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Clip description
This black-and-white Australasian Gazette newsreel clip shows a large crowd farewelling the first Miss Australia, Beryl Mills, as she leaves for the USA in 1926.
Curator’s notes
Beryl Mills, the first woman to win the Miss Australia quest in 1926, was only 19 years old when she travelled to the USA to compete in another beauty contest. This newsreel clip captures the huge interest in not only the Miss Australia quest and the phenomenon of celebrity but the significance of travelling overseas at a time when plane travel wasn’t available to many.
Although this newsreel is silent, no intertitles have been used to explain what the story is about. The footage is left to speak for itself.
