Miss America 1955
Miss America 1955, a photo by BelchSpeak on Flickr.
They used to dress Miss America like the queen of England in 1955, including the use of a wand/scepter. Not to mention this lady looks like she is in her 30’s.
Now Ms America is a dimwitted chick in a bikini.
We saw this poster at Disney’s boardwalk.
Not to disagree, but I went to Veterinary School with Debbye Turner, Miss America 1991. Miss America contestants are generally speaking, rather intelligent. Now, Miss USA, what with the ‘poise and symmetry’ category, they tend to be bimbettes…
Of course you are right Doc. Most former contestants were indeed smart, conservative, and were competing to ultimately win a prize to propel them into the future. If anything, the Honey Boo Boo and child pageants have really painted these contests negatively.
What do you think caused these to eliminate the “pageantry” where contestants were dressed like royalty into what we see today with the swimsuit competitions and the inane talent categories?
I believe the change came from a paradigm shift in American culture right about the time the sexual revolution occurred. Miss America contestants were chosen for their beauty, obviously, but also for qualities that oher girls could emulate, such as scholarship. According to Turner the Miss America pageant is and has always been a scholarship contest (Plus they gave her a nice Corvette!) despite her having to put up with being propositioned by Mike Tyson. According to her he’s not the brightest bulb on the christmas tree and Don King is even worse.
In the 20’s and 30’s there were ‘beauty pageants’ everywhere in America. Atlantic City decided they were going to top them all, and thus was born Miss America. To draw the highest caliber girls they offered the best rewards and had the highest standards. When girls decided they didn’t need to emulate Miss America but insead emulated Janis Joplin, Marylin Monroe and Jane Fonda, well that was the beginning of the end, at least in my opinion.
Now you see T&A everywhere you turn, even the Disney channel, hardcore porn is just a mouse click away (Well, maybe four or five clicks) and the pageant sponsors don’t see as large a return for their investment, so they invest less and less. The TV ratings have fallen steadily since the mid 70’s and no one is watching, apparently. So, scholarly Miss America has given way to the pneumatic Miss USA with her oversized and surgically enhanced breasts spilling out of aminiscule bikini and the, as you said, inane talent categories. I swear I saw one Miss USA contestant in the 1980’s balance a glass of water on her head for her talent. At least Debbye Turner played the marimba (quite well, too). The dumbing down and erosion of values to the lowest common denominator has NOT been a good thing for the US, IMHO.