The First

International Pageant of Pulchritude The International Pageant of Pulchritude, also known as Miss Universe or the International Beauty Contest, was a beauty contest that began in 1920, featuring contestants from multiple nations. This pageant originated the title "Miss Universe" an ...

and Seventh Annual Bathing Girl Revue, was a

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

held from May 15 to May 17, 1926, in

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. The previous editions of the Galveston Bathing Girl Revue had only featured contestants from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. However, during the 1926 event, one contestant from Mexico and another from Canada entered, giving the pageant its first international competitors. It was reported that around 160,000 people watched the bathing costume parade on the afternoon of the 16th. Miss Dallas,

Catherine Moylan Catherine May Moylan (July 4, 1904September 9, 1969) was an American film and television actress, model, and beauty queen who won the 1926 International Pageant of Pulchritude. She subsequently appeared in two Broadway productions before having ...

, won the event, becoming the first Beauty Queen of the Universe.

Events

The contestants began to arrive in

on May 13. Señorita Mexico Maria Martha Perres and Miss Winnipeg Patricia O'Shea, both international entries, notably arrived on that first day, amid a crowd of curious onlookers. The opening parade was held on May 15, with the pageant itself held on May 16. The prizes were given out at the American Beauty Ball, held at the Garden of Tokio in Galveston, which was accompanied by music from various bands such as the Missouri Pacific band, and the Southern Pacific band.

Results

Miss Dallas, Catherine Moylan, won first place in the pageant and was crowned Beauty Queen of the Universe. It was the second time in a row that Miss Dallas won the competition. For winning, Moylan received $2000, and a gold and silver plaque engraved with "Beauty Queen of the Universe". After the competition, Moylan had revealed in an interview that she would use the prize money to attend

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

in Dallas. She also gave credit to Dorothy Stahl, her coach, for her win. The second-place winner received $1000, the third $250, and the remaining nine places received $100 each. Judging was based on "beauty, form, grace, and personal charm." Costumes, props, and other decorations were not considered.

Placements

Delegates

Thirty-nine women entered the contest in 1926, with most coming from Texas and its surrounding states. The presence of contestants Maria Martha Parres from Mexico and Patricia O'Shea from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, made the competition Galveston's first international event.

Contestants

* Señorita

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

- Maria Martha Parres * Miss

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

- Patricia O'Shea * Miss Jefferson County - Dorothy Burnham * Miss

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

- Grace Tolsen * Miss

Tarrant County Tarrant County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2020, it had a population of 2,110,640. It is Texas' third-most populous county and the 15th-most populous in the United States. Its county seat is Fort Worth. Tarrant County, one of 2 ...

- Gladys Bullock * Miss Wichita County - Frances Oden * Miss

Beaumont Beaumont may refer to: Places Canada * Beaumont, Alberta * Beaumont, Quebec England * Beaumont, Cumbria * Beaumont, Essex ** Beaumont Cut, a canal closed in the 1930s * Beaumont Street, Oxford France (communes) * Beaumont, Ardèche * ...

- Estelle Johnston * Miss Brownsville - Mary Stillwell * Miss

Caddo The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language. The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, wh ...

- Jacquetta Calvin * Miss

Cane River Lake Cane River Lake (french: Lac de la rivière aux Cannes) is a 35 mi (56 km) oxbow lake formed from a portion of the Red River in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. It runs throughout the Natchitoches' historic district t ...

- Louella Porter * Miss

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

- Constance Martin * Miss

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

- Catherine Moylan * Miss

Ellington Field Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base is a joint installation shared by various active component and reserve component military units, as well as aircraft flight operations of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the aegis ...

- Margie Collins * Miss

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

- Vivian Cayce * Miss Groesbeck - Lois Ford * Miss

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

- Karen Hall * Miss

Jefferson City Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the capital of Missouri, United States. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 census, ranking as the 15th most populous city in the state. It is also the county seat of Cole County and the principa ...

- Evelyn Manchester * Miss Monroe - Mary Mcvay * Miss Natchitoches - Peggy O'Neil * Miss

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

- Gladys Moore * Miss

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

- Arylie Mae Hiser * Miss Port Arthur - Beatrice Smith * Miss

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

- Lola Beazley * Miss

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population o ...

- Pauline Zacharias * Miss

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

- Pauline Mason * Miss

Waco Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...

- Maurice Reed * Miss

Wichita Falls Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the seat of government of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita counties. Accordin ...

- Frances Rutledge * Barbara Brewer - Dallas * Clyde McConathy - Beaumont * Elalu Watts - Dallas * Freddie Mae Henkel - Dallas * Grace Weber - Houston * Lola Bernhardt - Beaumont * Lorraine Gazzaway - Dallas * Lulu Buchanan - Houston * Maiden Maxwell - Dallas * Marie Evans - Dallas * Pearl Flint - Dallas * Rosebud Blondell - Dallas

References

{{International Pageant of Pulchritude International Pageant of Pulchritude 1926 in Texas 1926 beauty pageants