Well, I’m not so sure it was actually “her” new Nash; maybe just the official car she got driven around on on this publicity tour? More likely so. I doubt Miss Americas got new cars then, or even later. It’s not like the Playboy bunnies and their new cars, by a long shot, actually.
Probably a rental car with magnetic signs that they take to the next stop for the next rental car
Not to be “Downer Dave” but I highly doubt that magnetic signs had been thought of yet. Maybe I am wrong, though…..
Ha! Tried to look it up. Patent granted 1960 for MOSKOWITZ MAGNETIC SIGN that supposedly addressed the numerous shortcomings in preceding efforts. The guy is a magnetism expert & wrote a book that’s still a standard in engineering for permanent magnets & magnetic fields.
My guess would be that both Nash and United Airlines were big sponsors for the pageant and both got their name displayed for the publicity photo. United got an actual name, and all Nash needed was that famous shape.
At one time, when I was much (much) younger, and was trying to figure out how to finance the purchase and (what would no doubt have been rather marginal) restoration of a mid-to-late-1950s Fleetwood limo, I had the idea of contacting the consulates of “countries too small to have an actual presence in the US” and exploring if they’d pay me a fee to mount a pair of those bumper flags featuring their country’s seal/flag and drive the car around on my daily drives. For a nominal fee, some unheard of nation-state could have a grand (the dagmars alone would ensure that) presence in the US…or at least Western Massachusetts.
I could have done better than Miss America’s “Official Car” designation.
Ah, college….
That made me smile. Great image. Maybe hire your largest friend to drive while wearing shades and a black biz suit.
Western MA ?
There was no 1950 Miss America.
There was a 1949 and a 1951. This is because pageant decided to change the date and they backdated it. I cannot tell by the photo if this Miss America was the 1949 or 1951, but if the date is correct, it is the 1949 Miss America, who married and divorced during her reign. This caused the pageant to require that winners as unable to marry, or be pregnant during their reigns. Her name was Jaque Mercer from AZ.
I never understood these pageants. No 1950, no having babies, no getting married? Maybe they thought “Mrs. America” didn’t have as nice a ring, pun unintended.
Here she is…
Wow, she looked much better in your pic than the one at the top!
My thoughts exactly. Testament to the powers of color photography and the cloaking action of frumpy late-1940s fashion.
That hat is particularly awful…
VanillaDude seems to have her (Jacque Mercer, MissA of 91949) identified. She made appearances at the Feb. 1950 Chicago Auto Show for Nash, so I’ll guess this is the (Nash) car picking her up at the airport (Midway?):
Aha—-the NXI/NKI “$1000 car” turned into a you-know-what real thing!
“Metropolitan” much more memorable than NXI or NKI, good move on the part of those officials.
The Chicago Auto Show was air conditioned in 1934. This was held at the International Amphitheatre until 1961.
Ironically, if a pretty contestant had the roly-poly, bulbous shape of the Nash Airflyte, she wouldn’t have been selected to compete and definitely wouldn’t have been chosen as Miss America…
That thar auty-mobile is the best gol-darned car ever made by the hands of man! And of that ‘e can be certain,of that ‘e can be sure!
In ’54 Nash definitely gave a new Ambassador to Miss America, as payment for being the brand’s Ambassador. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same policy was in effect earlier.