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26/08/2017
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LAUREN CARROLL Staff Writer 1 hr ago
Miss America 1947
Floats bearing entrants in the 1947 Miss America contest parade down the Atlantic City, N.J., boardwalk on Sept. 2, 1947, as the week long pageant opens. (AP Photo)
When the 51 contestants of Miss America 2018 ride down the Atlantic City Boardwalk on Saturday, Sept. 9, all eyes will be on each contestant’s highly decorated and costumed shoes.
But that wasn’t always the case. The tradition of contestants donning decorated shoes isn’t as old as the 97-year-old pageant and over the years has been influenced by Atlantic City’s LGBT community.
Miss America is an Atlantic City tradition itself, starting as a shoulder-season gimmick to keep visitors in the city after Labor Day. According to records archived by the Atlantic City Free Public Library, the “beauty maids,” as they were called in 1921, were paraded down the beach in swimsuits during the two-day events.
As pageant popularity grew, Miss America evolved to be the gowns-and-crowns type pageant we recognize today, featuring formal wear and regal accessories.
As the oral history goes, astute observers watching the parade from the Boardwalk high rises noticed that some contestants thought they were safe to forgo formal footwear while riding in the convertible cars.
“You could see the gowns, the furs, the veils and the tiaras,” said Gary Hill, co-founder of the Schultz-Hill Foundation and former club promoter, “but you couldn’t see that all the girls were wearing slippers or sandals or just barefoot.”
According to Hill, in the mid-’70s, the place to watch the Miss America parade would be New York Avenue, which was lined with nightclubs and bars.
“There were three or four gay bars on New York Avenue, and they would all host pre- and after-parties during Miss America events,” Hill said.
Rendezvous Lounge owner BJ Johnson, along with drag performer and bartender Treetop were the first to come up with the “show us your shoes” chant, jokingly yelled during the parade, according to Hill.
“It was a spoof. But it was all in good fun,” Hill said. “The community would pick their favorites and cheer for the girls. It was a way to have fun during the parade.”
Word spread over the years that the parade fans would demand to see if the contestants were wearing shoes that matched their ensembles, so the contestants started preparing designer shoes or possibly a surprising shoe reveal to have fun with the revelers.
“It became a really fun thing for the girls to participate in — they weren’t officially judged on it,” Hill said, “except back in the New York Avenue bars, where the people who went to the parade would vote on who they thought had the best shoes or who they liked best.”
Atlantic City’s LGBT community supported the Miss America parade in many ways, from watching the parade to being a part of the local entertainment and beauty industry that the pageant relied on. However, it took about 20 years for the Miss America Organization to embrace the “show us your shoes” tradition.
Hill estimates that the contestant participation really took off in the ’80s, with the pageant fully accepting and eventually adopting the official name of Show Us Your Shoes Parade in the ’90s.
During Miss America week, the contestants’ shoes — which can range from sky high stilettos to a bejeweled pair of combat boots — are on display in Boardwalk Hall.
While the theme of the parade has evolved, the celebration of Miss America and the women vying to be her successor is still the same after all these years.
Carol Taylor, 75, said she has been going to the Miss America parade since she was a little girl.
“The parade has always been a part of Miss America, especially on a local level,” Taylor said. “I think it’s important to go to the parade and support your local girl, or your state girl.”
Taylor, who has been actively involved in local pageants for years, is currently the director of the Seashore Line pageants, which feed into the Miss New Jersey pageant.
Taylor has gone to the parade every year, including one of the years Miss America was held in Las Vegas, which she said didn’t have the same pomp as the pageant does here in Atlantic City.
She said the shift from formal wear to more costumes added fun to the parade for the viewers, as well as the contestants.
“I think it gives the girls an opportunity to really show their personality,” Taylor said. “It enhances the whole idea of the pageant.”
While in recent years, the weather, with rain and wind, hasn’t cooperated, Taylor said, she feels the parade still draws a great crowd.
“It’s been growing again, and you see more crowds each year, with the same traditions with renting the rolling chairs and cheering for their favorite,” she said.
The Miss America Show Us Your Shoes Parade will start 5 p.m. at New Jersey Avenue and travel past Boardwalk Hall to end at Albany Avenue.
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