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From Pure Actors Radio, Toby at This Is Radio

2:20

Diaries and Joe written. In

2:24

eighteen Forty one, the most famous Subway rider

2:26

in New York City was a fourteen year

2:29

old girl named Mona Freeman. A

2:31

so called Beauty Authority John Roberts hours

2:33

him and modeling agency crowned her the

2:35

city's first Miss Subways and plastered a

2:37

photo and I are T V M

2:39

T and I in D line. For.

2:42

Placard included a short bio by Vicious

2:44

Motor Freeman rights for her school paper.

2:47

It said she's interested in school dramatics

2:49

Broadway in Hollywood Please note by the

2:51

before she won the Miss Subways crown

2:53

Mana had never even been on the

2:56

Subway. Mana Freeman was

2:58

the first Miss Subways and that the

3:00

last of a next thirty five years

3:02

that honor went to hundreds of me

3:04

or fine and it became a democratic

3:06

process. New Yorkers got to vote for

3:08

the winners by sending a postcard and

3:11

soon missile be scanned reflect the many

3:13

different pieces of the city's female commuters

3:15

and African American. Miss Subways is. Like.

3:20

America. The read the

3:22

Nineteen Fifties They were Miss Subways who are

3:24

Asian, Jewish, Hispanic, White, and Black. Most

3:27

beauty pageants promote the fantasy of

3:29

the ideal woman, but this contest

3:31

celebrated something different. the everyday work.

3:34

Today in the podcast Miss Subways. Every

3:44

month, some lucky little New

3:46

York Miss has chosen from

3:48

the thousands of girls who

3:50

ride the subways. Gossipy, brilliant,

3:52

beautiful, Just

3:56

average. Did

4:00

not get on. The trains in New York

4:02

knows he is and not look

4:04

up at in the subways. When

4:06

you looked up at miss someplace

4:08

you were looking at a star

4:11

no question about. My.

4:13

Name is Peggy Burn. I

4:15

was a secretary and I

4:17

was the subways. March and

4:19

April. Nineteen Sixty Two My name

4:22

is sinner Se I was a

4:24

teacher and down in the subways.

4:26

Nineteen Sixty Four my name is

4:28

in his. This was found. I

4:30

was a daily commuter filling to

4:33

college and I was miss Subways

4:35

and July. and Nineteen Forty Six

4:37

my name is More see a

4:39

hawker and I was in the

4:41

subways. And Nineteen Seventy Four I

4:44

worked in the going to Sir

4:46

I wanted. To go into acting

4:48

and so I said in Hudson

4:50

and at some cost. Here's

4:56

how it works. The. New

4:59

York Subway advertising. Agency.

5:01

Would get something like a sales in

5:04

photos and a couple. Months and

5:06

they would select at of

5:08

that twenty fives to be

5:11

photographed by John Roberts Powers.

5:13

The. Number One Modeling. Agency.

5:16

In the country and republic.

5:18

Was to send in postcard. Voting

5:21

for the one that they wanted to see

5:23

as the next in of ways. The

5:25

may I would come in and. They would

5:27

take a ruler and name count on

5:30

an equal. So many postcards. We bought

5:32

a stack of postcards. my mother had

5:34

a stack at the reception. There are

5:36

certain skill. My dad had it at

5:38

the one annoying precincts. My brother had

5:40

his his his desk at the bank.

5:43

People sign them and we drop them

5:45

in the mailbox. Kind of like launching

5:47

a campaign. Somewhere. Along

5:49

the line is it's hard

5:51

to me that I had

5:53

never seen a clearly. As

5:56

nickname. On that poster.

5:58

my name was just of Lee

6:00

Jewish and that might have been

6:02

part of the reason I said I'm going to give

6:05

this a shot. Let's see what

6:07

happens. In

6:09

July of 1946, Enid

6:12

Berkowitz splashed across the subways.

6:17

Greetings from the New York Subways. We're going

6:19

to hand you over to just an ordinary

6:21

traveler, at least ordinary except during

6:24

the month of August. She's a

6:26

very charming young lady with shoulder-length black

6:28

wavy hair and dark eyes, age

6:30

19. Queen of the rapid

6:32

transit system for a month. Miss

6:34

Subways. Alias Miss Joan Addinson. Well

6:37

how's it feel to be the pin-up girl

6:39

of the subways, Joan? I may call you

6:41

Joan, may I not? Yes, too, Jack. Well,

6:44

it's a great thrill, naturally. I never

6:46

thought I'd get it, though. Oh, I

6:48

never had a moment's doubt. The

6:54

poster says, meet Miss

6:56

Subways, art student at

6:58

Hunter College, plugging

7:00

for BA but with

7:03

settle for MRS. Right.

7:09

Brooklyn-born Peggy Byrne plans

7:11

to wed her childhood

7:13

sweetheart, is studying to be

7:16

an insurance broker. The last

7:18

thing I ever wanted to be would

7:20

be an insurance broker, but

7:22

I thought that sounded great and

7:25

I got a lot of insurance information.

7:31

Well, I got on the subway and

7:34

the cards were probably up in

7:36

nearly every car and I thought,

7:38

oh dear, the photo

7:40

was really pale. I

7:42

mean, I had no, I'm a brown-skinned

7:45

woman, not dark brown, but brown,

7:48

and I almost look light. I

7:51

said, could you darken it up some? And

7:54

he did. Then that looked

7:56

better. He'd

8:02

say, you know, stare at the poster and

8:04

they'd look down at me and then they

8:06

would stare at the poster and look down

8:08

at me and stare at the poster and

8:10

finally say, hi. Here

8:13

you are, this long tall skinny girl

8:15

with no butt, no boobs and

8:17

you're up there? My friends hated

8:19

me and I loved it. So

8:24

it would always be commonplace. Did

8:27

you see Miss Subway? No, she's not

8:29

too good looking. You know, we liked

8:31

January, February better than her. But

8:34

there weren't necessarily beautiful women, you know. We

8:37

wouldn't look at them all and say, well, that's a beauty.

8:40

Of course, I was the exception. I

8:44

was a star. Well,

8:47

it was only two months, but

8:49

it was great being a star. Tell

8:53

us, Joan, this Miss Subway's business, is

8:55

there any future in it? Well,

8:57

I did hear of one girl who had

8:59

156 proposals of

9:01

marriage and a present from a

9:04

baker of a lemon meringue pie. And

9:06

just a very few have got acting or

9:09

modeling jobs, but I'm really more

9:11

interested in what I'm doing. And what is that?

9:13

Well, a majoring in Spanish is

9:16

college and I'd like to go

9:18

into the export business. That's a very business-like

9:20

attitude for a beauty queen. Thank

9:24

you. The

9:43

women of Miss Subway's went on to lead varied

9:45

lives. Thelma Perros, the first black

9:47

Miss Subway's, ended up on the covers of

9:49

Jet and Ebony magazines. Peggy Byrne

9:51

went on to a career in advertising. Enid

9:54

Berkowitz, an artist, Sonora Selsey, a

9:56

teacher, and Marcia Hocker, married a

9:58

diplomat, lived in Columbia. in New Zealand and

10:01

hosted a jazz radio show. Today

10:03

there's a Miss America, a Miss World, even

10:05

a Miss Universe, but there hasn't been another

10:07

Miss Subways since 1976. Our

10:11

story was produced by contributor Samara Freemark with

10:13

help from me, Joe Richmond, along with editors

10:15

Ben Shapiro and Deborah George. The

10:17

Radio Diaries team also includes Elisa

10:19

Scarsay, Nellie Gillis, Micah Hazel, and

10:21

Lena Englestein. Radio Diaries

10:23

is a member of Radio Topia from PRX,

10:26

a collection of the most unique, innovative podcasts

10:28

around. You can find them all

10:30

at RadioTopia.fm. I'm

10:33

Joe Richmond, thanks for listening.