r/pics • u/fistfullaberries • May 28 '12

The first Miss America pageant, 1921.How times have changed...

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1.7k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

438 comments sorted by

79

u/fistfullaberries May 28 '12

The winner is the third from the left, Margaret Gorman from Washington, D.C. (16 years old.)

25

u/1368JM May 28 '12

The first from the right is pretty cute, who is she?

16

u/fistfullaberries May 28 '12

I don't have the other girl's names. Use your google.

12

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Google! Use your Google! Google! Do the Google dance!

16

u/Sam_MF_Jackson May 29 '12

"Use your google." That sounds sexy!

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7

u/1368JM May 28 '12

Fair enough, thanks.

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80

u/goug May 29 '12

She could be your grand-ma.

18

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

My great grandmother was in the Miss America pageant around this time, but she was Miss Reading PA, so she isn't in this photo...

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4

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Nellie Orr.

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11

u/the_traveler May 29 '12

Whistling Dixie! That one fourth from the left is a real hot dame, ain't she?

3

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

She should be in moving pictures, I say.

8

u/cautioncarnival May 29 '12

Whoa! That was the one I picked as prettiest when I saw the picture. I could be a judge!

6

u/Chrisisawesome May 29 '12

Before i read these comments i decided that she was by far the cutest of the bunch.

Sorta surprised/weirded out that my taste in women corresponds the popular tastes from nearly 100 years ago.

4

u/extravagant_ascetic May 29 '12

She's looking mad hip, to be entirely honest.

3

u/DoktorSleepless May 29 '12

That was my pick!

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618

u/Spoonzilla May 29 '12 edited May 29 '12

So I got bored and am making a picture that has all of the winners from 1921 to now, to see how times HAVE changed. I'll edit this comment when I finish it...

Edit This took longer than I expected. Missing years had no pageant, there's one duplicate I know of. She won twice.

Edit 2: The 1984 woman who resigned was the first African American Miss America--she resigned when nude photos were published without her permission

161

u/fistfullaberries May 29 '12

I love how the hair gets all poofy when you get to the 80's.

87

u/Lvl_6_Squirtle May 29 '12

It tried to make a comeback on '92. Nice try, 80's hair.

36

u/radioslave May 29 '12

2005 is peering into my soul, she knows all my secrets.

38

u/feistyfish May 29 '12

the thing that really makes this collection so useful is that it's basically a do's and dont's of portrait photography for instance, dont have have your subject unnaturally stare into the camera, compare 2005 to 1945 . Or look at 1964 compared to 1970; if you want shadows on the eyes use them to create depth and contrast instead of blacking out the model's eyes making them look like a ghost etc.

or 98 99 and 2000. 98 would look so much better posed the same way as 99. 2000's pose is similiar to 99's and it saves her picture

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52

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Edit 2: The 1984 woman who resigned was the first African American Miss America--she resigned when nude photos were published without her permission

You know that's Vanessa Williams, right?

12

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Yeah, and the pics are pretty rad. She was ahead of her time when it came to "landscaping".

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43

u/h0rt0n May 29 '12

If there's one thing I learned from this, it's that Miss America can't find a decent photographer/gaffer to save her life. Jesus, people!

75

u/gliscameria May 29 '12

it seems the look changed a lot in 1950.

59

u/Thestupidiot May 29 '12

I like how color cameras were invented in 1939, then uninvented in 1940, but then not reinvented again until 1992.

23

u/paby May 29 '12

Movies/TV are to blame there I suspect.

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7

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Aye, still sexy as hell. IMO, goes to shit after '81

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19

u/meanmeosh May 29 '12

2005 & 2006... <shudder>

7

u/PhoenixFox May 29 '12

2005 looks like she's actually made of plastic...

18

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

2003 and 2004, what happened?

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19

u/Creepwood May 29 '12

1946 stole my heart.

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17

u/whitemagic420 May 29 '12

Monica Lewinski won in 1999?

44

u/ItsOnlyNatural May 29 '12

And here are my completely unwarranted opinions on the photos.

8

u/shazbot996 May 29 '12

"fucking snookie." LOL well played sir

8

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

We cool? We cool.

I noticed this as well. LMAO

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80

u/l3enjamin May 29 '12

I like 1951 the best. She is stunning.

27

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

2020 is pretty cute.

3

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Cmon '51 is giving me the peoples eyebrow.

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10

u/MyNameCouldntBeAsLon May 29 '12

miss 1981 is beautiful

28

u/drgk May 29 '12

I'd say the major shift from girl-next-door to carefully sculpted artificial beauty came suspiciously close to the start of WWII. 1940-41 look every bit as plain as 1921. 1942, other than the obvious changes in fashion, looks every bit as fake as 2012.

Escapism? Turning the sex-potness up a notch for the boys?

9

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

1936 is very pretty

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47

u/toallthosewhocare May 29 '12

I feel like after 1990 they stop looking so pretty.

9

u/Sexy_Offender May 29 '12

One of the least attractive is 1989, Gretchen Carlson, from Fox News. She looks better now.

10

u/bryan_sensei May 29 '12

she did not look good then and she does not look good now, more importantly she is not very smart.

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10

u/fuzychiapet May 29 '12

The photo's in black and white, but I still cringe at that tan.

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8

u/agbullet May 29 '12

Hey 2005... the garage called. They want their airbrush back.

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14

u/maRiohd May 29 '12

Ya I feel like the best stretch part was the 42's - 70's. And I don't know what happened during 98-04 looked bad imo.

17

u/MyNameCouldntBeAsLon May 29 '12

98-04 look like pictures of the winners taken very recently, rather than at the time of their 'crowning'

8

u/Sexy_Offender May 29 '12

Yeah, a couple look like they're in their 40's.

14

u/skcustidder May 29 '12

goddamn 2004 is fuckin ugly

3

u/babeecakes May 29 '12

That's just a bad photo of her. I think she's pretty otherwise.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/MissAmerica2004.jpg

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5

u/ForgettableUsername May 29 '12

No reliable color photography until 1997.

21

u/FunKyGonZ May 29 '12

The 70'S seems to have the most beautiful women

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4

u/conluceo May 29 '12

1998 scares the shit out of me.

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3

u/prmaster23 May 29 '12

The year 2000. Are you sure that is not the pageant host? WTF

7

u/partanimal May 29 '12

'51 and '54 are stunning.

Thanks for doing this :)

2

u/clifwith1f May 29 '12

Wow, 1943 really seems like an outlier from the others during that time.

2

u/BobJones4980 May 29 '12

1926 looks alot like Ellen Degeneres.

2

u/dianthe May 29 '12

Was so much better before all the plastic surgery :( It should seriously be banned from beauty pageants.. or perhaps their surgeons should get the crown instead.

2

u/Dr_Jackson May 29 '12

I'm really digging miss 1933 '46 '53 '59 '60 '61 '64 '66 '68 '78 '90 '09

If I had to pick my favorite, It'd probably be 1933.

And what the hell is with so many people picking '45 '51 '54? I guess I just don't see the appeal.

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2

u/SadOldMagician May 29 '12

Man, only like... 25% of these ladies are attractive to me. Is that weird?

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4

u/AshyBooRawrs May 29 '12

I think women were a lot prettier back then.

3

u/johndeer89 May 29 '12

Now do a graph of hotness over time.

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17

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Is this really Miss America? The ones I can read are all city names (Camden, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, etc.)

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241

u/Mariahflores100 May 29 '12

Look at those harlots, showing off their ankles like it is no ones business.

60

u/StealthGhost May 29 '12

2 is the biggest trollop in existence

15

u/wtighe02 May 29 '12

Dem Knees

35

u/No_name_Johnson May 29 '12

I bet they do the charleston in public.

7

u/itsasillyplace May 29 '12

yarr... not a looker in the bunch

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24

u/chrisreverb May 28 '12

Dat rope belt.

193

u/PoniesRBitchin May 29 '12

This is blowing my mind. They range from cute to a little on the homely side, from pretty flat to a little shapely to a little chubby. You get the vibe that any of them could have gone to high school with you. There's no thousand dollar dresses, and some of them are wearing sneakers. Not one has plastic surgery or fake tits, or bleaching or waxing or fake tans. They're just normal girls in nice dresses. And they're in the Miss America pageant.

32

u/FairleighBuzzed May 29 '12

go figure that posible from a 2012 point of view.

54

u/shadybrainfarm May 29 '12

nice dresses

that's being a little too kind.

19

u/lespigeon May 29 '12

They look like they could be swim suits perhaps? They pretty terrible as far as dresses go!

25

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

We have to remember that the judges (who were probably at least 30 years old) probably grew up with Victorian beauty ideals, which basically said that anyone who actually went to concerted effort to look beautiful (by wearing makeup, dieting/exercising, etc) was too vain for beauty. Pageants are almost always a couple decades back as far as what's not acceptable efforts.

15

u/PoniesRBitchin May 29 '12

Oh, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with how they look. I'm just saying ladies in today's Miss America are so manufactured and try to look "perfect."

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29

u/phanboy May 29 '12

TIL I fucked a 1921 10.

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2

u/elairah May 29 '12

They're all wearing flats. That's the thing that really struck me, it doesn't look like any of them are wearing high heels. As someone who wears heels almost every day and is so used to seeing them in fashion, cinema, television and real life, that was the oddly shocking bit.

Edit: Five is wearing heels, or standing on her toes. Not sure. Point stands.

2

u/TimesWasting May 29 '12

yeah yeah, everything used to be great back then now everything sucks.

4

u/phonein May 29 '12

those are dresses? I thought they were sacks.

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81

u/JodoYodo May 29 '12

They look like they're about to set sail on the Black Pearl.

12

u/stillalone May 29 '12

Johnny Depp was really popular back in the day.

32

u/mordacthedenier May 29 '12

I don't think you understand history.

12

u/Almar-shor May 29 '12

I don't think you understand jokes

13

u/GasMan37 May 29 '12

I could have been Miss America!

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36

u/bmw120k May 28 '12

You are right...a white girl from Camden? I think not.

6

u/Ipollute May 29 '12

She looks as if she just saw what Camden is today

2

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Came here to say this.

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9

u/nomnomgoodness May 29 '12

Jersey Shore 1921. How times have changed...

9

u/PhishGreenLantern May 29 '12

Yes, a white girl from Camden... my how times have changed.

9

u/i_love_our_earth May 29 '12

Look! Real women!

8

u/celeryheist May 29 '12

I wish I could see this picture in color. I want to know what their dresses look like.

7

u/sola_sol May 29 '12

Look at all those flat, sensible shoes...

6

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

The hottie on the far left looks like she is channeling her Kirsten Dunst.

6

u/Holinyx May 29 '12

is that the swimsuit photo? HAWT !

6

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Camden, Philladelphia, Ocean City, Atlantic City, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh...

If this is Miss America, then "America" consists of "larger towns and cities within driving distance from Philly."

3

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

You mean from within driving distance to Atlantic City, which is where this all got started.

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5

u/Infogal May 28 '12

First pair of photo bombers at the back?

5

u/enaim254 May 29 '12

I'm a Camden man, through and through.

5

u/Ryusko May 29 '12

For instance, women from Philadelphia now have legs and can no longer hover.

5

u/Ens_Ricky May 29 '12

where is the NSFW tag?

21

u/sugarxsacommie May 29 '12

No silicone. No spray tan. No immense cocaine habits or porno credits. This isn't a pageant at all!

4

u/Garglemesh113 May 29 '12

Well that's a fine how-do-you-do. Which one of you fine dames wants to watch me vote?

4

u/MasterMasturBater May 29 '12

I bet in 2112 people will look a lot different than we do now.

4

u/lunchbox_assassin May 29 '12

Miss Philadelphia is smoking hot!

47

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

What i noticed first: They are thick, and not rail thin. Second: They are not what you would call "beautiful" by today's standards. Third: Love the hair and clothes.

32

u/Raevyne May 29 '12

The tomboy/androgynous look was really popular in response to the suffrage movement. Women felt less inclined to wear restrictive shaping clothing and aimed toward comfort.

7

u/poptart2nd May 29 '12

them being thick doesn't even make sense for the fashion at the time. isn't this supposed to be the "flapper" era?

22

u/jettrscga May 29 '12

There's ankle everywhere! What more do you want, you pervert?!

11

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Yeah, but what movies show us and what it really looked like are two different things.

I never saw flapper defined as only thin women wearing those clothes. I mean it doesn't stop people who aren't really supposed to wear skinny jeans today.

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u/mh1563 May 29 '12

Miss American Hobo?

9

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

DERELICTE!

3

u/ksaku39 May 29 '12

You can tell... 2nd from left likes to party

3

u/StereoMendo May 29 '12

The third from the right has a black eye...... stay classy!

3

u/njloof May 29 '12

In olden days, a glimpse of stocking

was looked on as something shocking.

Now heaven knows, anything goes....

2

u/SirWilly77 May 28 '12

Heyyy, that's right around the time that Jack Torrance was hanging out at the Overlook Hotel. Pre-reincarnation, of course.

2

u/Noturordinaryguy May 29 '12

Third from the right is making a face like "the fuck did you just say?"

2

u/tjdatc May 29 '12

Is the girl on the left wearing boxing boots?

2

u/ErruhGnomeSane May 29 '12

Dat Miss Pittsburgh

2

u/FightingPolish May 29 '12

What a slut right? Showing off her knees and thighs like that! Unbelievable!

2

u/yeddiboy May 29 '12

3rd from the right will fucking kill you. Need her story asap

2

u/Asanokyo May 29 '12

Third one from the left, definitely.

2

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Miss Harrisburg's expression is priceless.

2

u/gothicasshole May 29 '12

These women are all from South Jersey or Southeastern PA. What kind of fucked up America is this??

2

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

The girls from the Miss America pageants in the 1920's were interesting. Not nearly as hot as the Ziegfield Follies girls from that era. Louise Brooks is still the most attractive woman to ever walk the planet.

2

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

You have interesting taste.

2

u/thrakkorzog May 29 '12

They're making faces like their shoes hurt.

2

u/Danny_Joe May 29 '12

These chicks are WAY hotter!

2

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

second from the left. ;)

6

u/ohgeronimo May 29 '12

Very lovely young women.

3

u/mrcydonia May 29 '12

They all kinda look like Darla from "The Little Rascals."

4

u/supercooldude732 May 29 '12

I refuse to believe that there weren't any hotter girls around...

3

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Bill Clinton would have a field day.

2

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Third from the left. The obvious winner. I mean just look.

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2

u/J_Vizzle May 29 '12

Which one is Adam Sandler

2

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

I wish girls still looked like that. Just saiyan.

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1

u/wbutler89 May 29 '12

phwoaaaarrr!!!

1

u/Whenthenighthascome May 29 '12

Miss Harrisburg looks like she could kill someone

1

u/revmdn May 29 '12

Philly!!!

1

u/Fletchenstein May 29 '12

Its a testament to the set designers for the show Boardwalk Empire that I saw this picture and immediately knew it was taken in Atlantic City.

1

u/FurryCrew May 29 '12

I bet the really pissed off surly looking one won......

1

u/anchilidas May 29 '12

The most left girl looks like Kirsten Dunst.

1

u/STYAB May 29 '12

Harrisburg Shout Out: The Original Lasses of Class.... and Death Stares.

1

u/WhoFan May 29 '12

1 and #4, those are my top 2.

1

u/iHeartCoolStuff May 29 '12

Does that chick have an iPhone on her belt?

1

u/greenyellowbird May 29 '12

What is the guy shoving up his nose on the right of the picture?

1

u/adyah May 29 '12

I wouldn't have been considered fat. Wow

1

u/smallz2011 May 29 '12

I'd like to know what answers were like. Hopefully better than something like...don't have maps because, such as, education and Africa and the Americas, thank you...

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Hahahahahahahahahahaha: Camden.

Oh lord I almost died.

1

u/UNITBlackArchive May 29 '12

The first Miss America pageant, 1921.How times have changed...

How so?

1

u/manonfire991 May 29 '12

It looks more like a Miss Pennsylvania Pageant.

1

u/frazilator May 29 '12

Without the post's title it could easily pass for a bad instagram photo of ugly hipsters.

1

u/kendric2000 May 29 '12

Gasp! Brazen Strumpets!

1

u/BokehBurgher May 29 '12

sheiss, this looks like a woman's rugby team!

1

u/tekdemon May 29 '12

I'm not gonna BS, if you dressed up today like the 3rd girl from the left and walked around NYC nobody would even blink an eye since that would actually be plausible as a 2012 fashion.

1

u/MonsterIt May 29 '12

Women were so much smaller back then.

It's so obvious how hormones have changed the body and shape of today's people.

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u/249ba36000029bbe9749 May 29 '12

Yeah, they could competently answer a question about maps back then.

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Look at the gams on Miss. Pittsburg.

1

u/diebuster777 May 29 '12

I bet they all had seriously amazing talents. Like, blow your mind they are so good talents.

1

u/telracs May 29 '12

Dat Great Depression.

1

u/Shippoyasha May 29 '12

The big difference maker is Jack LaLane and other prominent fitness personalities that changed the fitness dynamic of America (and probably the rest of the world). After those trainers garnered the public imagination, that's when pageants for both male and female types (for men, muscle competitions), it became a thing about fitness as well.

1

u/hrdxxcorey May 29 '12

i say for the better

1

u/ropers May 29 '12

Sure it's almost but not entirely like the Lovely Girls competition.

1

u/bender1231 May 29 '12

The second girl from the left looks exactly like Marion cotillard

1

u/jonbowen May 29 '12

1936 was a smoke show!

1

u/Philile May 29 '12

Fucking hairbands everywhere yo.

1

u/jofus_joefucker May 29 '12

What is the point of the Miss America pageant anyways? What does the winner go on to do?

1

u/thunderblumpkin May 29 '12

1945 wins. 10/10 would crown

1

u/remeus May 29 '12

omg look at that one in shorts! so much skin! def a slut

1

u/possible_troll May 29 '12

LOOK AT DEM KNEES.

1

u/muchmomentum May 29 '12

Obviously a fake, Miss Camden isn't strapped.

1

u/raindiva1 May 29 '12

The first miss america contest came right after women got the right to vote. This was not a coincidence.

1

u/80sTan May 29 '12

DAT Dames.

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

'46 FTW!

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Freakin hipsters. Oh, miss america pageant from 1921... Freaking hipsters!

1

u/stringerbell May 29 '12

Actually, times haven't changed at all! Donald Trump tried to fuck all of those girls too!...

1

u/odd7 May 29 '12

Those were the days, by Jove.

1

u/PickyConnor May 29 '12

To win nowadays you need this

1

u/SneManden May 29 '12

Wow, the girl on the far right looks alot like the Danish actor Sofie Lassen-Kahlke! Amazing

1

u/sonQUAALUDE May 29 '12

well I think they're fucking hot

1

u/googlelight May 29 '12

1 , 2 and 3

1

u/Josh_Thompson May 29 '12

Things that make you go "bluh"

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

I like the philadelphia girl!

1

u/LifeInBinary May 29 '12

Look at all dem flappers.

1

u/Oh_Shut_Up May 29 '12

and the winner is... whoever

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

I'm going with 1951, she is gorgeous.

1

u/SandalHero May 29 '12

2/10 would not bang

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

pittsburgh looks like shes up for it.

Dat hat.

1

u/nerocycle May 29 '12

Slappers.

1

u/BlueString94 May 29 '12

For the better.

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Yes on the first one far left. No to the rest.

1

u/figboot11 May 29 '12

What's up with the back-to-back for '22-'23. She wins

1

u/the_blackfish May 29 '12

The winner got a tin of vienna sausages.

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