7. Atlantic City Banned The Competition In 1927
Today, there are people who believe that Miss America should no longer exist, but this is a debate that is nothing new. Back in 1927, women’s groups in Atlantic City hated how these teenage girls were exploited for profit. It was a year after the premiere of the movie American Venus, so the crowds were bigger than ever, and it was even more controversial.
The winner that year was a 16-year old girl named Lois Delander, whose father had to rush her to the competition, and she showed up 15 minutes late to this event where men were catcalling, hooting and hollering at his baby girl. She won the contest, but all of the duties of being Miss America meant that she was missing out on school. She made $1,000 a week traveling around and meeting people.
Women’s groups complained about how the event crowded the boardwalk and interrupted normal life for the city’s citizens. It attracted a lot of low-lives in the audience who would cause a lot of trouble and dump trash on the beach. Considering that Atlantic City was filled with gambling and drinking as their main source of income, the fact that people had to complain about the beauty contest just goes to show how much it must have caused problems for the city’s residents.
Even though the competition was making a lot of money in tourist revenue, there was a vote to end Miss America in 1927. The Boardwalk Convention Hall was built in 1929, and that would become the future home of Miss America. However, the organization moved on to other beauty competitions in Maryland temporarily, because they were no longer welcome in New Jersey.
In the 1930’s, Atlantic City was suffering a lot from The Great Depression, and local politicians decided that they needed to bring the beauty pageant back. In 1933, they brought the show back to Atlantic City, but it had been 6 years since the last contest, so public interest had died down, and they hardly advertised. That year ended up being a total flop in ticket sales, and it would take years to revive people’s interest in seeing the beauty pageant before people started coming back.