"Miss Subways" was a title accorded to individual New York City women between 1941 and 1976. The woman who was Miss Subways at any one time appeared on posters placed on New York City Subway trains, along with a brief description of her. In 1957, it was estimated that 5.9 million people viewed Miss Subways daily, using 14,000 placards within trains. The program was run by the New York Subways Advertising Company. Around 200 women held the title during the program's run.

Selection

Cliff Robertson Mona Freeman Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon 1961

The method of selecting Miss Subways varied over time, typically taking the form of a

beauty contest A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

with the general rule that to be eligible, a woman had to be a New York City resident and herself use the subway. "John Robert Powers, the head of the modeling agency, selected the winners" until 1961 or 1962 and later "for some years, winners were chosen by the contest organizers." Before 1952, there were monthly selections of Miss Subways. From 1952 to 1957, candidates were picked every two months. Although "Mr. Powers once picked seven winners to reign side by side in the subway." By 1957, they were all hand-picked based on how much they exuded a "

girl next door The girl next door is a young female stock character who is often used in romantic stories. She is so named because she often lives next door to the protagonist or is a childhood friend. They start out with a mutual friendship that later often ...

" quality: John Robert Powers was no longer involved in selection by 1963 when the contest changed to "public vote ... by post card". The first winner of the public vote was Ann Napolitano who was an executive secretary at the advertising agency Doyle, Dane & Bernbach. The New York Subways Advertising Company "redirected the contest to reflect the girl who works – what New York City is all about." Winners were given bracelets with gold-plated (later, silver-plated) subway tokens." Spaulding commented in 1971 that "Prettiness per se is passe. It's personality and interest pursuits that count" and described how "each contest attracts between 300 and 400 entries, submitted by family, friends and colleagues. About 30 are selected for a personal interview 'to judge personality and make certain that the submitted picture is a good likeness.' Most of the winners have been stenographers, clerks, receptionists and some have been teachers and stewardesses." Subsequent to the postcard system, winners were usually chosen by telephone-based voting, from among a group of nominees whose photos were all placed on the subways. Title holders were photographed by photographers such as James J. Kriegsmann who "specialized in pictures of stage and screen stars, but he also photographed ordinary people, including the women who appeared in the Miss Subways promotion for more than 30 years." In 2004, the

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...

, in conjunction with the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'', brought back the program, now named "Ms. Subways", for one year only. A voting contest was held to determine the winner, Caroline Sanchez-Bernat, an actress. Posters of "Ms. Subways" appeared with subway safety tips instead of biographical notes.

Significance

Miss Subways began as a way for the

John Robert Powers John Robert Powers (September 14, 1892 – July 21, 1977) was an American actor and founder of a New York City modeling agency. In 1923, Powers founded a modeling school. The John Robert Powers Agency represented models who aspired to success in ...

Agency "to promote his models and for the New York Subways Advertising Company 'to increase eye traffic' for the adjoining ... advertisements." "The contest provided the main plot device of Leonard Bernstein's 1944 musical '' On The Town'', in which a smitten sailor on leave searched for 'Miss Turnstiles.'" By 1945, the four-year anniversary of the contest was commemorated nationally in '' Life Magazine''. "Unlike Miss America, these queens represented the full spectrum of their constituency, mainly Irish, Italian, Latina and Jewish. The first black winner reigned on the trains in 1947 (36 years before a black Miss America), the first Asian in 1949." Thelma Potter, who was studying at Brooklyn College at the time, was the first black Miss Subways. Potter stated, "It was progressive. ... It stirred things up a bit.'" The New York Subway Advertising Company was owned by

Walter O'Malley Walter Francis O'Malley (October 9, 1903 – August 9, 1979) was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979. In 1958, as owner of the Dodgers, he brought major league b ...

, who moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1958. Bernard Spaulding, the sales director for the New York Subways Advertising Company, said in 1971 that it "was a World War II pinup phenomenon and then lost social significance." Miss Subways was of "mythic significance to many", with Mayor

Ed Koch Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was ma ...

saying in 1979: In 1983, when there were public calls for the contest to continue, a

representative stated that it would be "irrelevant and socially unacceptable", and thus not viable, to restart Miss Subways. Tn 2004, journalist Melanie Bush commented: Ellen Hart Sturm, owner of the New York diner

Ellen's Stardust Diner Ellen's Stardust Diner is a retro 1950s theme restaurant located at 1650 Broadway on the southeast corner of 51st Street in Theater District, Manhattan, New York City. The diner is regarded as one of the best theme restaurants in New York ow ...

, was Miss Subways in 1959; her diner features photos of many past Miss Subways on the walls.

Revival of "Miss Subways"

In 2017, the "Miss Subways Pageant" was resurrected, produced by The City Reliquary where the event was held. The judges, including Roger Clark, reporter for NY1, awarded the title, sash, and crown to Lisa Levy, who participated on a platform of being "a postmenopausal queen." Miss Congeniality, an addition to the original pageant, was taken by Suzie Sims-Fletcher. The following year, 2018, saw the addition of The Riders Alliance as an organizer of the event, which moved to Littlefield where it returned in 2019.

List of "Miss Subways" title-holders

In popular culture

* In the 1944 musical '' On the Town'', one of the main characters falls in love with "Miss Turnstiles" after seeing her picture on the subway. Lyricist

Betty Comden Betty Comden (May 3, 1917 - November 23, 2006) was an American lyricist, playwright, and screenwriter who contributed to numerous Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century. Her writing partnership with Adolph Green spanned ...

later claimed that the musical influenced the contest's selection process to include more diverse contestants, due to the casting of the half-

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Sono Osato was an American dancer and actress. Early life Osato was born in Omaha, Nebraska. She was the oldest of three children of a Japanese father (Shoji Osato, 1885–1955) and an Irish-French Canadian mother (Frances Fitzpatrick, 1897–1954).The G ...

as Miss Turnstiles in the original production.. *

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

's poetry collection ''A Coney Island of the Mind'' contains a poem entitled "Meet Miss Subways." * Donald Sosin's 1972 song cycle "Third Rail" includes the entire text of a Miss Subways poster, but with the name of the girl and her school changed at her request. * Cher's 1974 album, '' Dark Lady'', featured the comedic song, "Miss Subway of 1952", written by Mary F. Cain, about a once-beautiful woman who has not aged gracefully. * In the 1996 ''

The Nanny ''The Nanny'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from November 3, 1993, to June 23, 1999, starring Fran Drescher as Fran Fine, a Jewish fashionista from Flushing, Queens, New York, who becomes the nanny of three ch ...

'' episode "Tattoo" (Season 4 episode 9), Fran claims to have won the Miss Subways title. * In 1996,

Marga Gomez Marga Gomez is a comedian, writer, performer, and teaching artist from Harlem, New York. She has written and performed in thirteen solo plays which have been presented nationally and internationally. Her acting credits include Off-Broadway and na ...

debuted a show called 'A Line Around the Block' in which a character says: "You're Miss America. No, better than that. Miss Subways." * The 2018 historical fiction novel ''The Subway Girls'' (

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

) by Susie Orman Schnall is a dual-timeline story of a 1949 Miss Subways contestant and a modern-day female advertising executive. * In the 2018 novel ''Miss Subways'' (,

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publ ...

), writer and actor

David Duchovny David William Duchovny ( ; born ) is an American actor, writer, producer, director, novelist, and singer-songwriter. He is known for portraying FBI agent Fox Mulder on the television series ''The X-Files'' (1993–2002, 2016-2018) and as writ ...

re-imagines Miss Subways as Emer, a New York City teacher whose world intersects with mythical figures in her quest for love.

Selection

Significance

Revival of "Miss Subways"

List of "Miss Subways" title-holders

In popular culture

References

Further reading