A beauty pageant is a competition in which the contestants are judged and ranked based on various physical and mental attributes. Per its name, beauty pageants traditionally focus on judging the contestants' physical attractiveness, sometimes solely so, but most modern beauty pageants have since expanded to also judge contestants based on "inner beauty"—their individual traits and characteristics, including personality, intelligence, aptitude, moral character, and charity. Though typically perceived as a female-oriented competition, male beauty pageants also exist, as do child beauty pageants for youth.
Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 18 and 28. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is judged on competition segments with scoring percentages: Private Interview (30%) – a 10-minute press conference-style interview with a panel of judges, On Stage Question (10%) – answering a judge's question onstage, Talent or HER Story (20%) – a performance talent or 90 second speech, Health and Fitness (20%) – demonstrated physical fitness onstage dressed in athletic wear, and Evening Gown (20%) – modeling evening-wear onstage.
Bess Myerson was an American politician, model, and television actress who in 1945 became the first Jewish Miss America. Her achievement, in the aftermath of the Holocaust, was seen as an affirmation of the Jewish place in American life. She was a heroine to parts of the Jewish community, where "she was the most famous pretty girl since Queen Esther".
The Miss South Carolina competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of South Carolina in the Miss America pageant. The pageant was first held in Myrtle Beach and moved to Greenville starting in 1958 and remained in that city until the 1990s. Spartanburg hosted the pageant in a few different venues until new leadership took over the organization and moved the pageant to Columbia, SC in 2011. The pageant was televised since the 1960s until the 1998 pageant. Televising was resumed with the 2000 pageant through 2006. The pageant returned to television in 2014.
The Miss Washington competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Washington in the Miss America pageant.
The Miss Florida competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Florida in the Miss America pageant. Florida has twice won the Miss America crown.
The Miss New York scholarship competition selects the representative for the state of New York in the Miss America scholarship competition.
The Miss Indiana competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Indiana in the Miss America Pageant.
The Miss New Jersey competition is an annual pageant held to select the representative for the state of New Jersey in the Miss America pageant.
Kandice Pelletier Halpin is an American beauty queen, swimwear designer, and dancer from Marietta, Georgia. She competed in the Miss America pageant and on two seasons of the reality television show The Amazing Race.
The Big Payoff is a daytime and primetime game show that premiered on NBC in 1951, and ended its network run on CBS in 1959. It had a brief syndication revival in 1962. NBC used The Big Payoff to replace the 15-minute show Miss Susan starring Susan Peters, which had gone off the air in December 1951.
Miss America 1984, the 57th Miss America pageant, was held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 17, 1983, on NBC Network. Miss America 1983, Debra Maffett crowned her successor, Miss New York 1983, Vanessa Williams of Millwood, New York at the end of the nationally televised event. In July 1984, Williams was forced to resign over the unauthorized publication of nude photographs and was succeeded by first runner-up, Miss New Jersey Suzette Charles, who served as Miss America until September 15, 1984. Among the contestants who did not place among the ten finalists, Miss New Mexico 1983 Mai Shanley, eventually went on to win the Miss USA 1984 pageant on May 17, 1984.
The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), formerly the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), is a department of the government of New York City.
Barra Grant is an American actress, screenwriter, film director and playwright.
Miss America 2014 was the 87th Miss America pageant, held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on September 15, 2013.
Nina Davuluri is an American public speaker, advocate, and beauty queen who hosts the reality show Made in America on Zee TV America from Manhattan.
Miss America is a documentary film directed by Lisa Ades that chronicle the Miss America pageant from its very beginnings in 1921 to the present-day pageant.
The Warner Theatre is a former movie palace and live theater venue built in 1929 on the Atlantic City boardwalk. It reopened as a performance venue in 2023.
New York City 
