Edith Norman Hyde Robbins Macartney (1895 – April 1978) became the first-ever "Miss America" in 1919 in a contest held in New York City. She later became a

fortune teller Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical wi ...

under the pseudonym

Pandora In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek: , derived from , ''pān'', i.e. "all" and , ''dōron'', i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hes ...

Family and marriages

She was born Edith Norman Hyde to a well-to-do family in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father, Raymond Newton Hyde, was a landscape artist. Hyde was married three times. Her first husband was the writer Clarence Aaron "Tod" Robbins; they eloped when she was 16 and he was still in college. They had two sons, Norman and John, and divorced shortly before she won the Miss America title. In 1920 she married J.W. Macartney, a Wall Street broker; this marriage broke up due to her alcoholism. There was apparently a third husband who died, but she never spoke about him.

Miss America contest

Hyde was chosen as Miss America at the Chu Chin Chow Ball at the Hotel des Artistes in New York on the evening of February 1, 1919, the year before the start of the better-known Miss America pageant centered in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The ball's beauty contest had been promoted beforehand, and the event drew socialites, artists, and several hundred young women. It was a costume ball with emphasis on 'oriental' costumes, and Hyde's harem outfit, which was heavily jeweled and embroidered, would later be restored and insured for $80,000. The jury consisted of note artists

Charles Dana Gibson Charles Dana Gibson (September 14, 1867 – December 23, 1944) was an American illustrator. He was best known for his creation of the Gibson Girl, an iconic representation of the beautiful and independent Euro-American woman at the turn of the ...

Harrison Fisher Harrison Fisher (July 27, 1875 or 1877 – January 19, 1934) was an American illustrator. Career Fisher was born in Brooklyn, New York City and began to draw at an early age. Both his father and his grandfather were artists.Harrison & Carring ...

Howard Chandler Christy Howard Chandler Christy (January 10, 1872 – March 3, 1952) was an American artist and illustrator. Famous for the "Christy Girl" – a colorful and illustrious successor to the "Gibson Girl" – Christy is also widely known for his ico ...

Penrhyn Stanlaws Penrhyn Stanley Adamson, known as Penrhyn Stanlaws, (1877–1957) was a cover artist and film director. Sydney Adamson, who also became an illustrator, was his older brother. Career He was born in Dundee, Scotland. A successful cover a ...

, and

James Montgomery Flagg James Montgomery Flagg (June 18, 1877 – May 27, 1960) was an American artist, comics artist and illustrator. He worked in media ranging from fine art painting to cartooning, but is best remembered for his political posters, particularly his 1 ...

, who afterwards painted Hyde's portrait. She was presented with a golden apple as her trophy. Some sources claim that Hyde's photograph as contest winner was the first to be transmitted via the brand-new technology of

wirephoto Wirephoto, telephotography or radiophoto is the sending of pictures by telegraph, telephone or radio. Édouard Belin's Bélinographe of 1913, which scanned using a photocell and transmitted over ordinary phone lines, formed the basis for the ...

Later life

After she won the competition,

Florenz Ziegfeld Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. (; March 21, 1867 – July 22, 1932) was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), inspired by the '' Folies Bergère'' of Paris. He also ...

invited her to join the

Ziegfeld Follies The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as '' The Ziegfeld Follies of the ...

and she had offers from Hollywood, but she declined all of them. She lived in various places in Europe before moving back to New York. By around 1950, she was working as a fortune teller near Times Square under the pseudonym 'Pandora', and she continued doing so at least into the late 1960s. She died in April 1978.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macartney, Edith Norman Hyde Robbins American beauty pageant winners 1895 births 1978 deaths American psychics