Town Cryer - Beauty Queens

My mother didn't want me to appear in a bathing suit - I had to have a large cape ... I was offered trips overseas, to Hollywood, Australia, everywhere. They did everything possible to make my mother agree to my doing this sort of thing, but she wouldn't.

– Mystery contestant from the 1920s

It’s such a dramatic contrast. You know, one day everything’s at your feet, and the next day you’re just one of the crowd again.

– Mary Woodward, on adjusting to no longer being Miss New Zealand

I had been very active in swimming ... I found that there was a clash because I had been nominated for the Empire Games, as they were then, in Vancouver Canada, and at the same time Miss World was being contested in Long Beach California. So it meant a decision...

– Double NZ representative Moana Whaanga (nee Manley)