The Universal Beauty Trip

In the summer of 1915, in large part in order to advertise the existence of his newly-established Universal City Studios, Universal Moving Pictures President Carl Laemelle organized a cross-country procession that would culminate in a beauty pageant at Universal City, California (which, like Universal Studios, Laemelle had only founded in March of that year). Comprising "America's Most Beautiful Girls" from each of the forty-eight states, as well as studio representatives including Laemelle himself, the Universal Beauty Trip proceeded by automobile and rail from the East Coast to California, stopping at major cities along the way and at important tourist sites like the Grand Canyon