American Experience
Season 14 Episode 7 - Miss America
Recalling the 80-year history of the Miss America Pageant and what narrator Cherry Jones calls "a barometer of America's shifting ideas of American womanhood." Included: eight former Miss Americas recall their runway strolls -- and the world beyond Atlantic City during their reigns. Also: comments from historians and social observers, including Gloria Steinem, a beauty-pageant contestant herself as a teen. "It was glamorous," she says, perhaps surprisingly. Also surprising is Miss America 1998 Kate Shindle's view of the swimsuit competition. "It's empowering," she says. "If you can do that, you can do anything."
Episodes in Season 14
New York (6): The City of Tomorrow
55 min
New York (7): The City and the World
55 min
War Letters
55 min
Woodrow Wilson (1): A Passionate Man
55 min
Woodrow Wilson (2): The Redemption of the World
55 min
Mount Rushmore
55 min
Miss America
55 min
Zoot Suit Riots
55 min
Monkey Trial
55 min
Public Enemy #1
55 min
Ansel Adams
55 min
A Brilliant Madness
55 min
Ulysses S. Grant (1): The Warrior
55 min
Ulysses S. Grant (2): The President
55 min