Over on Twitter an account I follow posted a vintage photos of “Miss Sausage Queen 1955” (seen below). It was such a fun photo and sparked a lot of conversation about how vintage beauty pageants, tended to have some very odd “titles” one could win. What do you think the criteria to be “Miss Sausage Queen” was (answer under the photo)?
For today’s post we are going to look at some “Fun & Wacky Vintage Beauty Pageants & Queen Titles from the 1920s-1960s”
Let the pageants begin!
Note: scroll to the end to see my other posts on this topic.
About the photo: “Miss Sausage Queen” turned out to not be a contest at all. Actor Geene Courtney models a scarf, skirt, bracelets, and a crown made from hot dogs, frankfurters, and kielbasa in her role as Queen of National Hot Dog Week, as selected by the Zion Meat Products Company.
Fun & Wacky Vintage Beauty Pageants & Pageant Queen Titles
Vintage Images 1920s-1960s
Winner of the Miss Lemon beauty pageant, 1920.
“Miss Bobbed Hair”. In 1925 Coral Gables, Florida, held a contest for the most beautiful bobbed hair. Large number of ladies showed up with their bobbed hair and 1920’s dropped waist dresses and had some fun. Here is our winner.
Source: historydaily.org
“Miss Cigar Queen” contestants posing in a cigar box in 1930’s swimsuits in Tampa, Florida 1937.
Source: Oldflorida
Clad in a skeleton costume, “Miss Unsafe Brakes” appeared at the 1939 Chicago Auto Show to drive home the importance of car owners keeping their brakes in good repair.
Source: Pinterest
In 1951, the Muller Bros., an Oldsmobile-Firestone Tire- Car Wash-Café- Body Shop-Home Appliance- Auto Supply Dealer in Los Angeles, California held a competition in honor of their 3,000,000,000th car wash. The field of beauties in the pageant represented each department of their mega-complex known as “The Landing”. Here’s a sampling of photos of the contest as documented by Life Magazine.
Please drop by “Along for the Ride” to see all the other contestant photos from this Beauty Pageant day (courtesy of Life Archives).
“Miss Lube Rack”.
“Miss New Car Dept. (Oldmobile).
“Miss Steel Pier of 1963”, crowned by the Contest’s First Winner.
“Mousie” Green, Miss Steel Pier of 1917 — the first winner of the nation’s oldest beauty pageant — crowns “Cissie” Carson, the new Miss Steel Pier of 1963.
Source: Harry Ransom Center
“Miss Smiling Ankles of 1962”.
Beti Seay, Miss Smiling Ankles, displays her award-winners to photographers in Manhattan.
Source: Harry Ransom Center
Here is a 1930’s photo of another ankle pageant. “The prettiest ankle contest” in England 1933. Great examples of 1930’s shoes.
Source: allthatsinteresting.com
1950s Photo: Beauty contestant “Miss Golden Nugget” in a bathing suit takes the stage while other contestants and the audience look on.
I could not find any information, but this possibly could be the “battle of the Las Vegas casinos” pageant?
FURTHER READING: Vintage Vegas-Golden Nugget Casino Hotel
Source: Etsy – Inspirationsnapshots
1950s photo of the “Glamorous Grandmother” beauty pageant featuring 12 STUNNING “older” women in 1950s dresses posing with their numbers.
Fun observation….most of these women are probably in their 40s. ha!
Source: eBay
Linda Lawson is the winner of the “1955 Miss Atomic Pageant”, with a mushroom cloud crown for good measure.
Her victory coincided with the Operation Cue atomic tests, which were long delayed by high winds and weather, so she became known as “Miss-Cue”.
There were four winners, with the last crowned in 1957. They took place in Las Vegas to celebrate the city’s two main attractions: nuclear bombs and showgirls (Source).
Source: Onthisday
Gail Hooper, 18, from Memphis, Tennessee, selected as Miss National Catfish Queen, holds a 56-pound catfish at the Hotel New Yorker. 1954.
Source: Allthatsinteresting.com
Photograph caption dated August 20, 1959 reads, “Compete for county fair queen title – Eleven contestants put their best foot forward as they begin competing for title of “Queen of Los Angeles County Fair”, opening Sept. 18th, 1959 in Pomona.”
I added this photo to the post but I always think of LA as being a massive city, not one having a county fair.
Source: TESSA
I will leave you with a video of the “Miss Sweater Queen 1940” Pageant (video link).
I hope you had enjoyed the photos I shares above. It was a blast to put together.
QUESTION: What was your favourite pageant/ title/ winner? Share in the comments section below.
Further Reading:
Thanks for dropping by!
Liz
Miss Atomic Pageant! OMG!
She is a fav in this post.
Liz