, a University of Maryland Broadcast Journalism major, is crowned.
- 1988: An American, Pamela Nail of Mississippi, wins Miss World for the first time.
- 1989: The Mrs. International Pageant is founded crowning Rhonda Berglan of Oklahoma.
- Richard Guy and Rex Holt, founders of GuyRex, Inc, have their fifth title winner in five years crowned with all of their winners coming from Texas.
1990s
[9]
- 1990: Russia sends Evia Stalbovska of Latvia as Miss USSR.
- Finally Miss USA has an African American title holder, Carol Gist of Michigan.
- Ironically Debbie Turner, another African American, wins Miss America (the reign continues as another black woman Marjorie Vincent wins the following year).
- Miss Black USA Pageant awards its first full tuition scholarship.
- 1991: Kathie Lee Gifford becomes the first full-fledged woman co-host.
- Dr. Deborah Williams, a practicing psychologist and mother from Texas, becomes the first black woman to win a pageant for married women.
- After reports reveal that she was physically abused by her former fiancé an NFL player, Carolyn Sapp, achieves national recognition for her campaign against domestic violence making the cover of People magazine and starring in a film about her life.
- 1993: For the second time in history, black women hold two pageant title crowns simultaneously: Kenya Moore and Kimberly Aiken.
- Charlotte Lopez wins viewers' hearts as they discover her story of her thirteen years as a foster child.
- Prime Time Live airs a feature on her life and she writes a book, Lost in the System.
- 1994: Heather Whitestone wins Miss America after performing a ballet to music while deaf and becomes the first physically handicapped woman to win a title.
- One pageant decides to keep the swimsuit portion of their competition after putting it up to caller votes with 73% voting in favor of it.
- 1999: Botswana sends its first ever contestant to the Miss Universe Pageant, Mpule Kwelagobe, and she wins in a stunning upset.
2000s
[10]
- 2001: Controversy ensues when David Letterman jokes that the talent portion for Andrea Noceti of Colombia consisted of her swallowing 50 balloons of heroin.
- She threatens to sue and he apologizes.
- Ilanit Levy, an 18-year-old contestant from Haifa who is an Israeli soldier, is forced to wear a bulletproof vest at a pageant due to security concerns.
- 2002: Oksana Fyodorova a full-time police lieutenant from St. Petersburg, Russia, is stripped of her title for failing to fulfill her duties.
- At a pageant in Nigeria, a predominantly Muslim country at the time, there is an anti-pageant protest, and rioting breaks out.
- It is sparked when a female reporter suggests that Islam's Prophet might well have married one of the contestants.
- Several hundred people are killed.
- The pageant is moved to London, England after several contestants leave the country due to security concerns.
- In another international pageant Christina Sawaya of Lebanon pulls out stating that she will not compete in a pageant with Israel's contestant Yamit Har-Noy causing further security concerns for this pageant.
- Halle Berry a 1986 runner-up wins the 2002 Academy Award for Best Actress in Monster's Ball maintaining the pageant film star connection.
- 2004: ABC drops the Miss America Pageant.
- 2006: Danielle Lloyd is stripped of her title in Great Britain after allegations that she had been romantically involved with one of the judges, the Manchester United and England football star Teddy Sheringham, before the competition.
- The controversy intensifies when she poses nude in Playboy magazine.
- Legal action is brought against her for bringing the pageant into disrepute.
- More sexual controversy as Tara Connor is nearly stripped of her title after media reports surface of her engaging in underage drinking, lewd behavior, and other behavior issues.
- 2009: Dr. Ian Smith partners with a pageant to start the 50 Million Pound Challenge to fight obesity in the African-American community.
2010s
[11]
- 2011: Another community-minded pageant, American Siren, with a motto of; "A true pageant featuring the real beauty of a woman: Her ability to be both attractive and intelligent simultaneously capable of reconciling the role of C.E.O. and cover girl." is founded.
- Solidifying the bond with Hollywood it is launched by Invision Filmworks.
References