The photograph below shows contestants in the Atlantic City Pageant of Inter-City Beauties in 1925. In 1920 the Businessman's League of Atlantic City sponsored a "Fall Frolic," including an elaborate "bathing girl revue," to encourage visitors (and profits) after the end of the summer season. It was a big hit, and the following year they advertised up and down the East Coast for beauty contest winners from other cities to come to Atlantic City to compete for the title of "Miss America."
The Atlantic City pageant grew quickly in the next few years. Organizers took pains to stress the wholesomeness and "girl-next-door" qualities of the young contestants in skimpy attire. According to the American Experience website at pbs.org, "From the very beginning, the pageant was confronted with a conflict between the effort to present an image of innocence and virtue while, at the same time, promoting a spectacle where women paraded in public in bathing suits." Nowadays the pageant attempts to balance a "girlpower" attitude and scholarships with the fact that it's basically always been women parading around in revealing clothes!
