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Bess Myerson
Myerson in 1957
Born	July 16, 1924 The Bronx, New York, U.S.
Died	january 5 2015 (aged 90) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	Hunter College
Occupation(s)	Model, city commissioner, TV show celebrity
Known for	Only Jewish American and first Miss New York elected Miss America
Height	5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Title	Miss America 1945 Miss New York 1945
Spouse(s)	Allan Wayne (1946-1958; divorced) Arnold M. Grant
Children	Barra Grant

Bess Myerson (July 16, 1924 – December 14, 2014), was an American model, television actress, politician, civil rights activist who was crowned Miss America in 1945.

At the time of her death, Meyerson was the only Jewish Miss America. Her achievement of the title was remarkable for the time period at the end of World War II and details regarding the atrocities committed against the Jewish people during the Holocaust being fully disclosed.

Myerson appeared regularly on television in the 1950s and 1960s, and was a regular on the celebrity quiz show I've Got a Secret. Later embarking on a political career, she held the position of commissioner in the New York City government through two administrations and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate from New York in 1980. Her career in public life ended in the late 1980s, when she was swept up in a scandal that led to a trial in federal court on multiple charges, in which she was acquitted.

Early life

Myerson was born in The Bronx, New York. and lived with parents Louis Myerson and Bella (nee Podell), both Russian-Jewish immigrants. Myerson's father worked as a housepainter, handyman and carpenter. The Myerson's also had a son, Joseph, who died at three years of age from diptheria. The family resided in the Shalom Aleichem Co-operative. Myerson began studying piano when she was nine years old and furthered her studies in the second class of New York's High School of Music and Art in 1937. Following high school graduation, she sttended Hunter College, graduating with honors in 1945. To support herself and her family while in college she gave piano lessons for fifty cents an hour.

Miss America

By the time she was 21, Myerson was 5'10" with "luxuriant brown hair". Two accounts exist on how Myerson became a pageant contender. According to one, she wanted to buy a black Steinway grand piano and decided to compete for Miss America after someone joked that it would be a way to afford and buy the piano. According to the other, her sister entered her photo in the Miss New York City competition without her knowledge.

While competing as Miss New York in the 1945 Miss America pageant, she had been asked to use a pseudonym that "sounded less Jewish." Myerson refused. As a result, controversy arose after she won the title on September 8, 1945 when three of the pageant's five sponsors withdrew from having Meyerson represent their companies as Miss America.

Myerson later became a supporter and activist for civil rights, including working with the Anti-Defamation League.

Television and politics

Myerson graduated from Hunter College in 1945 with a degree in music. She used the scholarship money won as Miss America to pay for graduate studies at the Juilliard School and Columbia University.

In 1954, Myerson was a panelist on The Name's the Same, a television game show. From 1958 through 1967, she was a panelist on I've Got a Secret. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Myerson enjoyed a successful television career as a TV personality, actress and commercial pitchwoman for myriad popular products, she also became a consultant to several consumer products companies. From 1969 to 1973, she was a the first Consumer Affairs Commissioner for New York City. In that capacity, she successfully pioneered consumer protection laws. She also served on several presidential commissions in the 1960s and 70s. Throughout the late 1970s and the beginning of his mayoral ambitions, Myerson was a frequent public companion of Congressman Ed Koch and chaired his campaign for Mayor.

In 1980, Myerson ran for the Democratic nomination for New York's U.S. Senate seat against Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, Queens District Attorney John J. Santucci, and former New York City mayor John Lindsay. Myerson lost to Holtzman by a slim margin. Holtzman was subsequently defeated by Alphonse D'Amato, who had defeated incumbent Senator Jacob Javits in the Republican primary.

The 'Bess Mess'

After assuming a prominent role in the Koch administration, in which she was named commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs in 1983, her career was marred by scandal. She became romantically involved with a married sewer contractor, Carl Andrew Capasso. It soon emerged that the judge hearing Capasso's divorce, Hortense Gabel, had started socializing with Myerson, and that her daughter Sukreet was hired by Myerson. Gabel cut Capasso's child support payments, and investigators probed whether she had been bribed. Myerson was forced to resign her municipal position in April 1987, after she declined to testify under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The scandal became known as the "Bess Mess."

In 1988, Myerson, Capasso and Gabel were tried on federal charges of conspiracy, mail fraud, obstruction of justice and using interstate facilities to violate state bribery laws. The main issue at the trial, in which Sukreet Gable was the chief prosecution witness, was whether her being hired constituted bribery. All three defendants were acquitted. In unrelated criminal proceedings, Capasso pleaded guilty to federal income tax evasion and went to prison for two years.

Personal life

She married Allan Wayne, who had recently returned from war service as a U.S. Navy captain, in October 1946. Wayne suffered from recurrent nightmares due to his war experiences, and their marriage foundered amid domestic violence. They had one daughter, Barbara Carol Wayne, before divorcing after eleven years.Her second marriage was to Arnold Grant, an attorney involved in the Democratic Party. In 1962, he formally adopted her daughter, Barbara, an actress, director and screenwriter known as Barra Grant. Myerson and her second husband divorced in the early 1970s

In May 1988, just before her federal trial began, Myerson was arrested for shoplifting in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, after she left the Hills Department Store with several items for which she had not paid. She later pleaded guilty to retail theft and was fined. The arrest occurred while she was believed to be visiting Capasso at the Allenwood Detention Camp.

Death

Myerson was an ovarian cancer survivor. In 2013 she was reported to be suffering from dementia. She died on December 14, 2014 in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 90, after many years of living in relative obscurity.

Notes

1. ^ Nemy, Enid; McDonald, William (5 January 2015). "Bess Myerson, 90, Dies; Famed for Beauty, Public Service and Scandal". Retrieved 5 January 2015.
2. ^ Green, David (2014-07-16). "This day in Jewish history/A Jewish Miss America who scandalized the press is born". Haaretz.
3. Dworkin, p. 1
4. ^ Berman, Susan (14 November 1977). "Bess Myerson Is One Tough Customer". New York. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
5. ^ "Jewish Women's Archive: Bess Myerson". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved September 4, 2011.
6. ^ People & Events: Breaking the Color Line at the Pageant
7. "Miss America Wins Again". Time Magazine. January 2, 1989. Retrieved November 26, 2010.
8. "Milestones, October 28, 1946". Time. October 28, 1946. Retrieved September 4, 2011.
9. "Bess Myerson Is Accused Of Shoplifting". New York Times. May 28, 1988. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
10. "Myerson Pleads Guilty to Shoplifting Charge in Pennsylvania". New York Times. July 16, 1988. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
11. Soloff, Emily D. (6 October 1995). "Bess Myerson reflects on fame, Miss America and Judaism". JWeekly.com. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
12. Green, Michelle (29 June 1987). "Downfall of An American Idol: How Did Miss America Bess Myerson, Famous for Her Beauty and Brains, Get Entangled in a Growing Political Scandal?". People. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
13. Dillon, Nancy (2 February 2013). "Ed Koch's pal, former Miss America Bess Myerson, was a constant at his side". The Daily News. Retrieved 5 January 2015.

References

• Dworkin, Susan (2000). Miss America, 1945 : Bess Myerson and the year that changed our lives (1st pbk. ed.). New York: Newmarket Press. ISBN 1557043817.

Further reading

• Alexander, Shana (1990). When She Was Bad: The Story of Bess, Hortense, Sukhreet & Nancy. New York: Random House. ISBN 0394576063.
• Shindle, Kate (2014). Being Miss America: Behind the Rhinestone Curtain. Austin: Univ Of Texas Press. ISBN 0292739214.

External links

• Bess Myerson at IMDb
• Bess Myerson on the Jewish-American Hall of Fame site

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• 20th-century American actresses
• Actresses from New York City
• American activists
• American female models
• American game show hosts
• American television actresses
• Beauty pageant hosts
• Ovarian cancer survivors
• Disease-related deaths in California
• Columbia University alumni
• Hunter College alumni
• Jewish activists
• Jewish American actresses
• Jewish female models
• Juilliard School alumni
• Miss America 1940s delegates
• Miss America winners
• Miss New York winners
• People from the Bronx
• Women in New York politics
• American people of Russian-Jewish descent