The old subway was much more beautiful.
Now, the timeless beauties who once reigned as “Miss Subway” and whose faces adorned train posters are reunited on May 2nd at Ellen’s Stardust Diner in Times Square.
Stunning straphangers entered the bimonthly contest, which ran from 1941 to 1976, by submitting photos.
Three of the winners, now in their 80s, recalled how they became local celebrities after their photos appeared on 14,000 train placards. 6 million commuters daily to praise.
Ellen Hart Sturm, Miss Subway from March to April 1959, recalled receiving a handwritten marriage proposal.
“I still don’t know how they got my address,” she told the Post. “I was only 18, so I don’t think I was ready to get married.
“In the past, if you were 21 years old, you were considered an old woman,” Sturm recalls. She now owns a famous diner that bears her name and still rides the subway.
Sturm, 82, is a senior at Jamaica High School in Queens and had just been named the best-looking athlete in his class when he applied.
“My neighbors encouraged me to send them pictures of me,” she said.
The photo of the Miss Subway candidate was chosen by the deceased. john robert powersfounder of Powers Agency, considered to be the world’s first modeling agency.
Finalists had to live in the five boroughs and take the subway, and were then interviewed by a New York subway advertising agency to select the winner.
Sturm, who now lives on the Upper West Side, recalled sitting down with a representative from her company who asked her about her grades and hobbies.
“He asked me if I was a good student, and I said, ‘So-so,'” she recalled. “I said, ‘I sing and I want to be a famous singer someday,’ and I told him I was in the All City Choir. And he thought I was charming and interesting. Ta.”
Some winners received bracelets with gold-plated subway tokens, but Sturm did not.
“I didn’t get anything. I couldn’t even ride the subway for free,” he said at the time. Cost is 15 centsshe said.
Mary Gardiner Timane, Miss Subway in May-June 1953, grew up in Washington Heights and was working for Scandinavian Airlines when her boss sent her a photo.
“I received a postcard, which I still have, that said, ‘We’ve invited you to interview for Miss Subway,'” said Timane, now 89 and living in Lakewood, New Jersey. It was written,” he recalled.
“Well, I almost died. I was a very cowardly person.”
TMoney’s poster also caught the attention of Radio City Music Hall producers. Leon Leonidovhired her as a model for a stage show.
“What is she doing sitting behind the desk? Send her to me,” he said to her relatives.
Dolores Mitchell Byrne, of Jackson Heights, was crowned Miss Subway in January-February 1961, winning the title at age 17 after her sister submitted a photo.
Byrne, now 81, was working as a receptionist and switchboard operator at Gannett in Rockefeller Center. About two years after becoming Miss Subway, she signed a modeling contract.
“I took my poster to different agencies,” explained Byrne, who lives in Manhasset, Louisiana.
“I ended up doing a lot of catalog work even in my 30s. After I got married, I had a child, I got a job as a model, and then I got a husband. Did.”
Ms Byrne said her nod to Miss Subways also brought her more attention from men.
“I had a guy from California, and somehow he got my parents’ address,” she recalled. “When I got home, he was sitting in the living room with his parents.”
