Henrietta Leaver
| Henrietta Leaver | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 28, 1916 Monongahela, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | September 18, 1993 (aged 77) |
| Title | Miss Pittsburgh Miss America 1935 |
| Predecessor | Marian Bergeron |
| Successor | Rose Coyle |
| Spouse(s) | Johnny Mustacchio Fred Nesseer Ed Mider |
Henrietta Leaver (March 28, 1916 – September 18, 1993), Miss Pittsburgh, was crowned Miss America on September 7, 1935 at Atlantic City, New Jersey. She was 19 years old.
Following a one-year hiatus in the national competition, and only the second pageant since 1927, Leaver, from McKeesport, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, was announced, from among the field of 55 entrants, as Miss America 1935.
Leaver had dropped out of high school at age 16 to assist her single-parent family financially during the depression, working at the Five and Ten in McKeesport. She had, however, lost that job many months prior to entering her local contest and had no expectations of becoming a movie star or finding a rich husband due to her scheduled appearance at the Atlantic City pageant. She simply wanted a steady job. Shortly after being crowned it was announced that Leaver had been offered two screen tests.
Two months after her victory, Leaver found herself in a battle with Pittsburgh sculptor Frank Vittor - a sculptor famous for his bronze statues of Calvin Coolidge, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln - when she discovered that the life-size clay statue she had posed for in a bathing suit depicted her fully nude. Though reference to the art being exhibited is lacking, other than appearing in the newspaper sometime in November that same year, Leaver and her manager met with Vittor and rejected any form of contract and refused her approval that the statue be publicly shown.
Feeling the work should be draped, she lost her opinion battle when a group of seven artists declared that the statue was not suggestive or vulgar. Not satisfied, Leaver then requested that people her own age view and comment upon the statue and 60 students, many from art classes, upheld the verdict of the artists; that there should be no veil or draping covering the nude work of art. There is mention that the clay statue was planned to be bronzed, however there is no evidence that this ever occurred.
Leaver turned down a role offered her by Broadway producer Earl Carroll of Murder at the Vanities fame, as she would have been scantily clad while performing on stage.
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