Misses Harrisburg and Johnstown, Pa., in Atlantic City, N.J., 1920s

Hurray, hurray, it looks like Ipernity is up and running once again! Thanks very much to the IMA Team for the many, many hours they spent in getting things fixed and back on track!

I'm going to reopen the Vintage Photos Theme Park by catching up on the theme postings I've missed during the last week or two.

To begin with, here's a Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of And the winner is . . . (a person or a team winning or with an award/medal/prize).

This photo shows a single-file parade of young women marching along a boardwalk in front of a crowd of onlookers. The first two in line are wearing the sashes for "Miss Harrisburg" and "Miss Johnstown," which identify them as winners of beauty contests in those two Pennsylvania cities.

As far as I've been able to determine, this photo was taken sometime in the 1920s during the early years of the Miss America competition, which was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. At that time, there were a number of city-based competitions in Pennsylvania rather than a one state-wide contest, and until 1953 Pennsylvania sent multiple representatives—rather than a single "Miss Pennsylvania"—to compete in Atlantic City.

According to Wikipedia, there were only two years—1922 and 1923—when contestants from both Harrisburg and Johnstown competed in Atlantic City. Gertrude Shoemack and Helen R. Knisely competed as Miss Harrisburg in 1922 and 1923 respectively, while Velma Ziegler and Betty Grening served as Miss Johnstown in the same years, but I haven't been able to match any of the names with the women in the photo.