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Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests
Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests
Miss Wisconsin Cheese
Marvene Fischer won the title of Miss Wisconsin in 1948. The Armour food company then decided to name a brand of cheese 'Miss Wisconsin' in her honor. It simultaneously hired her to serve as the traveling ambassador for the brand. In this position, she became known as Miss Wisconsin Cheese.She ended up working for nine years as Miss Wisconsin Cheese. During this time she reportedly traveled more than two million miles in 48 states, visited more than a thousand towns, and distributed over 15 tons of cheese samples in more than 8000 food stores.
Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulleting - June 6, 1951
Here are some more details about her job from the Portage Daily Register (Dec 21, 1953):
Miss Fischer's carefully planned visit to a town usually sets off a varied series of events, most of which are reported in the press and over radio and TV broadcasts.
She is greeted by mayors, governors, senators, congressmen, movie stars, chiefs of police, food editors, currently reigning local beauty queens, and other assorted celebrities.
Most of these meetings are highlighted by a formal presentation of a basket of cheese by Miss Fischer in exchange for a gift symbolic of the city being visited. She has received roses, posies, rhododendrons, wine, fruit, foam rubber pillows, cake, and Indian headdress, and any number of giant keys of the city. In St. Joseph, Mo., she was made a deputy sheriff. At the Rockingham Park race track, Miss Wisconsin Day was proclaimed in her honor. In San Francisco, she toured a submarine, and the event was officially publicized by the U.S. Navy.
Miss Fischer takes all this gracefully, in fact gives a continuous impression that it's all a lot of fun. Actually, a lot of good hard salesmanship is involved.
Miss Fischer does most of her traveling by air and prefers to travel alone. She says she has no need for a chaperone. "Why I have about 65,000 chaperones — all Armour employees," she says.
Glamour may be fleeting, figures Miss Fischer, but cheese is here to stay.
She is greeted by mayors, governors, senators, congressmen, movie stars, chiefs of police, food editors, currently reigning local beauty queens, and other assorted celebrities.
Most of these meetings are highlighted by a formal presentation of a basket of cheese by Miss Fischer in exchange for a gift symbolic of the city being visited. She has received roses, posies, rhododendrons, wine, fruit, foam rubber pillows, cake, and Indian headdress, and any number of giant keys of the city. In St. Joseph, Mo., she was made a deputy sheriff. At the Rockingham Park race track, Miss Wisconsin Day was proclaimed in her honor. In San Francisco, she toured a submarine, and the event was officially publicized by the U.S. Navy.
Miss Fischer takes all this gracefully, in fact gives a continuous impression that it's all a lot of fun. Actually, a lot of good hard salesmanship is involved.
Miss Fischer does most of her traveling by air and prefers to travel alone. She says she has no need for a chaperone. "Why I have about 65,000 chaperones — all Armour employees," she says.
Glamour may be fleeting, figures Miss Fischer, but cheese is here to stay.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find many details about what became of Marvene Fischer after her time as Miss Wisconsin Cheese. The only info I came across was a listing for a Marvene Fischer, age 94, living in Wisconsin. About the right age, and living in the right state — so I'm guessing it's her.
Miss Wisconsin Cheese in Denver, 1949
Posted By: Alex - Sun Aug 21, 2022 -
Comments (3)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Food, Jobs and Occupations, 1940s
Miss KGB and Miss Gulag
Some oddball beauty titles from Russia.In 1990, 23-year-old Katya Mayorova was crowned 'Miss KGB'. It was part of an effort to put a softer face on the intelligence service. It doesn't seem that there was a competition to select the winner. Mayorova was simply selected by a secret process. As far as I know, she was the only one to ever hold the title.
The Montreal Gazette - Nov 4, 1990
click to enlarge
You can find more info about Miss KGB at Russia Beyond.
And from a totally different part of the Russian security apparatus, many women's prisons in Russia now hold beauty pageants. The winners aren't called 'Miss Gulag,' but that was the title of a documentary about the pageants. More info from Jean Trounstine, "Beauty Pageants in Prison Can Have Positive Effects," in At Issue: Beauty Pageants (2010).
The first prison beauty pageant in Siberia took place in 2000, the brainchild of an inmate. It began simply, with costumes created from everyday objects such as plastic bags and fake flowers. These days, the women work together for months before the pageant, which is hardly the competitive, individualistic event implied by the word "contest.". . .
As a woman who grew up in the sixties, I used to consider endorsing any sort of beauty contest inconceivable—but that was before I saw two short documentaries about the pageants at Camp UF-91/9, The Contest, produced by the Polish journalist Zygmunt Dzieciolowski, and Miss Gulag, produced by Neihausen-Yatskova and Vodar Films. They show the contenders taking the runway by storm, cheered on by their peers, in a parody of the stale rigidity and lack of sexuality of traditional pageants. . .
Beauty pageants are now widespread in Russian prisons. Make up, gifts for the unit, and credits toward early release are the prizes.
As a woman who grew up in the sixties, I used to consider endorsing any sort of beauty contest inconceivable—but that was before I saw two short documentaries about the pageants at Camp UF-91/9, The Contest, produced by the Polish journalist Zygmunt Dzieciolowski, and Miss Gulag, produced by Neihausen-Yatskova and Vodar Films. They show the contenders taking the runway by storm, cheered on by their peers, in a parody of the stale rigidity and lack of sexuality of traditional pageants. . .
Beauty pageants are now widespread in Russian prisons. Make up, gifts for the unit, and credits toward early release are the prizes.
The Contest documentary: part 1, part 2, part 3
Posted By: Alex - Wed Aug 10, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Prisons, Spies and Intelligence Services, Russia
Miss Truth Bomb
I could see 'Miss Truth Bomb' being the premise for a movie. A young up-and-coming actress is awarded that title, but then she can't stop herself from dropping truth bombs on everyone around her. Kind of like Jim Carrey's Liar Liar, but with a female lead.Of course, no such thing happened to the real Miss Truth Bomb, Kathleen Hughes, who enjoyed a long career in Hollywood.
North Hollywood Valley Times - June 9, 1952
Los Angeles Daily News - June 7, 1952
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jul 26, 2022 -
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Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, 1950s
Miss Watermelon Bust
A 'watermelon bust' is a watermelon-themed party. Having a watermelon bust is an old, mostly Southern tradition, dating back to the nineteenth century.Around the beginning of the twentieth century, college fraternities started hosting watermelon busts, usually at the start of the school year. The events would include activities such as seed-spitting and watermelon-eating contests.
Around the mid-twentieth century, with the introduction of co-education, young college women began attending these watermelon busts, and so it soon occurred to their organizers to add a new activity: a Miss Watermelon Bust pageant.
Chinook 1955 - of Washington State University Yearbook
During the 1950s, these pageants seem to have been innocent enough. But in the 1960s, they acquired a more salacious character. Inspired by the possible double meaning of the title 'Miss Watermelon Bust,' they became focused on selecting the sorority member with the largest bust.
Usually this involved having the contestants parade back and forth in front of the judges. But on a few campuses, such as at the University of Evansville, the contestant who came closest to matching a cutout profile of a buxom woman was declared the winner.
LinC 1966 - University of Evansville Yearbook
Indianapolis News - Sep 25, 1967
Miss Watermelon Bust pageants were held on multiple campuses, but it was mostly chapters of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity that sponsored them. The pageant at Butler University in Indianapolis received the most attention.
Indianapolis News - Sep 21, 1968
Galion Inquirer - Sep 26, 1970
During the 1960s, the young sorority women seem to have gone along with the pageant willingly enough. But during the 1970s objections began to be voiced, noting that the pageant had a definite "male chauvinist flavor."
The pageant continued on for a number of years, but by the 1980s it had mostly been eliminated, replaced by pageants with less suggestive titles such as "Miss Melon Mania" or "Miss Spring Fling."
However, some googling reveals that, as late as 2019, a Miss Watermelon Bust pageant continued to be held on some campuses, such as at Culver-Stockton College, again hosted by Lambda Chi Alpha. I have no idea if the pageant still had an anatomical focus.
Harlingen Valley Morning Star - Sep 30, 1973
Chicago Tribune - Sep 24, 1974
On a final note, the most famous Miss Watermelon Bust was Cissy Colpitts, who won the title at Butler University in 1967 (shown above). She went on to minor fame as an actress, later adopting the name Cisse Cameron, appearing in movies such as Porky's II and Space Mutiny, and with a recurring role as Graziella on The Ted Knight Show. You can find a lot more info about her at Booksteve's Library.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 18, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests
The Disputed Measurements of Miss France
Article source.
Article source: Philadelphia Daily News (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) 07 Feb 1964, Fri Page 14
The New Miss France 1963 Muguette Fabris and her Dauphines Daniele Chevalier (L) and Michele Fourtain Povel (R) January 01, 1963
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 15, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Body, Lies, Dishonesty and Cheating, Lawsuits, 1960s
Miss Fireworks of 1954
Hula dancing on a bomb.
Leatherneck - Magazine of the Marines - Sep 1954
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 04, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, 1950s, Armed Forces, Weapons
Miss Rat Tail?
Two news stories, published over 20 years apart (1955 and 1976), described beauty contests in the Philippines that were combined with rat-extermination campaigns.Local residents decided to help the government’s rat extermination campaign by electing as town beauty queen the girl whose admirers deposited the greatest number of rat tails.
The 1976 story makes it sound like the contestants themselves were expected to do the rat-catching. I assume that's a mistake, though it would be interesting to see rat catching included in the talent section of the Miss America competition.
Pasadena Independent - July 27, 1955
Miami News - Feb 18, 1976
Update: Some more digging into the newspaper archive has yielded plenty of other stories on this topic. The practice seems to get reported in western newspapers about once a decade. Apparently using rat tails to vote in beauty contests is a long-established Filipino custom.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 01, 2022 -
Comments (6)
Category: Animals, Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests
Ninety-five Years of the Shenandoah Queens
I like the fact that they choose Queens from outside their region. Long may she reign!First photo source: The Daily News Leader (Staunton, Virginia)10 Mar 1959, Tue Page 12
The home page.
Apparently, the Court also includes Apple Blossom Princesses.
Source: The Daily News Leader (Staunton, Virginia) 22 Mar 1957, Fri Page 3
Source of article: The Times Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia) 04 May 1957, Sat Page 3
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 24, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Agriculture, Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Parades and Festivals, Regionalism, Twentieth Century, Twenty-first Century
Threshermen’s Queen
I'm not sure when the Threshermen began crowning a queen at their annual reunion. But in 1952 they decided to stop the practice. The reason they gave was that, "The local talent has been exhausted and we are going to wait a couple of years for a new crop."Sounds a bit harsh.
Marshfield News-Herald - Jan 9, 1952
Below is some of the local talent from an earlier year, pre-exhaustion.
The Bloomington Pantagraph - Sep 8, 1950
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jun 14, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, 1950s
World’s Most Beautiful Blonde
The photo that comes second here represents several of the contestants in this French competition. Not sure if our winner, Helen, is among them.
Posted By: Paul - Thu May 12, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, 1930s, Europe
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