When I was a boy and American television was still in its childhood, one of TV's most popular daytime shows was "Queen for a Day." Having begun as a network radio show, in 1956 the program migrated to television where it proved a ratings powerhouse for almost a decade.
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1956 Queen For a Day, Wilhelmina Van Son with Host, Jack Bailey
(https://timeline.com/queen-for-a-day-tv-sexism-9bd594f509d9)
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In those Eisenhower-America years, queens were everywhere. High schools and colleges had them, and so did fire departments, shopping malls, and much more. "Crowning" select women as "queens" and putting them upon pedestals was an idea that fit handily into 1950s understandings of gender.
Readers of this blog, familiar with today's Grinnell College, might be surprised to learn that in the 1950s and 1960s, Grinnell College also identified and celebrated queens. There were Cyclone Queens, Military Ball Queens, track meet queens, Mardi Gras queens, and of course Homecoming queens. There was also briefly a Miss Grinnell College contest, the winner of which advanced to participate in the Miss Grinnell competition, a local link to the Miss America Pageant.
However, in the late 1960s, when so many other happenings rocked traditions and upset conventional narratives of social organization, the idea of celebrating campus queens lost its attraction to Grinnell College students, and in 1969 Grinnell abandoned all the beauty contests on campus. Today's post tells that story.
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As early as the 1920s—the same decade in which the Miss America pageant got off the ground—Grinnell College initiated what the college newspaper called its "first beauty contest" under the auspices of the 1927 Cyclone. "Things of beauty are to be joys forever," said the yearbook editor. Having students choose the most beautiful Grinnell woman "gave every co-ed on the Grinnell campus...a chance at the privilege of having her portrait handed down to posterity...in the pages of this spring's annual," he continued. Conceived as a means to sell copies of the book, the beauty contest offered to every purchaser of the 1927 Cyclone "five votes, which may be used [to vote] for any girl on campus." Finalists would have their portraits taken and sent to "experts in the beauty-choosing profession" (by which they seem to have meant Hollywood stars) to judge the most beautiful. Each portrait would be "exquisitely printed in a special section of the book [i.e., Cyclone], an everlasting tribute to the lucky girls" (Scarlet and Black, October 10, 1925).
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Headline from Scarlet and Black, October 10, 1925
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The next year the system did not depend upon purchasing yearbooks: "Every student [emphasis mine—dk] of Grinnell College will be eligible to vote...and every woman who is a student at Grinnell College will be considered a participant," the announcement said. Students were invited to nominate "the most beautiful girls on campus" by placing the names of their nominee on paper that they then deposited in a ballot box in ARH. The top ten were listed on a published ballot for a January election by the entire student body (ibid., December 26, 1926). Photographs would be sent to a "judge prominent in theatrical circles" who would choose "Miss Grinnell" and three runners-up.
What was notable in the early history of the college's beauty contests was the participation of all students, male and female. When the Cyclone staff revived the competition a few years later, new rules separated the decision by gender: men picked "beautiful" women and women picked "handsome" men. For example, the Scarlet and Black reported in 1933 that male students had nominated thirty-nine co-eds as "most beautiful" and that women students had advanced "fifty handsome males" in a contest sponsored by the yearbook (February 10, 1933). At the Cyclone Ball February 24, Walter Straley '33 and Katherine Lewis '35 succeeded to the titles of King and Queen of the ball (ibid., March 1, 1933).
By the time Grinnell students celebrated the third Cyclone Ball in 1935, the contest embraced more enthusiastically gendered stereotypes. For this competition nineteen "representative men" each submitted a list of four names of "ideal women," a phrase that anticipates the Miss America song of a later time. The results named Betty Compton '35, Sabeth Mix '36, Catherine Webster '37, and Janith Wyle '38 as ideal women of their respective classes. In this way four women reigned over the ball, each judged "ideal" by men (ibid., March 6, 1935).
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America seems to have discovered "homecoming" in the early twentieth century when American colleges and universities organized special occasions—complete with football games, parades, and dances—to summon alumni "home"—back to campus. According to a 1955 Scarlet and Black article, Grinnell College celebrated its first homecoming in 1916, but without a queen (October 28, 1955); only after World War II did Grinnell name its first homecoming queen.
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Scarlet and Black, October 4, 1946
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In early October 1946 the Scarlet and Black initiated efforts to choose a "Girl of the Century" to commemorate the college's centennial. The campus newspaper urged students to Look round about you...! Who is your candidate for "Girl of the Century?" Should she be tall, short, dark or blonde? Name her, and she will reign as the Centennial Homecoming Queen... (October 4, 1946).
The newspaper printed ballots on page one, and encouraged students—all students—to cut the ballot from the paper, and, having written on the ballot the name of the woman they nominated, deposit the ballot in a special box in the campus bookstore. "Final announcement of the identity of the queen and her court," the paper promised, "will be kept secret until the Homecoming weekend" (ibid.). Student nominations resulted in a slate of six women from among whom the male athletes of Honor G (rather than the "professional judges of beauty" of the former Cyclone competition) chose the queen (ibid., October 11, 1946). The first Grinnell College woman to receive the crown of Homecoming Queen was Doris Crowl (1926-2022), a speech and drama major from Council Bluffs, Iowa.
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Doris Crowl, Grinnell College's First Homecoming Queen (1946)
(Scarlet and Black, October 18, 1946)
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The following year saw a change in the process, affirming the principle of having men determine the homecoming queen. In 1947 (and for some years afterward) each of the men's halls of north campus—rather than students from the entire campus—chose a nominee. As before, Honor G—an honor society for male athletes—then selected and crowned the queen (ibid., October 10, 1947). Lilian Crawford, who was that year the nominee of both Clark and Dibble, reigned over the 1947 homecoming festivities (ibid., October 24, 1947).
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Photograph of Carol Lynn Fleck '60, Miss Iowa, at 1957 Miss America Pageant, Atlantic City
(https///www.stewartfh.com/obituaries/Carol-Couchenour/#!/TributeWall)
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When Grinnell College students turned their minds toward Homecoming in autumn 1957, they confronted an unusual circumstance. Only a month before announcement of the nominees for Homecoming Queen, one college woman had already competed in the televised Miss America contest as Miss Iowa. That July Carol Lynn Fleck '60 (1938-2018)—who had earlier been named Miss Oskaloosa and Miss Southeast Iowa—had emerged from the state-wide competition in Clear Lake as Miss Iowa, sending her to Atlantic City, New Jersey. In late September the Scarlet and Black published an interview with Fleck, thereby alerting students to the presence on campus of a publicly-recognized beauty queen (September 27, 1957). Surprisingly, when the nine semi-finalists for that year's homecoming queen were announced, Fleck was not among them (ibid., October 18, 1957). Instead, Kathy Davis '60 reigned as Homecoming Queen that year (ibid., November 1, 1957).
Homecoming in 1958 brought another change in the procedure for selecting the queen without altering its gender values. If previously each hall of north campus—at the time only men lived on north campus and only women lived on south campus—had nominated a woman to be queen and Honor G had made the final selection, henceforth Honor G would nominate five candidates, and all North campus men would vote to establish the winner (ibid., October 3, 1958). The student newspaper approved of the revision, suggesting that the old system was little more than a "popularity contest among the girls dating [men] in a hall" (ibid., October 24, 1958). But giving Honor G the right to narrow the field by deciding upon the nominees and giving all North campus men the power to choose the queen retained the same gender stereotypes as had prevailed previously with Honor G and its male athletes controlling the process.
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Carol Fleck did ascend the Grinnell College Homecoming throne, but not until 1958 when the Oskaloosa native and speech correction major was only one of several queens who reigned at the college that year. In March 1959 Mary Kate Prangley '59, a sociology major from Winnetka, Illinois, took the title of Cyclone Queen; Janet Catherine Schaab '59 (1937-2021), a music major from St. Louis, won the inaugural competition for Miss Grinnell College; and Jacqueline Jean Baker '62 (1940-1978), a sophomore from Glasgow, Montana, reigned as Queen of the Military Ball. The 1959 Cyclone sported full-page photographs of all four queens, fulfilling the promises of posterity dangled before contestants in the Cyclone beauty contests of the 1920s (pp. 170-173).
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Four Grinnell College Queens of 1958-59 (1959 Cyclone, pp. 170-73)
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Exactly what stimulated the founding in 1959 of a competition for Miss Grinnell College is unclear, but perhaps nothing more than the country's fascination with Miss America explains the idea. As in the Miss America contest, all eighteen women contestants participated in a bathing suit competition, demonstrated some talent (each performance no longer than three minutes), and participated in an evening gown contest.
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Photo of Contestants in Bathing Suits as part of 1959 Miss Grinnell College Competition
(1959 Cyclone)
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In addition, a panel of faculty judges (four men and one woman) interviewed all the contestants, assessing "their intellect, personality, and poise." The judges then chose a winner ("Miss Grinnell College"), who, along with two runners-up, qualified for the Miss Grinnell contest which was sponsored by the Grinnell Jaycees; whoever won the title of Miss Grinnell would take home some locally-provided gifts and, more importantly, qualify to compete for the Miss Iowa contest (Scarlet and Black, April 10, 1959). In 1959 Jacque Baker, Montana native and first runner-up in the Miss Grinnell College competition, succeeded to the title of Miss Grinnell, and in Clear Lake that summer won the title of Miss Iowa (ibid., May 1, 1959; Daily Gate City, September 9, 1959), making her the second Grinnell College student in three years to represent Iowa at the Miss America Pageant. |
Jacqueline Baker '62 being crowned Miss Grinnell
(Scarlet and Black, June 5, 1959)
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Over the next several years Grinnell College women won the local Miss Grinnell contest: Ruby Jo Ponce '63 in 1960, Gail Parish '63 in 1961, and Susan Faunce in 1962. But local interest in the beauty pageant seems to have flagged. Only five women participated in the 1963 contest, and when only three voiced interest in 1964 the Jaycees decided to cancel the event. |
Grinnell Herald-Register, June 11, 1964
(Thanks to Gary Meyer for sharing this scan with me)
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Competition for the Military Ball Queen (also named "honorary colonel") continued. Marge Lahue '60 was named "honorary colonel" in 1960, Sharon Hasekamp '62 in 1961, Sharon Miller '63 in 1962, and Nancy Cooke '64 in 1963. With the unpopular Vietnam war in the news, students and faculty grew increasingly critical of the military presence in Grinnell. At an April 1969 faculty meeting some 100 students gathered to protest against ROTC and giving academic credit for ROTC classes. The immediate consequence was a faculty resolution ending academic credit for ROTC (Scarlet and Black, April 11, 1969). Trustees, however, opted to retain academic credit for ROTC courses until such time as the Air Force completed phasing out the Grinnell unit by September 1972 (ibid., September 13, 1969). Events—including the 1970 campus shutdown and finally a 1972 student occupation of the ROTC building—intervened. The military ball was no more.
Except for Homecoming, other campus queen competitions also disappeared. Barbara Anne Beale '64, a speech and drama major from Minneapolis, seems to have been the last Cyclone Queen, taking her title in 1964 (1964 Cyclone, p. 188). The final Snow Queen election took place in January 1966. Perhaps the most notable feature of this election was the presence of an African American woman, Sandy Bates '68, among the five nominees, although she did not receive the crown (Scarlet and Black, January 28, 1966).
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Nominees for 1966 Snow Queen
(Scarlet and Black, January 28, 1966)
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The tradition of electing a Homecoming Queen proved more resistant to change. In 1959 Joan Christensen '61, a political science major from Fremont, Nebraska, reigned over Homecoming, and the tradition continued through most of the 1960s.
Kathleen Abbott from the class of 1971 was the last woman elected Homecoming Queen, but she was not the last Grinnell College Homecoming Queen. Reflecting the growing criticism of college queens and the gender stereotypes that they implied, Dick "the Kid" Mellman '71, a second-year student from University City, Missouri, decided to throw his hat into the ring. In a story that drew the attention of the major wire services, Mellman told reporters that he had invited the five women nominees for Grinnell's Homecoming Queen to withdraw; when he received no reply, the slim 18-year-old began to campaign against the "Establishment." Correctly pointing out that until his campaign, only men had decided the college's Homecoming Queens, and that athletes had exerted outsize influence (Burlington Hawk Eye, October 20, 1968), Mellman claimed to have received a "mandate" from a special election open to men and women students (Iowa City Press-Citizen, October 19, 1968). With the aid of followers, Mellman staged a "protest coronation" immediately after the crowning of Kathleen Abbott. "Sitting in a red car and wearing a robe," Mellman, with two students dressed in military uniforms beside him, entered the football stadium to the strains of "Pomp and Circumstance." Receiving a tissue paper crown while supporters shouted "the queen belongs to the people," Mellman became the very last Grinnell College Homecoming Queen (Cedar Rapids Gazette, October 20, 1968).
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Richard Mellman '71, the Last Grinnell College Homecoming Queen
(https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A5656.tiff)
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It is tempting to regard Mellman's moment in the homecoming sun as little more than a prank. In fact, however, student objections to the entire idea of selecting "queens" grew noisy in the late 'sixties. In a lengthy letter to the editor of the Scarlet and Black, Sally Hamann '70, who had taken part in a February demonstration against Playboy magazine (Scarlet and Black, February 7, 1969), criticized the tradition of Homecoming Queen for perpetuating "the image of a woman as a 'Barbie' doll who is only expected to be good-looking." Accusing the tradition of exploiting women, Hamann observed that the entire process degraded women, making them into lap-dogs, and reinforced the idea that women should "concentrate on aspects of figure, face, hair, and clothes instead of the more important human qualities." Moreover, by having only men select the queen, Hamann continued, the institution perpetuated claims of male superiority, and implied that "every woman should want to be a queen, judged only on her physical attraction" (Scarlet and Black, October 10, 1969). A few days earlier the student Senate, at the urging of the Grinnell Women's Liberation group, "officially recommended to the Student Affairs Committee and President Leggett abolishment of the institution of Homecoming Queen at Grinnell College" (ibid., October 17, 1969).  |
1970 Photograph of Women's Liberation Group Discussion
(https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A5695.tiff)
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The campus newspaper advised readers that nostalgic alumni then converging on campus for Homecoming in 1969 might "be relieved to learn that, unlike last year, Grinnell College will not have a male homecoming queen." However, the newspaper continued, "traditionalists" might be "disappointed when they discover that, in fact, Grinnell will have no homecoming queen at all this year"[emphasis mine—dk]. The article went on to report that students had voted by more than two-to-one against having a homecoming queen (ibid.). Neither the athletic department nor the college president offered any resistance, and so the tradition of a Grinnell College Homecoming Queen, born in an era that depended upon different understandings of gender, succumbed to the values of a new age.###
There she is, Miss America!
There she is, your ideal....
The 1960s destroyed the facile assumptions of the Miss America Pageant about what constituted an ideal. What had been simmering discontent broke into the open in 1968, when protestors staged an embarrassing demonstration on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Throwing into a trash can "bras, girdles, curlers, false eyelashes, wigs, and representative issues of Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, Family Circle, etc.," demonstrators rejected the objectification of women and their implied subservience to men's fantasies. The Pageant went on, but its once glowing image was tarnished, and ever since the Pageant has struggled, even if it has not gone totally defunct like the "Queen for a Day" television program. Post-war gender stereotypes had been exposed.
Beauty pageants, especially in their embrace of swimsuit competitions, resembled too closely the evaluation of livestock, as the Atlantic City protestors had maintained. This same critique emerged in Grinnell. Re-reading recently news clips about her participation in the Miss Grinnell competition, one Grinnell alumna reported being horrified to recall that newspapers reported "my measurements as if I was a horse at the fair." A local story described one Miss Grinnell candidate as having "near perfect" measurements: 36 1/2 - 24 1/2 -35 (Grinnell Herald Register, July 20, 1961). In an age when bust, waist and hip measurements of Hollywood starlets were regularly published in the press, the gendered process of choosing campus queens undoubtedly saw women through similarly calibrated eyes.
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1960 Homecoming Platform; Mickie Clark '63 (center left) and Nancy Welch '61 (center right ), Queen
(https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A5661)
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Grinnell College's tradition of naming campus queens also felt the influence of emergent revaluations of race. Like the Miss America Pageant itself, which, until 1971 had no contestant of color and until 1983 had never crowned an African American queen, Grinnell's queens were all white. Over the twenty years when Grinnell men selected Homecoming Queens only once did an African American woman—Michele (Mickie) Clark '63 (1943-1972) in 1960—make it onto the platform with the queen. And only once was an African American woman among the semi-finalists for the other queens chosen at Grinnell. If, in the age of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the public battles for racial equality, Black women at Grinnell College did not qualify for beauty competitions, then the traditions of campus queens were understandably doomed. |
Photograph of Grinnell College Cheerleaders
(1956 Cyclone, p. 37)
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In the days before passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (that prohibited sex-discrimination in any school or any other education program that received funding from the federal government), women at the college clearly occupied second-class status. Not only did the college offer no intercollegiate varsity sports for women (another issue that broke into the open on campus in the '60s), but many organizations open to women functioned primarily as supporters of men's athletics. Cheerleaders from the sidelines (both actual and metaphorical) encouraged the college's male athletes, and even organizations like Women's Honor G, which were meant to look the same as their male counterparts, performed outside the spotlight and mainly in service to men's sports.  |
Yearbook Description of Women's Honor G
(1956 Cyclone, p. 91).
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Like the rest of the country, post-war Grinnell saw gender as a simple binary. No doubt there were students (and faculty) on campus who struggled with this simple division, but none of those struggles made it into the public sphere. Before the shocks of war, race, and gender revolution, the tradition of crowning an "ideal" woman as Queen, putting a crown on her head and roses in her arms, lived peaceably with the rest of the post-war world.
And then it all changed.
