Bess Myerson

Bess Myerson's story is an intriguing one.  She was a poor Jewish girl who began taking piano lessons at 9.  She attended the High School of the Arts and then went on to graduate from Hunter College with honors.  Unbeknownst to her, her sister Sylvia entered her in the 1945 Miss New York City Pageant, lent her a bathing suit and coaxed her into competing for the crown.  For Bess, the lure was the $5000 scholarship, the first time the Miss America Pageant offered one which she hoped to use to go to Julliard.  To the delight of the Jewish community, Bess won and became the 'most famous pretty Jewish girl since Queen Esther'.  She refused to change her name to make it less ethnic.  Unfortunately, her yearlong tour was a disaster as half the sponsors quit and she was refused admission to country clubs because she was Jewish. 

Her career after that was busy.  There were speaking engagements for the Anti-Defamation League, years long stints on television shows:  The Big Payoff and I've Got a Secret.  Mayor John Lindsey appointed her New York's Commissioner of Consumer Affairs and she is credited with securing the passage of the most stringent consumer protection laws.  She ran for the Senate and lost in the primary.  She served on three presidential commissions and was involved in the campaign to preserve Penn Station.  She was Ed Koch's frequent companion during his campaign and after his election as Mayor; many credited her presence as reassuring the public that even though he was a lifelong bachelor, he was not homosexual.

Her romantic life was her downfall.  Her first husband became an alcoholic; there was an acrimonious divorce.  She married and divorced her second husband Arnold Grant twice before he had a nervous breakdown.  In 1980 she became involved with Carl Capasso, who was a sewage contractor and 21 years her junior.  He was in the middle of divorce proceedings when somehow Bess became friendly with the judge,  Hortense Gabel.  She hired the Judges' daughter Sukhreet shortly after Judge Gabel substantially reduced Capasso's child support payments.  As it played out in the tabloids much else about Bess was uncovered including messy affairs with married men and shoplifting charges in Pennsylvania and London.  Bess then moved to Santa Monica where she remained till she died.