Miss America Pageant
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| Scholarship pageant | |
| Predecessor | September 25, 1920 Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S. (as The Fall Frolic) |
| Founded | September 8, 1921 Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Headquarters | Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S. |
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Key people
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Sam Haskell (Executive Chairman and CEO) |
| Website | www |
Miss America refers to both "The Miss America Organization" (MAO) and "The Miss America Foundation" (MAF). The MAO "is a 501(c)4 non-profit organization that controls and oversees the local, state, and national competition framework and hosts the annual Miss America Competition and telecast" while the MAF is "a separate 501(c)3 non-profit organization that serves as the scholarship arm that processes scholarships for recipients across the country." The competition is a scholarship pageant that is held annually and is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 24. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews in addition to their physical appearance. Miss America travels about 20,000 miles a month, changing her location every 24 to 48 hours, touring the nation and promoting her particular platform of interest. The winner is crowned by the previous year's titleholder.
The current titleholder, Miss America 2017, is Miss Arkansas 2016, Savvy Shields, who was crowned on September 11, 2016, by her predecessor Betty Cantrell (Miss America 2016).
The origins of the Miss America pageant lie in a 1920 event entitled The Fall Frolic. Held on September 25 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the event was designed to bring business to the Boardwalk: "three hundred and fifty gaily decorated rolling wicker chairs were pushed along the parade route. Three hundred and fifty men pushed the chairs. However, the main attractions were the young 'maidens' who sat in the rolling chairs, headed by a Miss Ernestine Cremona, who was dressed in a flowing white robe and represented 'Peace.'"
The event was so successful that The Businessmen's League planned to repeat it the following year as a beauty pageant or a "bather's revue" (to capitalize on the popularity of newspaper-based beauty contests that used photo submissions). Thus, "newspapers as far west as Pittsburgh and as far south as Washington, D.C., were asked to sponsor local beauty contests. The winners would participate in the Atlantic City contest. If the local newspaper would pay for the winner's wardrobe, the Atlantic City Businessmen's League would pay for the contestant's travel to compete in the Inter-City Beauty Contest." Herb Test, a "newspaperman" coined the term for the winner as, "Miss America." On September 8, 1921, 100,000 people gathered at the Boardwalk to watch the contestants from Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Ocean City, Camden, Newark, New York, and Philadelphia. The 16-year-old winner from Washington, D.C., Margaret Gorman, was crowned the "Golden Mermaid" and won $100.
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Wikipedia