Beauty Is Never Enough

Beauty Is Never Enough. As a thirteen-year-old, Elizabeth B. Alton participated in the 1920 Atlantic City International Rolling Chair Parade, an event that gave rise to the Miss America Pageant. Walking the length of the Boardwalk surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd-she remembered the day for the rest of her life. Alton narrates the details of her innocent childhood, marriage to her high school sweetheart John, and varied business ventures. Her community service is extensive and praiseworthy, especially her participation in the New Jersey Federation of Women's Clubs and the establishment of Stockton University. The centerpiece of her memoir is Alton's longtime association with the Miss America Pageant, providing a behind the scenes view of the Pageant's earliest years through the mid 1990s. Throughout, she notes the difficulties of working in a man's world determined to gain appropriate recognition for women. It is a story of a pioneer who lived her life advocating that beauty is never enough.