Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-10-11

own purposes, and (2) those elaborate floats
could not run without gas and tires
But TO get back to this discussion of Beauty
In Distress at the Atlantic City contest, 1t
Is interesting to note that not single VIM
ner of Miss America pageants has ever set
the world on fire.
They have their two or three brief months
-weeks-days of fame, and then slither from
view. Not one of these Baby Snookses have
ever turned out later to be Helen Hayes,
Bette Davis or Katherine Cornell.
Fay Lamphier Of Oakland, CAL, who won
the title In 1925 had brief screen and stage
career that kept her name before the public
for a while. And Miss America of 1e41
has just signed a contract with the Hal
Roach studios.
It is Atlantic City also-runs like Patricia
Uline Hill and Lucille Lambert, who have
made good. Joan Blondell. when she was
an Atlantic City contestant, didn't register
with the crowd or the judges. But later
she registered but big in Hollywood.
Lois Wilson, VINO came up from Birming-
ham, Alabama, as an entrant In one OF the
early Miss America contests. got nowhere in
Atlantic City. But everyone knows that she
has had a tremendously successful career on
the screen and stage while no one can pos
sibly recall the name OF the girl who was
crowned Miss America that year.
1t Is just possible that Rosemary LaPlanche.
Miss America of 1e41, will be a sensation in
the movies. But right now the most popular
and famous girl In the 1941 contest Is Gerry
Marcoux, now Miss United States Navy.
Gerry, who was Miss Michigan year ago
and who had the same sort of beauty that
doomed her successor patricia HilD this
year, is now officially aiding the Navy in its
recruiting drives. In trig uniform, this in
telligent college girl who has both beauty
aoI DO Lnn all ha trxy
as the Navy girl"
Confident that oomph and the one-piece
bathing suit is here to stay, the Atlantic
City contest has counted itself out for the
duration This is the second time 1t has
voluntarily put the quietus on the resorts
annual Autumnal salt water daffy doings.
Once upon a time, there were no Miss
America pageants from 1927 To 1888, when
the contests had fallen into considerable dis
repute and innocuous desuetude.
In the seasons between 1921, when the
pageant was founded, and 1927. when it was
laid away for six years. potential Miss Amer
icas ran wild along the Boardwalk. scandaliz-
ing the citiZenry. The gals shot out the
Moons in soda parlors and taffy stands
Dizzy chorus blondes were insinuated into
the pageant by willy Broadway theatrical pro-
ducers not averse to publicity for their shows.
And welbehaved contestant would not have
thought of hopping her escort over the head
in night club with anything less than a
champagne bottle.
Well those days are gone forever The
pageants, since their revival in the Thirties
are as decorous and well-conducted as the
most strict young ladies' seminary. The girls
are chaperoned ad nauseam by Atlantic City
society matrons and If a contestant Is caught
drinking anything stronger than Grade A
milk she is given the heave.ho out Of the
pageant
So the present cancellation of the pageant
for the duration is due entirely TO the military
and not the moral situation.
Come Peace, say the Atlantic City fathers,
and the pageants will return, bigger and
better.
THE AMERICAN WEEKLY Z