On September 12,
1971, girls everywhere were excitedly gathered around their television sets,
watching the Miss America Pageant that was held live at Boardwalk Hall, in
Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The annual event
officially originated in 1921 in Atlantic City, and wasn’t televised live until
1954. In 2006 the show was moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, but it retuned to
Atlantic City in 2013.
On the Miss America
pageants official web site, Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce President
Frederick Hickman describes Miss America in this way:
“Miss
America represents the highest ideals. She is a real combination of beauty,
grace, and intelligence, artistic and refined. She is a type which the American
Girl might well emulate."
Rewinding back over
forty years ago, it’s interesting to learn about the 1972 Miss America; Laurie
Lea Schaefer. She graduated with a Bachelor
of Fine Arts from Ohio University in 1971, and that same year was crowned Miss
Ohio. She went on to be crowned Miss
America in 1972.
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| Laurie Lea Schaefer - Miss America 1972 |
She dressed
conservatively, only wearing dresses and skirts to school, and did not even own
a pair of blue jeans. She wanted to be a
role model. She was very proud of her traditional
beliefs. At her very first news
conference after being crowned, she stated that marijuana use leads to hard
drugs; she believed we had a right to be in Vietnam, but it would be good to
end the war. She thought that abortion
should be illegal, and stated that premarital sex wasn’t for her. She went on to say that she didn’t think that
women were discriminated against in America.
And she summed up her beliefs with “I think the majority of young people
think the way I do, on just about everything”
In view of Laurie’s
and the pageants’ popularity, in 1972 Mattel introduce a version of Laurie in
one of their four new Walk Lively line of dolls. There was Barbie, Ken, Steffie, and Miss
America.
These dolls had a walk ’n turn stand, so when they would walk using their
legs, their heads would turn back and forth and their arms would swing. The walk ‘n turn stands were all tan in color
except for Miss America’s. Her stand was
white. All the Walk Lively dolls are
marked: ©1967 Mattel, Inc./U.S. Pat. Pend./Taiwan.
 |
| Walk Lively Doll Stands (Miss America's is white) |
Miss America (stock
# 3200) is a beauty. She uses the pretty
and popular Steffie head mold. She has
brunette curled hair that is parted in the middle, with blue eyes, rooted
eyelashes, and bendable legs. She’s
dressed in a long evening gown which features a gold lame’, bodice with white
attached taffeta skirt that has a white sheer nylon over-skirt. She
completed her ensemble with chunky white closed-toe heels, a Miss America satin
sash, silver crown, and a long red cape trimmed with white faux fur. She carries a bouquet of red roses and a
silver scepter.
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| Walk Lively Miss America with her original box 1972 |
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| Back of the Kellogg's Corn Flakes Box |
In 1973 the Quick
Curl dolls were released. Quick Curl
Miss America (stock #8697) was one of the five new Quick Curl dolls (the other
four were Barbie, Francie, Kelly, and Skipper). These dolls had special hair that contained
teeny tiny little wires which allowed them to curl with ease.
 |
| Quick Curl Miss America 1973 |
Quick Curl Miss
America was dressed exactly the same as Walk Lively Miss America, except for
her crown. Miss America Walk lively has
much more detail and was made of cloth.
Quick Curl Miss America wears a silver paper crown. Her body and face had some differences. She
had painted on eye lashes, a twist n’ turn waist, bendable legs, came with
brunette or blonde hair, and was marked ©1966/Mattel, Inc./U.S. & Foreign/Patented/Other
Pat's/Pending/Made in/Taiwan. She was
not on the Walk Lively body.
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| Quick Curl Miss America 1973 |
She also
came with a white brush, comb, curling tool, and hair accessories (bobby-pins,
rubber bands, and ribbons).
She was also
available as a department store mail-order doll that came in a brown shipper
box.
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| Quick Curl Miss America with her Shipper Box |
All of Barbie’s
clothes could fit all the Miss America Dolls. There were three very hard to find ensembles which
were made specifically for her, and all were released in 1972; #3215 Royal Velvet, #3216 Majestic Blue, and #3217
Regal Red.
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| Royal Velvet (top left), Majestic Blue (bottom left) and Regal Red (Right) |
Having a Miss
America doll in your Barbie Collection is like owning a little bit of
Americana.
Happy Hunting!
