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Bess Myerson (born July 16, 1924) is a United States celebrity. Myerson became famous as the first Jew to win the Miss America pageant in 1945, and then appeared in various television shows in the 1950s and 1960s.
Bess Myerson was born in the Bronx, New York. While competing in beauty pageants Myerson was repeatedly advised to use a pseudonym that would "sound less Jewish", but she refused. She faced prejudice even after winning the Miss America title, with many sponsors and events long associated with the pageant refusing to deal with her. She became a social activist for civil rights.
In 1954 Myerson was a panelist on "The Name's the Same" television game show, and from 1958 through 1967 was a panelist on "I've Got a Secret". She also worked as an actress on other shows.
She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1973 but managed to survive this very lethal disease. She also suffered a stroke many years later.
In 1987 a biography (Miss America, 1945: Bess Myerson's Own Story, ISBN 1557040001) was written by Susan Dworkin.
Politics
During the 1970s and 1980s, she served in New York City government. She was the city's first commissioner of consumer affairs (under Mayor John Lindsay) and later commissioner of cultural affairs (under Mayor Ed Koch). In 1977 she was a frequent public companion of Ed Koch during his campaign for mayor, possibly to offset charges that Koch was gay. (Vote for Cuomo, not the homo was briefly a slogan by the other side, from which Mario Cuomo distanced himself.)
In 1980, Myerson ran for the Democratic nomination for New York's U.S. Senate seat against Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, Queens District Attorney John Santucci, and former New York City mayor John Lindsay. Myerson lost to Holtzman by a slim margin, who then went on to lose the election to the conservative, pro-life Alfonse D'Amato due to the refusal of the ailing Jacob Javits to withdraw from the race (Javits, the incumbent, had been defeated in the primary by D'Amato), thus dividing up D'Amato's opposition, and giving him a plurality of the votes. After her loss, in a remarkable assessment, Myerson claimed that she seemed "too tall and beautiful" to be a senator.
Later years
Her later years were somewhat controversial, especially her relationship with the much younger, now deceased, wealthy contractor Carl Capasso, whose divorce hearing was heard by a judge whose daughter worked for Myerson. Capasso, Myerson and Judge Hortense Gabel were charged with conspiring to lower Capasso's alimony payments in exchange for Myerson hiring Judge Gabel's somewhat unstable daughter, Sukhreet, who gave evidence implicating her mother. However, Myerson and the elderly judge avoided jail when they were acquitted by a jury, but Capasso spent time in jail. Myerson also was arrested on shoplifting charges, but the charges were eventually dropped.
Nowadays, Bess Myerson remains active in promoting social causes and in philanthropy.
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1924 births | Living people | Miss America winners | Jewish American actors | Jewish American models | People from the Bronx | New York politicians | People from New York | game show panelists | I've Got a Secret panelists
"Bess Myerson"