THE CITY OF EASTON HAD A MISS AMERICA CONTESTANT!

The city of Easton had a Miss America contestant!

The year was 1922 and it was called the National Beauty Tournament, being held during the Atlantic City Fall Pageant. (Miss America originated in 1921 as a “bathing beauty revue”.  Atlantic City started this pageant to keep people coming to the boardwalk after Labor Day) This year’s pageant was to be the "greatest that has ever been held."

The local paper, Easton Daily Free Press on July 20, 1922, was asked to find Easton’s most beautiful girl.

“The Free Press has been been requested to find Easton’s most beautiful daughter, and we have been instructed that the selection is to be made only on merit of beauty. This search for the most beautiful girl of our country is to be real and unlimited. There are to be no conditions that a girl must fill except that of beauty, intelligence and respectability. She may be rich or poor, professional or amateur, She may be married or single. She may be one of the season’s debutantes, or some farmer’s daughter who is not known and has never been beyond the nearest village.”

Twenty five girls were being picked, with the lucky one being chosen by local judges. The Free Press was asking for photos to be submitted to the paper. If they did not have an adequate photo, they could come into the Free Press and the arts department would take the photo.

On August 22, 1922, the Free Press started to print the photos of the twenty five that were chosen. For six days four photos each were put prominently on the front page.

It appears that the Free Press chose the twenty five. 

Those that entered were;

Miss Helen Tigar, Miss Martha Strahly, Mrs. Clayton Sutton, Miss Isabel Violet Conger,

Miss Fannie Miller, Miss Ruth Lerch, Miss Jennie Rice, Miss Helen Hanna, Miss Irma Hagman,

Miss Marion Opitz, Miss Gladys Pritchard, Miss Helen Zehner, Mrs. Bertha Foulk, Miss Imelda Sprague, Miss Julia Case, Miss Emily Johnson, Miss Eleanore Semple, Miss Dorothy Haupt, Mrs. Hanna Scherf, Miss Katherine Lithman,  Mrs. Margaret S. Dougherty, Miss Gladys Kessler, Mrs. Jennie Breyfogle,

Miss Katherine Unger, and Miss Margaret McCluskey.

On Wednesday evening, August 30, 1922, many people filled the auditorium* at the Easton Library hoping to get a glimpse of the beauties. To be fair to each contestant, it was decided that only the judges and employees of the Free Press be allowed to see the girls. Each girl was given a number and walked out onto the platform alone, “so the judges could see her to best advantage.”

The judges were Henry F. Marx, Head Librarian of the library, Wesley M. Heilberger, a shoe merchant,

J. Madison Porter, Eugene Barnako, The Ladies Tailor, and J. H. Heberling, Supt. Of the Carter Jr. Republic.

The judges had arrived at a unanimous decision, the winner, number 8, was Miss Dorothy Haupt, daughter to Claude T. and Ada Haupt of Easton. She would be known as Miss Easton at the Atlantic City Beauty Pageant.

 Miss Dorothy was accompanied by an escort to Atlantic City to participate in all the pageantries.

                                                                                                                                                                      Bettmann/Corbis

1922 Bathing Suit Beauty Contestants with Dorothy the second from the left and last years winner Margaret Gorman on the far right.                                                                                                                                            

 

The judges for the bathing beauty contest were all artists,

Norman Rockwell, Chandler Christy, and James Montgomery Flagg. All in all there were eight judges along with the presenter King Neptune. (Hudson Maxim)

Miss America Contestants                                                                       Chudnow Museum

On the evening of September 7 & 8, 1922, Dorothy was competing against the 1921 Miss America winner, Margaret Gorman, age 16 of Washington DC and 57 inter-city beauties.

In the end, Miss Columbus, Mary Katherine Campbell of Ohio won the overall Miss America of 1922. (spoiler alert…she also won the next year) The Easton Daily Free has all the descriptions and events of Dorothy and can be found on The Easton Daily Free Press micro-film at the Main Easton Public Library. 

Miss Columbus from Ohio, Mary Katherine Campbell winner of the 1922 & 1923 Miss America

Dorothy came back to Easton as a celebrity.

The next year the Free Press had no girls that entered the Miss Easton contest, so Dorothy was asked to be the contestant for Miss America by the Director General of the pageant. As you already read, she did not win.

Dorothy was born January 4, 1905 in Easton, PA and attended Easton High School.

She married George Benore who died young in 1929. Dorothy had a daughter with George. Her daughter married and died a year before her mother in Wisconsin. Later Dorothy married Rocco Bunino and at some point they moved to Wisconsin where they both passed away in 1988.

* The original Easton Carnegie Library was built with an auditorium on the lower floor. Many presentations and shows were held there. In 1927 the auditorium was abandoned and made into the Children's Room.

Auditorium in the Easton Public Library, now the Children's Room