Photographic print:Miss America Contest

By the time this Miss America Pageant took place in 1940, beauty contests were commonplace at local festivals throughout the country. But this contest was different: winner Frances Burke, shown here with the two runners-up and the panel of judges, was part of a national phenomenon. First held in 1921 to encourage tourists to stay in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after the end of the summer season, the "National Beauty Tournament" faltered financially by the end of the decade. In 1935, amid the Great Depression, an effort was made to revive the attraction under the direction of Lenora Slaughter, who carefully crafted the contest to shed the seedy popularity of boardwalk entertainment. She added a mandatory talent component and began offering college scholarships to winners. In 1940 she renamed the event the "Miss America Pageant" and moved it away from the beach. Selected from the advertising and fashion industries, judges ranged from such pinnacles of American wholesomeness as Norman Rockwell to illustrator George Petty (second from left) - America's most famous pinup artist and creator of the voluptuous "Petty Girl" for Esquire magazine in the 1930s. Slaughter's efforts turned the Miss America Pageant in to an accepted part of American life.