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Miss Subways

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Manage episode 183723948 series 6482
Content provided by Radio Diaries & Radiotopia and Radio Diaries. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Radio Diaries & Radiotopia and Radio Diaries or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

Most beauty pageants promote the fantasy of the ideal woman. But for 35 years, one contest in New York City celebrated the everyday working girl.

Each month starting in 1941, a young woman was elected “Miss Subways,” and her face gazed down on transit riders as they rode through the city. Her photo was accompanied by a short bio describing her hopes, dreams and aspirations. The public got to choose the winners – so Miss Subway represented the perfect New York miss. She was also a barometer of changing times.

Miss Subways was one of the first integrated beauty pageants in America. An African-American Miss Subways was selected in 1948 – more than thirty years before there was a black Miss America. By the 1950s there were Miss Subways who were Black, Asian, Jewish, and Hispanic – the faces of New York’s female commuters.

  continue reading

219 episodes

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Miss Subways

Radio Diaries

9,434 subscribers

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Manage episode 183723948 series 6482
Content provided by Radio Diaries & Radiotopia and Radio Diaries. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Radio Diaries & Radiotopia and Radio Diaries or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

Most beauty pageants promote the fantasy of the ideal woman. But for 35 years, one contest in New York City celebrated the everyday working girl.

Each month starting in 1941, a young woman was elected “Miss Subways,” and her face gazed down on transit riders as they rode through the city. Her photo was accompanied by a short bio describing her hopes, dreams and aspirations. The public got to choose the winners – so Miss Subway represented the perfect New York miss. She was also a barometer of changing times.

Miss Subways was one of the first integrated beauty pageants in America. An African-American Miss Subways was selected in 1948 – more than thirty years before there was a black Miss America. By the 1950s there were Miss Subways who were Black, Asian, Jewish, and Hispanic – the faces of New York’s female commuters.

  continue reading

219 episodes

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