?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
CONRAD J. LINKE ATLANTIC CITY PAGEANT. 1923. 271/4x191/4 inches. Condition B: expertly restored losses and overpainting in margins; expertly repaired tears and overpainting in image. Mounted on board. The history of the Miss America competition reads like a chapter from a text book on self-serving promotion. It was started in 1921 as a "Fall Frolic" with an "Inter-City Beauty Pageant" intended to increase tourism after Labor Day. The event, with the help of more than 60 newspapers from across the country (all looking for ways to increase their own circulation), who sponsored local "feeder" competitions, became a smashing success. In 1923 there were 70 contestants. 1923 was also the year that Mary Katherine Campbell won her second consecutive title, leading to the decision that from then on no contestant could win the competition more than once.
