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UPDATE: This is the lovely Miss Nellie Orr!
Washington, D.C., circa 1921. "Nellie [Illegible], Miss Philadelphia." Perhaps someone out there can put a last name to this winsome face. View full size.
Does anyone know what became of Nellie Orr? I am researching all eight of the 1921 Miss America Contestants from the first contest and located info on all except for Nellie. Looking for her parents names, Nellie’s married name and when she passed away. Many thanks! You can contact me at NRFB59@aol.com
Miss Nellie is actually built perfectly for the standards of the day. By 1921 the flapper era was in full swing, emphasizing an almost boyish look with bobbed hair, flattened breasts and few visible curves. It was a reaction to the Victorian style of very long hair and fairly extreme curves accentuated by a corset. It's no surprise she would finish second in the "bathers' revue."
(Full disclosure: my grandmother was a flapper. Her hair had never been cut until 1919 at age 12, when she got a bob. She told me her father didn't speak to her for weeks!)
Otherwise, she's still embarrassed every time someone looks at this picture. She's probably saying something on the order of, "Of all the photos taken of me, how did this get to be the one people are still looking at? Now that it is on Shorpy, I will never live it down!"
Nellie was my mother's older sister. My mother is 82 and still lives in Haddon Heights, NJ.
Yes it was Orr, and she was my great-grandmother on my mom's side. From what my grandfather has told me about her, she was very spunky and outspoken. He used to tell me I reminded him of her!
What a fantastically weird hat.
she's the cutest beauty pageant contestant ever.
Nellie didn't have much equipment even by the standards of that day (teeth didn't matter, shape did!) but something in her look tells me she would have been a formidable competitor in anything she chose. She certainly didn't get the scarred lip and broken tooth from tea parties or knitting.
Miss Orr seems to be sporting a none too artfully fashioned porcelain jacket crown. Or is it an inlay?
Flat as a pancake, foul teeth! My God! I wonder what her contenders looked like.
In the Racine Journal-News, same great hat
In 1921 Nellie Orr competed as Miss Philly in what would soon become known as the Miss America Pageant, where out of 500 contestants in the "bathers' review," she finished second. Something must have been stuffed -- either the ballot box, or ...
Looks to the future and tells herself: "I'm gonna be the best Miss Philadelphia ever and with my winnings I'm gonna buy another letter or two for my pathetically short last name!"
MISS AMERICA 1921
1921 September 7
8 entries
Result
1 WASHINGTON DC - Margaret Gorman
Remainder
CAMDEN (NJ) - Kathryn M. Gearon
HARRISBURG (PA) - Emma Pharo
NEW YORK CITY (NY) - Virginia Lee
NEWARK (NJ) - Margaret Bates
OCEAN CITY (NJ) - Hazel Harris
PHILADELPHIA (PA) - Nellie Orr
PITTSBURGH (PA) - Thelma Matthews
The girl was Nellie Orr. See this link for list of Miss Philadelphia winners.
http://www.misspa.org/past.htm
The Coshocton Tribune (Ohio), 10 September 1921 (via NewspaperArchive.com):
SHE'LL REPRESENT MISS PHILADELPHIA IN BEAUTY REVIEW
Miss Nellie Orr of Philadelphia was chosen in the recent beauty contest to represent the Quaker City in the beauty review to be held in Atlantic City some time in September.
Miss Nellie Orr, Miss Philly 1921 and one of only eight contestants in the first (1921) Miss America pageant in Atlantic City.
http://www.pageantopolis.com/international/America_1920.htm
Nellie looked "spunky".
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