S03 E05 That Time Miss America Disappeared

There are a few different versions of this story, but as best we can reconstruct the events, it went something like this.It was the summer of 1937 when 17-year-old, High School Student, Bette Cooper left her Hackett’s Town New Jersey home to have a day of fun with friends at Bertrand Island Amusement Park.Amongst all of the activity and other attractions, Bette and her friends were amused to see a beauty contest advertised, happening that day, and the organizers were still recruiting participants. Bette, looking for something to do with the day decided, ‘why not – should be fun’. And, on a whim, she entered the contest.Though completely unfamiliar with the beauty pageant scene Bette surprised everyone, including herself, by winning the competition. Well, the whole thing was ‘just for laughs’, and she hadn’t taken the competition seriously. Bette had no idea what she had gotten herself into. To her shock, beyond bragging rights (and the challenge of having to confess to her parents what she’d been up to because it was going to be in the newspapers), she had also committed herself to move up to the next level of competition. In Atlantic City. At the Miss America contest.What happens next is a little hard to believe.