"Cultural Event"

Two and a half tons of superfine young womanhood were shipped into Atlantic City last week for the 10th Annual Beauty Pageant of the Showmen's Variety Jubilee. No sooner had the 48 girls arrived than Mayor Charles D. White whisked them off to the Steel Pier, launched them on a five-day program designed to promote Atlantic City, produce Miss America of 1936.

What Mayor White referred to as "This great cultural event'' turned out to be an ordeal in which the contestants were separately judged on qualifications including poise and charm, talent, personality, figure. First day the girls reported for duty at 9:30 a.m., postured in bathing suits for photographers, paraded, sang, danced, tootled saxophones in the first "talent" competitions. All gaped at acrobatic Evelyn Townley ("Miss Buckeye Lake, Ohio"), as she leaned over backwards, snatched a handkerchief from the floor with her teeth. They were still going at ir 11:30 p.m. when the American Beauty Ball started.

With the prospect of four more equally strenuous days ahead, fits of weeping broke out. Someone stepped on "Miss Cincinnati's" toe, causing an infection that sent her to a hospital. Girls who arrived thin were growing thinner. "Miss Bluegrass" was down to a measly 95 lb. When Director George D. Tyson heard that some of the girls were in a rebellious mood, he firmly announced: "Any girls not following the approved schedule will be disqualified. . . ."

Next day tired beauties wobbled down the boardwalk in a bicycle parade, saw baby-faced Phyllis Dobson ("Miss California") win a trophy for being "the best looking girl on a bicycle." In the three "talent" competitions, rangy Gloria LeVinge ("Miss Birmingham") was one of the three winners. Warned by officials not to drink, smoke or speak to strangers, chaperoned by watchful relatives, the contestants modeled clothes at a fashion show, minced about in 300 expensive evening gowns, heard slinky Arlene Causey, 18 ("Miss Cook County, Ill.."), named the best-looking girl in clothes.

Next morning Ruby Hart ("Miss Nebraska") announced that she was homesick, sped to Newark airport, flew back to Omaha. That left only 47 beauties to appear that evening in the ballroom of the Steel Pier before a committee composed of Illustrators James Montgomery Flagg and Russell Patterson, Vincent Trotter of Paramount Pictures' Art Department, George B. Petty of Esquire, Photographer Hal Phyfe. Black-haired, blue-eyed Rose Veronica Coyle, 22, of Yeadon, Pa. became "Miss America of 1936," won a trip by air to Hollywood and a screen test.* Convulsively clutching her loving-cup, Rose Veronica Coyle beamed, squealed: "I'm just thrilled to death."

*Simultaneously at Atlantic City the title of "Miss America Junior" was awarded to Rosalind Weloff, a 4-year-old resident.

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