Each year over 700,000 beauty pageants are held in cities and towns the world over. Here is a celebration of that glitz and that glory. From Miss Universe to Miss Potato Blossom, this colorful book showcases pageants large and small, focusing on the heyday of beauty contests from the 1930s to the 1970s. Chapters on fashion, talent, bathing-suit competitions, and congeniality are packed with insider information on exactly what it takes to win the crown, secrets to looking perennially polished and poised, and tidbits on the beauty queen wave, talent dos and donts, and pageant etiquette. With over 100 vintage photos, Beauty Queen is a sweetly nostalgic ode to pageantry perfection.