State Library of South Australia
Manning Index of South Australian History
  • South Australia
  • Adelaide
  • Port Adelaide
  • Place Names
  •  

  • About the Index
  • Searching
  • Text-based menus
    (Use this option if your browser will not open the folders.)

    South Australia - Women

    Beauty Contests

    Introduction

    So spoke James Ashton, the well-known artist in October 1923 on the eve of a beauty contest launched by The News. He and two other citizens, one of whom was a woman, were appointed judges of the competition, the winner of which was announced in late December of that year.

    It has been said that there are varying degrees of courage. Indeed, only the bravest can be induced to act as judge of a baby show and, in 1902, a male judge was to observe that coming under fire from Maxim guns at the Boer War was mere child's play when compared with a running of a gauntlet of disappointed mothers. A severer test, however, was to be encountered in pouring over photographs of pretty women when, in the halcyon days of the early 1900s, social custom frowned upon parades of contestants which are the fashion today.

    One report of such a contest traversed the risks involved in the naming of "the most comely belle". The dauntless three men who acted as judges set a bad example by quarrelling among themselves. They subjected the photographs to the most careful analysis and compared them with reference to the art canons of beauty: and then a deadlock occurred." Each judge resorted to many impatient gestures and scornful references to the taste of his fellow arbitrator.

    At the same time each proclaimed that his own choice was "incomparably the loveliest." The first was to say: "Look at her eyes - that droop with modesty of summer flowers; her ears shaped like the petals of a delicate rose; her nose fit study for a Grecian sculptor; her cheeks, that a Gainsborough might envy."

    And so each of them expounded the points of his favourite. Ultimately, as no headway could be made, a special jury was called in, but wisely they declined to act except on the condition that the entrants' names were kept secret. Finally, the fateful decision was made known and, with one exception, "all the beautiful women had the supremest contempt for those selfsame judges."

    "The most beautiful woman, when her identity was disclaosed was carefully measured, her weight was taken to the fraction of an ounce and the colour of her hair", the special features of her "apple blossom" complexion, her graceful gait, what she liked to eat for breakfast, and other incidentals were, once put abroad, all matters for national debate.

    South Australian Contests

    What is believed to be the first beauty contest in Adelaide commenced on 22 February 1911 at the Olympus Theatre where the cinema's patrons were given the opportunity to decide the winner. Photographs of the the heads and shoulders of many unnamed women, each designated with a number, were projected on to the screen and such was the success of the venture that many would be "judges" could not obtain admittance.

    Naturally, with an eye to profits, the management extended the competition for a further five nights. Following its closure on 7 March, Miss Darton-Iredale of Norwood, who "worked for a prominent accounting firm in the district", was declared the winner with 6,444 votes over Miss Jones (6,306) and Miss J. Dale (3,142).

    A bathing beauty contest was reported in February 1914 when Miss Betty Ballantyne won the Wondergraph Lady Bathers' Competition. This was the catalyst for an acceleration of "women's liberation", for at this time women commenced to bob their hair, adorn themselves with lipstick, smoke cigarettes and imbibe alcoholic liquors in public, kiss men publicly and dance cheek to cheek with them.

    The 1920s was the decade of the Charleston, a frenetic dance imported from the United States of America, jazz music and the proliferation of bathing beauty contests. A dissenting citizen declared his opinion of such events:

    Criticism was to continue into 1927 when Rev. John Blacket, theologian and historian, wrote a censorious letter to the morning press in respect of perceived evils of the era:

    General Notes

    Beauty contests are the subject of comment in the Register,
    10 April 1902, page 4d.

    "Beauty Culture" is in the Register,
    22 August 1908, page 6d.

    A beauty competition conducted by West's Theatre is reported in the Advertiser,
    23 February 1911, page 6e.
    Photographs of entrants are in the Chronicle,
    11 March 1911, page 37.

    A photograph of Miss Betty Ballantyne, the winner of the Wondergraph Lady Bathers' Competition, is in the Chronicle,
    21 February 1914, page 30.

    A beauty contest conducted by The News is reported upon on all but a daily basis from 16 October 1923, page 1b until late December 1923.

    "Beauty Unclothed" is in the Register, 26 October 1926, page 8c:

    "Miss Australia - SA Representative - Miss Merle Ridgway" is in the Register,
    5 and 11 June 1926, pages 13d and 11g.

    "Miss Australia - Welcomed by Lord Mayor" is in the Register,
    10 July 1926, page 13c.

    A photograph of "Miss Adelaide", Jean Armstrong, is in the Chronicle,
    28 August 1926, page 38,
    "Miss South Australia" is in The Mail,
    21 May 1927, page 1c.
    "Round the Clock With Miss Adelaide" is in The News,
    15 September 1931, page 14d.

    A letter in respect of beauty contests from Rev John Blacket is in the Register,
    10 March 1927, page 5e;
    also see 10 March 1927, page 8g.

    "Beauty Competitions - Condemned by Archbishop" is in the Observer,
    19 March 1927, page 48d.

    A photograph headed "Meet Miss Adelaide" is in the Register,
    23 April 1928, page 10.

    A series of photographs and articles on a "Popular Girl Contest" commence in the Register,
    30 November 1929, page 12.

    "A Search Begins for Adelaide's Loveliest Beach Girls" is in The News,
    18 January 1935, page 1a; also see
    27 April 1935 (supplement).

    An Essay on Beauty Contests

    Introduction

    So spoke James Ashton, the well-known artist in October 1923 on the eve of a beauty contest launched by The News. He and two other citizens, one of whom was a woman, were appointed judges of the competition, the winner of which was announced in late December of that year.

    It has been said that there are varying degrees of courage. Indeed, only the bravest can be induced to act as judge of a baby show and, in 1902, a male judge was to observe that coming under fire from Maxim guns at the Boer War was mere child's play when compared with a running of a gauntlet of disappointed mothers. A severer test, however, was to be encountered in pouring over photographs of pretty women when, in the halcyon days of the early 1900s, social custom frowned upon parades of contestants which are the fashion today.

    One report of such a contest traversed the risks involved in the naming of "the most comely belle". The dauntless three men who acted as judges set a bad example by quarrelling among themselves. They subjected the photographs to the most careful analysis and compared them with reference to the art canons of beauty: and then a deadlock occurred." Each judge resorted to many impatient gestures and scornful references to the taste of his fellow arbitrator.

    At the same time each proclaimed that his own choice was "incomparably the loveliest." The first was to say: "Look at her eyes - that droop with modesty of summer flowers; her ears shaped like the petals of a delicate rose; her nose fit study for a Grecian sculptor; her cheeks, that a Gainsborough might envy."

    And so each of them expounded the points of his favourite. Ultimately, as no headway could be made, a special jury was called in, but wisely they declined to act except on the condition that the entrants' names were kept secret. Finally, the fateful decision was made known and, with one exception, "all the beautiful women had the supremest contempt for those selfsame judges."

    "The most beautiful woman, when her identity was disclaosed was carefully measured, her weight was taken to the fraction of an ounce and the colour of her hair", the special features of her "apple blossom" complexion, her graceful gait, what she liked to eat for breakfast, and other incidentals were, once put abroad, all matters for national debate.

    Women - Choose again

    Domestic Science

    An Essay on the Colonial Housewife

    The average housewife works about twelve hours a day "in a domestic gilded cage - sometimes by the joys of matrimony and the song of children." Truly, there are few moments when a married woman with children and without help can claim freedom from duty or immunity from work. Pleasure and recreation she must dismiss from contemplation or practice.

    Lest one be accused of exaggeration let me detail a typical daily round of a housewife. The family consists of herself, husband and three children, the latter comprising a baby, a boy three years old, and another boy of school age. The husband works in a factory for good wages, but these are insufficient to pay for domestic help at the present tariff.

    The wife rises at six o'clock to cook an early breakfast for her husband and at seven the children are dressed, with another breakfast to follow; at 8.30 the eldest is sent to school. Then the working day begins in earnest. Need I enumerate all the items of labour in the house when a few will suffice - such as the eternal washing-up, cooking, dusting, ironing, polishing, scrubbing, sewing, mending, sweeping, darning, baking, keeping children clean and in order - an endless task in itself - and sundry other jobs in the category of an occupation pre-eminent for monotony.

    About two o'clock the mother faces a pile of clothes that require mending operations on a large scale, and at five o'clock returns to the kitchen to prepare her husband's tea. Washing-up follows and the time arrives to bath the children and put them to bed. With reasonable luck about eight o'clock the tired mother may have a breathing space after being on duty for fourteen hours, but crediting her with a spell we strike the average of twelve hours as her working day.

    Of course, there is an alternative; she can abandon the struggle, take the line of least resistance, allow the house to remain in chaos and permit the children to exist in neglect. But to her credit she carries out the unending drudgery with a fortitude little short of heroism. Our local doctor tells me that a large number of women in our suburb are victims of complaint due to overwork in the home and some are in hospital either resting or seeking a cure - often arrested by return to conditions that caused the breakdown. This is part of the price we pay for the housewife's twelve-hour day.

    Another result is recorded in figures of premature mortality among infants, still-born babies. or more tragic still, the occasions when a woman's strength is insufficient to bear the ordeal of maternity, and a further victim of the twelve-hour day passes to the Great Beyond. There is another price that few "helpless' housewives can hope to escape. This is a premature ageing, where the married girl of 20 looks 30, and the woman of 40 is transformed with an outer mask of old age.

    In such conditions how can marriage be popularised or the advent of children welcomed in a house that strives to be a home, where the average woman works without change in tasks that never cease, that are without reward, frequently devoid of recognition, almost invariably the cost of health - sometimes of temper - and not seldom accompanied by the final loss of marital happiness and security.

    If women must continue to regard the home as a place of monotonous and upending servitude, I foresee the time when there will be a revolt. To avert this tragedy, for the sake of women we must reduce the 12-hour day and banish the 12-hour look.

    General Notes

    "Cooking Classes" is in the Observer,
    23 December 1876, page 13c,
    Chronicle,
    30 December 1876, page 5b,
    "Cottage Cooking" on
    5 June 1879, page 17e,
    "Practical Cooking Lessons" in the Advertiser,
    25 August 1885, page 7f,
    "Domestic Economy in Schools" on
    23 April 1902, page 4f; also see
    Express,
    25 November 1887, page 2d.
    A sketch is in the Australasian Sketcher,
    30 October 1875, page 124.

    "Cookery Classes" is in the Register,
    7 July 1887, page 5a.

    "The Queen's Home of Domestic Instruction" is in the Express,
    12 October 1888, page 2b,
    20 March 1889, page 3e.

    A gas cooking demonstration is reported in the Express,
    12 July 1892, page 2b.

    "Women and Housework" is in the Observer,
    13 August 1898, page 24e.

    "Domestic Education in Schools" is in the Register on
    4 August 1900, page 6c,
    "Domestic Economy in Schools" in the Observer,
    26 April 1902, page 30e,
    "Domestic Economy - Teaching SA Girls" in the Register,
    11 July 1903, page 8c,
    "Train the Girls to Cook" on
    20 June 1904, page 4i,
    4 May 1928, page 10h.
    Also see South Australia - Women - Education.
    "The Domestic Element in Education" is in the Observer,
    25 November 1905, page 31d.

    "Training the Girls - Good Work of the Central Mission Guild" is in the Register,
    5 July 1906, page 6g.

    "Domestic Science" is in the Advertiser,
    15 April 1907, page 4d,
    "Domestic Training for Girls" on
    23 July 1909, page 6e,
    "Home Science" on
    27 December 1909, page 4c,
    "To Manage the House - Teaching Girls the Art" on
    24 May 1912, page 9a,
    2 July 1912, page 8g,
    27 June 1913, page 8d.
    "To Manage the House - Teaching Girls the Art" on
    24 May 1912, page 9a,
    2 July 1912, page 8g,
    27 June 1913, page 8d.

    "Future Home Makers - What Girls Should Learn" is in the Express,
    29 June 1920, page 2d.

    "Domestic Training in Our Schools" is in the Register,
    7 August 1923, page 6d.

    "Educating Our Girls - Homecraft for Adelaide" is in The News,
    19 February 1924, page 10b,
    "The Education of Girls - Fitting Them for Housewives" in the Advertiser,
    20 March 1924, page 8h.

    The formation of a Housewives' Association is reported in the Advertiser,
    1 May 1926, page 9e; also see
    21 September 1927, page 13a,
    1 October 1927, page 15g.

    "Household Efficiency" is in the Observer,
    29 May 1926, page 53a.

    Information on domestic arts is in The News,
    18 and 22 August 1927, pages 9c and 5c.
    Photographs of a school exhibition of cooking are in the Observer,
    10 April 1930, page 33.

    "Domestic Art in Schools" is in the Advertiser,
    4 May 1928, page 18c,
    "Home School for Girls" in The News,
    11 December 1931, page 10e,
    "Teaching Our Girls to Cook" in The Mail,
    4 November 1933, page 20.

    "Good Wives in the Making" is in the Observer,
    22 June 1929, page 17b.

    Women - Choose again