ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) – Miss America is back in Atlantic City, just in time to brighten the mood in this dazed gambling city licking its wounds from the closure of a third of its casinos.
The 53 contestants met the public Wednesday afternoon on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Entrants from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands appeared at the traditional welcoming ceremony across from Boardwalk Hall.
Preliminary competition will begin next Tuesday. This is the second year that the pageant, which began in Atlantic City, has returned to its roots after six years in Las Vegas.
The ceremony came hours after the first of 5,000 casino workers who lost their jobs over the holiday weekend began filing for unemployment, health insurance and food stamps. The Showboat and Revel shut down over the weekend; Trump Plaza, next door to Boardwalk Hall, where the winner will be crowned Sept. 14, is shutting down two days after that. And the Atlantic Club closed in January.
All told, about 8,000 workers will have lost their jobs.