Page 28 - IMPRESSION Newsletter April19
P. 28
STRANGE H ISTORY
Inner
Beauty
Miss Perfect Posture
When the nation's chiropractors descended Dr. P. Reginald Hug, a past president of the
on Chicago for a weeklong convention in May Association for the History of Chiropractic, tells
1956, they threw a beauty contest. Shots. "We were the new kids on the block and
medicine didn't like us."
The judges crowned Lois Conway, 18, Miss
Correct Posture. Second place went to By crowning posture queens, the chiropractors
Marianne Caba, 16, according to an account in could build goodwill without making waves with
the Chicago Tribune. Ruth Swenson, 26, came traditional doctors. "It was a way to get PR that
in third. was kind of middle of the road," he says. The
message, he says, was that good posture leads to
But this was no ordinary pageant.
good health. And chiropractors were the people to
"All three were picked not only by their get you on the right path.
apparent beauty, and their X-rays, but also by
their standing posture," the Tribune reported. These contests date back to the 1920s, but they
"Each girl stood on a pair of scales — one foot became the rage during the '50s and '60s.
to each — and the winning trio each registered Contestants were typically judged on beauty and
exactly half her weight on each scale, poise, posture, and X-rays to evaluate their spinal
confirming the correct standing posture." structure. "In those days, nobody was concerned
about radiation," Hug says.
At the time, contests like this were pretty
common. They were held to burnish the Physical fitness tests were added to many contests
reputation of the profession. "Basically, after 1963, when President Kennedy's Council on
chiropractic had a PR problem. We were Physical Fitness drummed up interest in regular
unlicensed in those days," exercise.
There were some contests for men, too. But they
weren't as popular and didn't last very long, Hug
says, adding, "The guys always slouched."
In 1967, the reigning World Posture Fitness Queen
appeared on CBS's game show To Tell The Truth.
Hug says other winners snagged national TV
appearances, too.
But the pageants began to wane as chiropractors
achieved their licensure goals. The last big contest
was held in Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1969. "Their
time had come and gone," Hug says.
