Existing comment:
Norman Rockwell
36-24-36 Wow! 1960
Chapter heading for My Adventures as an Illustrator
As celebrities of the day, Rockwell and illustrators Howard Chandler Christy, James Montgomery Flagg, Coles Phillips, and Charley Chambers were invited to judge the 1922 second annual Miss America Contest in Atlantic City. After taking a teasing about his own physique while swimming near the boardwalk, Rockwell purchased a corset to hide what he thought was a protruding potbelly but was so embarrassed when one of the other judges noticed the laces that had strayed out of his shirt, he threw it in a trash basket. He was invited the next year but when the Chamber of Commerce said they weren't going to pay their expenses, Rockwell decided it would have to be his last year as a Miss America judge. Archival photos reveal that as his celebrity grew, requests for Rockwell to judge other beauty contests continued and were accepted. |