By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo
“While Buffalo girls are in the front rank so far as feminine pulchritude is concerned; I do not believe their charms should be exploited,” Mayor Frank X. Schwab told reporters in 1927. It was front page news when Schwab — who was also owner of the Buffalo Brewing Company — told the Miss America pageant that no girl from Buffalo would be appearing with his endorsement.
“Both as mayor of the City of Buffalo and as the father of seven children, I have never been impressed favorably with bathing and beauty contests. To my mind they set up a false standard in the minds of young people, and the resultant evils and disadvantages more than offset any ephemeral fame which these contests bring to the various cities.
“For this reason I decline to comply with your request that as chief executive of the city I give to the young lady selected through your contest as Miss Buffalo a letter of introduction to the mayor of Atlantic City.
“It is simply my decision, as mayor of the city and as a father, that I think Buffalo will be better off and certainly none the worse, if it has no young lady compete in this so-called national beauty contest.”
Among the many letters Mayor Schwab received in response to his refusal there was only one deriding his decision. Ministers and mothers wrote letters of thanks, while the local contest promoter wrote asking him to reconsider.
Mayor Schwab stood firm, saying the contest doesn’t serve to elevate girls from Buffalo or anywhere else in the country. Apparently, many agreed with Schwab.
While the Atlantic City bathing suit contest started its annual skin show in 1920, the year of Schwab’s protest — 1927 — was the pageant’s last year until 1932. At first, it was claims of “promoting loose morals” which scuttled the show, followed by the Depression. By the end of the ’30s, a talent competition was added and girls under the age of 18 were no longer allowed to enter.
In commending Schwab, Rev. W. Earl Ledden, pastor of the Richmond Avenue M. E. Church, likened the affair to a cattle call.
“Your letter to the Atlantic City authorities reveals moral dignity and insight, and I take pleasure in expressing to you my hearty approval. The bathing beauty affair is simply a publicity stunt for Atlantic City, a clever method of stretching the hotel season a week. And the method places our young womanhood on a plane too close to that of the Chicago stockyards to merit moral and official sanction.”
It was one of the few times where Schwab received public support from Buffalo’s Protestant leaders. Not only was Schwab Catholic, he was also under federal indictment. As the owner of a brewery, he stood accused of possessing (and brewing) beer with an alcohol content higher than 3 percent in violation of Prohibition laws.
After two terms as mayor, Schwab was defeated in his re-election bid by Charles Roesch, a Broadway Market meat cutter and the original “Charlie the Butcher.”
