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Girls, Games & Gambling 
A PR Case Study on Atlantic City, New Jersey
Submitted By:Hadiyah DachéPR Principles, Practices and TheoryClark Atlanta UniversitySpring 2007
 
“Beauty’s attractive, and we don’t want people to be attracted by old things. We wantthem to like the new ones.”-Aldous Huxley
One of the greatest public relations campaigns in American history started off as abusiness proposition to lure tourists and commerce into Atlantic City, New Jersey andappeared to the masses as a vain ode to beauty. What began as the Inter-City Pageant—atwo-day beauty contest in September of 1921- turned out to be one of Atlantic City’s mostsuccessful publicity stunts, lasting over 85 years. A little over ten years later, Atlantic City hadonce again pulled a tremendous feat in the world of public relations with the debut of thepopular board game Monopoly, featuring streets and places in or very near to Atlantic City.Even in the 21st century, Atlantic City still proves to be going strong while on vacation all year long.By the turn of the 20th century,Atlantic City had become America’spremiere vacation getaway. Located onthe railroad line between Philadelphia andNew York, the city got more than it’s fair share of tourists. The city was most popular during the summer season as it wasconveniently located on the shore ofAbsecon Island and boasted the nation’s
rst boardwalk with extravagantamusement rides and shows, luxurious
hotels and one-of-a-kind businesses. But,once summer had ended business startedto notice the immediate slow down incommerce.
 A look at the Atlantic City Boardwalk in August 1920.
In the early 1920s, business owners had begun to seek new ways of attracting touristsand keeping them, and the city, busy past Labor Day. A pseudo-event was created, calledthe Fall Frolic, by the Atlantic City Businessmen’s League with the help of developers and
city ofcials (Goldsmith 34). During the Fall Frolic another event had been created entitled
the Inter-City Pageant. It was a beauty pageant where contestants were judged on howthey looked in appearance as well as a swimsuit. In order to successfully launch this pseudo-event, Atlantic City sought the help of local and major newspapers and reporters as well as
radio announcers (as the television had not yet been invented). Contestants were solicited
by local newspapers in the Northeastern region. These regional newspapers sponsored a“face contest”, a type of beauty contest based solely on a woman’s photograph.Subscribers were encouraged to mail the name of the woman they’d like to win in to thenewspaper.
 
The women who won these contests in their hometowns won an all-expense paid tripto compete in the two-day beauty pageant in Atlantic City. Newspapers also beneted
from the pageant. In a committee meeting it had been suggested that newspapers within
the Atlantic City trading area use the pageant as a gimmick to increase circulation (Deford33). This collective effort between the newspapers and Atlantic City stimulated the public’sdesire to visit, the rst step in travel public relations. During the rst pageant, stimulation
occurred solely through the newspapers. By its second cycle stimulation was able to occur through print and radio broadcast.The second step in travel public relationswas only partially successful, however, becausethere were only arrangements for the localwinners to get to the event in Atlantic City. Any
additional travelers would have to nd a means
of their own to getting to the festivities. However,more than 100,000 spectators came out to get
a glimpse of the beautiful girls (Deford 36). The
event itself endured the success of the third step:making certain that visitors are comfortable, welltreated and entertained when they get there
(Wilcox 603).
The actual public relations professionalassigned to the Inter-City Pageant was a reporter for the Atlantic City Press named Herb Test. It wasTest who coined the title of Miss America in 1922during the selection process that would determine
the next winner of the Inter-City Pageant. Test
proclaimed, “And we’ll call her, Miss America,”
(Deford 41). The success of this pseudoevent
isn’t just in the number of attendees but in thenumber of years the event has continued to take
place. Even during the Great Depression,
Atlantic City was still able to thrive and put on theMiss America Pageant.The event was creatively conceptualizedfrom the committee of organizers to appeal toself-interest. The Miss America Pageant, for women, paid attention to their psychologicalneed for beauty and social acceptance under 
beauty (Wilcox 227). For men, the pageantappealed to affection (Wilcox 228).
 Margaret Gorman, the 1st winner of the Inner-City Pageant
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