CONEY ISLAND, Brooklyn -- It's not your grandmother's Miss Subways contest. The 2025 edition of the uniquely New York beauty pageant took the stage at Coney Island USA's Sideshows by the Seashore theater.

The contest began in 1941 and was America's first integrated beauty pageant. The first Black Miss Subways was crowned in 1947 and the first Asian winner came two years later. The contestants appeared on subway ads and were selected based on their "girl next door" quality. The ads became the inspiration behind "Miss Turnstiles" in Leonard Bernstein's musical On the Town.

Aside from a one-off event in 2004, the contest was on hiatus from 1976 until The City Reliquary - a museum focused on New York City cultural history, artifacts and ephemera - revived the pageant in 2017. The new host o

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