Category:
Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests

The Seattle Seafair Queen







It's too bad that the raucous early years, with roving pirates, did not last into our era.

Article here.

More pictures of queens here.



Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 02, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Parades and Festivals, Regionalism, 1950s

Smile

This film looks almost like a forerunner of famous mockumentaries such as Spinal Tap. It certainly fits into our theme of "odd beauty contests."

Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jul 27, 2021 - Comments (7)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Movies, 1970s, Satire

Miss Department of Illinois

Edith Ann McDougall wasn't Miss Illinois. Instead, in 1950, she was named "Miss Department of Illinois," which sounds to me like a distinctly less prestigious title.

The "Miss Department" title indicated that the contest was run by the Illinois department of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. However, I haven't been able to find any "Miss Departments" from other states. So this must have been a uniquely Illinois thing.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - July 2, 1950

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 22, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, 1950s

Miss Air Force Recruiting Detachment 215

Celeste Yarnall may be best remembered for playing Yeoman Martha Landon in the 1967 Star Trek episode "The Apple".

She also starred in the 1971 cult hit The Velvet Vampire.

She was also quite successful outside of modeling and acting. According to wikipedia, she owned "one of L.A.'s top office real-estate firms".

Given all this, being awarded the oddly specific title of "Miss Air Force Recruiting Detachment 215 for 1964" has to rank as one of her lesser life achievements.

The Red Bank Daily Register - Mar 30, 1964



Celeste Yarnall as Yeoman Martha Landon

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jul 06, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, 1960s

Miss Continuous Roller Towel

Or, simply, Miss Continuous Towel. I found both forms of the title used.

The title was conferred upon Trudy Germi of Chicago by the linen supply industry in 1949.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Dec 25, 1949



I'm always curious what becomes of these people who achieve 15 minutes of fame for weird reasons.

In Germi's case, after performing in a production of South Pacific, she married Lt. Carl Seiberlich in 1952. As far as I can tell, this ended her career as a model/actress.

Her husband eventually became Captain of the USS Hornet, which was the ship assigned to recover the Apollo 11 astronauts from the Pacific. I found a photo on a military website of the two of them together, attending a celebration for the recovery of the astronauts. I assume she's the one wearing sunglasses.

She died in 2018.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jun 27, 2021 - Comments (4)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, 1940s

Maid of Cotton

Unique in mandating the composition of all contest garments: 100% cotton, what else!

Full story here.





Posted By: Paul - Tue Jun 22, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Agriculture, Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Regionalism, 1930s

Miss Hot Dog 1959

Photo source: Daily News (New York, New York) 12 Jul 1959, Sun Page 36



Text source: The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) 27 Jun 1959, Sat Page 6




Posted By: Paul - Thu Jun 10, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Food, 1950s

Miss Hot Dog 1960

Source: The Times Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia) 06 Jul 1960, Wed Page 16


Posted By: Paul - Sat May 29, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Food, Sexuality, Public Indecency

Miss Space

April 1959: Suzanne Adams was awarded the title of 'Miss Space' at the World Congress of Flight in Las Vegas, Nevada.

source: reddit



source: facebook



Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Apr 12, 1959



Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 27, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, 1950s

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Who We Are
Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

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