There She is, Miss America

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missamericaNotes from the Lampert Library
On May 7, 1945, Germany signed its unconditional surrender, effective May 8, 1945. On September 2, 1945, Japan signed its surrender documents aboard the USS Missouri. War II was over; the concentration camps had been liberated and the first pictures of the survivors were emerging.

On September 8, 1945, just days after these official documents were signed, the first-and only- Jewish Miss America was crowned. American Jews had made it into the mainstream…or had they?

Bess Myerson (1924-2014), born to Russian immigrant parents, was talented, beautiful and smart. A college graduate, she was a pianist who entered the contest to win the $5000 prize that would buy her a new Steinway grand piano. According to Jeffrey Salkin, the piano represented permanence. The instrument of choice in “the old country” had been the highly portable violin, which could easily be taken when a family fled for a safer home. The piano couldn’t be packed up when one needed to move on. A piano in the home was a sign of stability and safety.

To many Jews, Myerson’s selection showed that Jews had survived the horrors of the Holocaust, that they were not just nameless victims. According to Myerson’s daughter, Barra Grant,” [The Pageant] became more than a beauty contest. The Jews in New Jersey called one another, and they came to Atlantic City that night.”

Asked by the Pageant to change her name to one less obviously Jewish, she refused. Myerson, who had never encountered anti-Semitism in a world that seemed to her to be entirely Jewish when she was growing up, was subjected to considerable anti-Semitism. She said, “[Not changing my name] was the most important decision I ever made. It told me who I was, that I was first and foremost a Jew.”

After her selection, several of the Pageant’s big sponsors refused to have her represent them as Miss America. Other lucrative sponsorships either never appeared or dried up. Invitations to speak were withdrawn. She was barred from some hotels and country clubs. On one occasion, Myerson had already arrived to give her speech when she was prevented from appearing.

“I felt so rejected, “she said. Here I was, chosen to represent American womanhood and then America treated me like this.” Instead of weeping and moaning, Myerson, as the behest of the Anti-Defamation League, began a six-month tour speaking out against prejudice in a speech called “You Can’t Be Beautiful and Hate.”

lifemagMyerson went on to a career in television, politics (a 1980 Senate run and New York City’s unofficial first lady under Mayor Ed Koch), philanthropy and public service. As New York City’s chief consumer watchdog, she was instrumental in the enactment of open-dating and unit pricing in supermarkets.

Despite her accomplishments, her private life was marked by controversy including two failed marriages. She became embroiled in legal action called the Bess Mess, a shoplifting charge, and consorted with some unsavory characters.

However, Bess Myerson will forever be remembered in the Jewish community as the beauty who became Miss America just after one of the lowest times for the Jewish world, at a time when events like the Miss America Pageant were popular and important.

More detailed information about Bes Myerson can be found in Her Works Praise Her (Diner), The Jewish Woman in America (Baum), and 9 (Dworkin) as well as in biographies available in the public library.

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