Miss America Crowned: Margaret Gorman Wins in 1921

Sixteen-year-old Margaret Gorman of Washington, D.C., was crowned with a golden mermaid trophy at the Inter-City Beauty Contest in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on September 8, 1921, in what would later be recognized as the first Miss America pageant. Gorman, who stood five feet one inch tall and weighed 108 pounds, had won a local beauty contest sponsored by the Washington Herald and was selected from among contestants representing cities along the Eastern Seaboard. The competition was conceived not as a celebration of feminine achievement but as a marketing ploy to extend the tourist season in Atlantic City past Labor Day weekend. The pageant was the brainchild of Herb Test, a local businessman who persuaded the Atlantic City Business Men's League that a beauty contest would keep visitors spending money for an extra week after summer officially ended. The first competition was casual and disorganized compared to what it would become: contestants were judged primarily on their appearance in bathing suits, there was no talent portion, and the event was more of a carnival spectacle than the polished television production of later decades. Gorman was not even called "Miss America" at the time; that title was applied retroactively. The pageant grew rapidly through the 1920s and 1930s, adding talent competitions, evening gown segments, and scholarship prizes that gave it a veneer of respectability beyond the bathing suit competition. By the 1950s, the televised Miss America pageant drew audiences of over 80 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched annual events in American broadcasting. The crowning moment, when the outgoing Miss America placed the tiara on her successor while Bert Parks sang "There She Is," became an indelible piece of American popular culture. The pageant also became a lightning rod for cultural conflict. Feminist protestors picketed the 1968 competition, crowning a sheep as their alternative Miss America and depositing bras, girdles, and high heels into a "freedom trash can" in one of the defining demonstrations of the women's liberation movement. The pageant struggled with declining viewership and relevance in the twenty-first century, eventually eliminating the swimsuit competition in 2018 and rebranding as Miss America 2.0, a transformation that illustrated how dramatically American attitudes toward women, beauty, and public spectacle had changed since Margaret Gorman accepted her golden mermaid.