Badger Beauties

Everyone has an opinion when it comes to beauty — and beauty pageants — and UW-Madison was once no exception. From a former judge's guidelines and Badger Beauty recollections, we take a closer look at a forty-year campus tradition.

By Candice Gaukel Andrews '77

I have to admit,
I've never believed them —
those women in swimsuits who walk in front of a panel of judges and then try to tell me beauty pageants are all about talent, academics, and winning scholarships.

Right.

Granted, I've read that the new, politically correct Miss World Pageant has jettisoned the national costumes, skimpy swim wear, and high heels for the “more natural environment” of jeans and T-shirts.

Please.

So when I found out that the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an institution of higher learning in a progressive city — my own alma mater — actually had a contest for female students based solely on beauty, I couldn't believe it. But there they were. In the Badger yearbooks from 1931 to 1969 — almost four decades — six women (typically) were bestowed with full-page portraits only because they had been selected as “Badger Beauties.”

I hoped that the contest might at least be tied to a scholarship, but my initial research didn't uncover any monetary reward or civic duty that would accrue to the winners — other than judging the annual engineering students' beard contest. As Mary Olmsted Wallace, a 1948 Badger Beauty and spouse of 60 Minutes anchor Mike Wallace, told me, “The contest didn't have anything to do with talent or brilliance. There were no scholarships or commercial jobs. I don't think they should have it today.

A contest is kind of silly if it's just based on looks.”

Bingo.

So how did the beauty pageant concept find a home for so long on the UW-Madison campus, and what did the former Badger Beauties think about it now? In the Spring 2003 issue of On Wisconsin, I sent out a call for Badger Beauties to tell me their stories. I heard from more than forty of them.

It appears to have all started innocently enough — not as much like a beauty competition as like being given an honorary title by a loosely organized committee. Prior to 1931, the Badger yearbooks included a “Wisconsin Women” section featuring women's athletics, clubs, and sororities. But in that year, for the first time, five full-page face shots were devoted to the first so-named “Badger Beauties”: Frances Fosshage, Margaret Newman, Carolyn Olson, Sally Owen, and Alice Ubbink.

The earliest Badger Beauty I talked to is Ruby Jo Swanstrom, who told me, “In 1937, it was a complete and utter surprise when I found out I had been elected from Langdon Hall. I reported to the Union, where I was interviewed for twenty minutes, and then I modeled a formal dress. I was told almost immediately I was a Badger Beauty.”

According to the yearbooks, by 1946 the contest had evolved into an adjunct of the Junior Prom, with the Beauties serving as the prom's Court of Honor. By 1954, Badger Beauties had shifted to functioning as the Military Ball's Court of Honor. And by 1957, the tradition had turned into a campuswide contest, with 165 entrants vying for the title.

With true competition status came the need for judges, and Badger yearbook staff strove to give the pageant validity — and publicity — by employing celebrities. Over the years, judges included radio, film, and TV personalities such as Fredric March '20, Bing Crosby, Don Ameche x'31, Phil Silvers, Arthur Godfrey, Fred S. Meyer (MGM vice president), and Billy Rose (Broadway theater producer); John Robert Powers of the same-named modeling agency; and “Pogo” cartoonist, Walt Kelly. And as the contest grew, the judging criteria became more sophisticated. On December 21, 1944, the Daily Cardinal reported that George Petty, Sr., one of the first pin-up artists, “nationally famous for his stimulating drawings of women for Esquire and other magazines, will judge the co-eds for their photogenic beauty, personality, and stature.”

I wasn't surprised.

By 1961 those rather subjective three aspects had been expanded into seven, with verbalized standards. Professional photographer Duane Hopp '55, who was assistant professor at the Photographic Media Center on campus from 1958 to 1986, still possesses his original 1961 Judge's Guidelines, and he provided me with a copy. I now had a concrete piece of the puzzle, with which to analyze the contest itself.

In a few weeks you will be responsible for the enviable, but difficult task of selecting the six most beautiful girls on our campus. In a contest like this, there must be some uniform criteria for judging all of the girls entered.

We have attempted to give you these concepts by composing a score sheet, which is broken down into seven parts, with a total of 100 points:

1. Walk (10 points). Look at the girls and see if you think they would look at home walking down the stairs in Great Hall on the night of Military Ball.

Roberta Hicken Schmidt '59 remembers, “In March of 1958 or 1959, my roommate invited me to hear a speaker coming to the Wisconsin Union Theater. We had seats in the balcony, and while waiting for the program to begin, we were talking about the recently announced Badger Beauties. Of course, in our opinion, most of them didn't measure up. Just then, a young woman came walking up the aisle towards us. After she passed, I commented that she was my idea of what a Badger Beauty should look like. The speaker that day was John F. Kennedy, and we realized later that the young woman I had singled out was none other than Jackie Kennedy.”

“I'm sure every candidate was somewhat surprised when she made the cut and moved on to the photo session,” says 1956 Badger Beauty Virginia Burdick Duncan. “Fortunately for us, the photographers were excellent and put everyone at ease. Fortunately for me, a most generous friend loaned me a beautiful dress to wear for the session. I always wondered if maybe it was the dress that won Badger Beauty. In the 1956 yearbook, there I am, in my borrowed finery, photographed seated on top of the UW president's grand piano! The ultimate thrill of this fairy-tale experience was at the Military Ball, where the Badger Beauties were officially presented. It was an era of beautiful ball gowns, long, white gloves, and handsomely uniformed escorts. We swept down the stairway of Great Hall in the Memorial Union, and under a military sword arch.”

Okay. I must admit: I've always wanted to do that.

As I suspected, however, having a confident stride wasn't a principal factor. In fact, it was worth only half as much as:

2. Figure proportions (20 points). We have defined this category as the relationship of the feet, ankles, legs, hips, waist, bust, and shoulders.
“I was a judge for one year — 1941 — the best job I ever had!” Arthur Nielsen, Jr., chair emeritus of the ACNielsen television-rating company told me. “We were to supply two things: a photo of the girl and a complete and accurate measurement of her figure. I took the photographs and helped with the measurement task — they were dressed in bathing suits. We did the initial judging for Earl Carroll, who had a musical show on Broadway that boasted the ‘most beautiful women in the world.'

He was happy to be a judge, and he took it very seriously.”

Nielsen's recollections almost made me forget the sword arch — until I heard from Barbara Morey Shade '41, one of the contestants the year Nielsen was a judge. “No way did I wear a swimsuit!” she reassured me. “We all wore black dresses. Mine was off the shoulders, and a friend sent me an orchid to wear. It seemed everyone was sponsored by a sorority. Mine was Pi Beta Phi. The contest was sort of like sororities in general: wonderful for the ones who made it, but a heartache for the ones who didn't.”

Number three, where I, personally, would have assigned more points, brought me back to the low scorers:

3. Poise (10 points). Are they at ease — do they present the best possible picture of themselves — would they be able to tackle a strange situation without being unduly nervous?
It felt good to hear 1955 Badger Beauty Nannita Ruggles Stahl also deny Nielsen's report — from over a decade later. “This was not a ‘bathing beauty' competition. We were selected after a series of interviews by various people, including professors and student leaders. Then we became representatives of the University of Wisconsin, campus groups, dorms, and sororities. We had and needed many other characteristics than appearance.”

Maybe — but the big points were really made with:

4. Facial balance (40 points). When considering this category, we suggest that you look at the following features: eyes, nose, mouth, chin, ears — and see if the total adds up to a beautiful face, a face that will be remembered and envied by others.
“With long, straight hair that hung just below their shoulders, these young women were everything I wasn't,” writes Barbara Joan Bass Grubman '54, a student who remembers seeing Badger Beauties on campus in the early 1950s. “Midwestern and beautiful, their striking smiles and straight, white teeth were attributes I did not have, nor could ever hope to strive for. True, the braces I wore up until leaving for college did help to make my prominent under bite quite presentable, yet it was light-years away from their dazzling smiles. A freckled-face, frizzled-hair brunette from the city streets of the Bronx, New York, stood not a chance of standing among the six beauties who were chosen every year on the UW-Madison campus.”

Uh-huh. I knew it. Back to square one.

5. Personal appearance (15 points). Look at the girls' hair, clothes, and makeup — see if they have done the most they could to enhance their natural beauty.
“What did being a Badger Beauty do for me?” asks Suzanne Holly Bachman '62. “It gave me confidence, improved my public speaking ability, and made my junior year one of the most memorable years of my life. But perhaps more importantly, it put ‘appearance' in perspective. While no one has ever denied its importance, it is what a person does, how hard she works, and what she contributes to her family, community, and society that defines a life.”

According to Jane Brandley '57, using her “appearance” at Badger Beauty appearances had a good and bad side.

“I was very shy and quiet in those days and pretty much did what I was told. I remember being very upset to find myself in my formal adorning a car dealership. Pretty much soured me on the beauty pageant concept. The ball was fun, and the attention was fun. The sorority pushed me forward for other things that revolved around looks — such frivolity seems out of place in today's world. All of life's experiences have made me a
confident, caring woman ready to try anything. Did being a Badger Beauty have any part in that? Probably.”

I'll concede a point. And while I hate to admit it, I almost like point six:

6. Ability to converse (5 points). Can the girls carry on an intelligent conversation?
Says 1941 Badger Beauty Jane Eriksen Dryburgh, “The dean of women was very determined that this should not be just a beauty contest. All candidates were to have three-point averages or higher and be involved in extra-curricular activities. She interviewed us individually in her office to make sure we met her standards.”

“What I most remember is the interview we all had to go through before the last cut,” recalls Barbara Becker Glass '52. “I talked about my employment as a counselor and sailing instructor at a summer camp on Lake Nagawicka. Somehow I think that subject as well as the dress I chose for one of the sessions — a slinky, gray-blue satin, borrowed by actress Gena Rowlands for her Badger Beauty picture in the 1950 Badger — was key to my being chosen.”

So, again, it comes down to a dress? Makes me wonder if the judges meant integrity or cloth when they asked:

7. Is this girl Badger Beauty material? This will not be scored, but will be used to help break ties.
“I was a contestant in 1952 or 1953,” says Bonita Stein Kammer '53, LLB'55. “I lived in one of the unofficial Jewish girls' houses that were privately owned [Norris Hall]. I remember walking to the Union in my heels and dress: a tight-fitting, red top, with a black skirt with hip pockets. I made it to the second-round finals.

“My dad came from Poland and my mother from Russia. They met in Milwaukee in their late teens. There was little opportunity for school in my parents' generation. My dad went to school until he was twelve. As a Jewish girl in Russia, my mother wasn't allowed to go; she would look in the window of the grade school and try to learn things. People would throw stones at her to chase her away. Education was like forbidden fruit for my mother and father. My college experience was so different. To me, being in the Badger Beauty contest meant I was part of Americana, and that was amazing to me! It was a new adventure. I had a ball at the UW. I can't begin to express it.”

Now this is sounding more like my university. Kammer certainly had the “material” or “right stuff” — in bushels.

Jane Dryburgh says her cohort had it, too.

“We all looked to the future with both hope and apprehension due to the growing war in Europe,” she says. “Six months after I graduated in June, Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into World War II. Some of our Badger Beauties group became WAVES and WACS, and one joined the Marines' Woman's Auxiliary.”

It was Grubman who got to the crux of the matter for me. “I often wonder if being a Badger Beauty opened any magical doors for these women. Did it allow them to lead happier, more fulfilled lives? Did they look in the mirror and see their beauty like I saw my lack of it? Would my life have been changed in any way had I been one of them?”

Pamela Lynch McDonald says yes. “When I graduated from the School of Journalism in 1957, it was a very competitive job market for advertising copywriters in Chicago,” she says.

“Despite that fact, I received calls granting me an interview from every advertising agency to which I had submitted my resume. The first thing each interviewer said was, ‘I always wanted to meet a Badger Beauty.' I realized that opened the door and allowed me to make important contacts.”

But Jean Durgin Harlan '45 replies with an emphatic no. “I wonder whether we were particularly determined, during the early stages of World War II, to blot out that painful reality as we planned our small-minded activities,” she muses. “For whatever reason, many of us focused energy on the usual campus rivalries among dorms, sororities, and other residence units, jockeying for social prominence. The Badger Beauty phenomenon was a component of that lightly veiled, ongoing competition.

“No, this was not one of life's peak experiences for me. It probably helped me get into student government subsequently, but it certainly had no direct bearing on my later life in the grownup world.”

Even Virginia Duncan agrees. “There wasn't anything really important about being a Badger Beauty. You didn't have to do anything worthwhile,” she says. “All in all, it was pretty superficial, and later generations of women would look for more ‘relevant' achievements. But for a little girl from a small town in western New York state — a girl who was still trying to discover who she was and what she was hoping to achieve — it was a ‘moment in time' that contributed to her confidence and belief in herself. The gawky, self-conscious teenager had perched on top of the university president's grand piano, to be photographed as a glamorous young woman ... all in a borrowed dress!

“But, oh, to be able to just one more time sweep magnificently down that grand stairway into Great Hall.”

As it turns out, that I can believe.