'My mother had always been very beautiful. Age was very difficult for her. She never wanted to be old, but beauty queens become old, if they live.'
The story of Bess Myerson is the story of America, or at least some version of it. A poor Jewish girl from the Bronx who was entered into the Miss America beauty pageant without her knowledge on the day of Japan’s surrender during World War II—and against all odds won—Myerson became a hero to the community. As the first and only Jewish Miss America, she was “the most famous pretty girl since Queen Esther,” as Susan Dworkin wrote in her 1987 biography of Myerson.
My mom was a big celebrity, and that colors how I grew up. There’s a very special existence you have when you’re the child of a celebrity. It’s surreal walking into a restaurant or walking down the street and having people stop your mother for her autograph, traveling with her, having everybody know who she was. The reason it’s calledis that when I was a kid I was very chubby. I had buck teeth. I was kind of shy. And you think of yourself that way your whole life, in a way.
GRANT: I’ve always been a big reader. Books were my go-to place of comfort and inspiration. But when I grew up, I thought everybody was Jewish. I grew up in a Jewish world. My mom, she did a lot of work for Israel Bonds, Anti-Defamation League, B’nai B’rith, all of them. And I often was brought to those dinners to be able to hear her give her speeches. She took me to Israel twice. I met [the Former Prime Minister of Israel David] Ben-Gurion. I saw [Adolf] Eichmann on trial.
NECHAMKIN: Did you find that there were specific memories that came up as you were writing? Was there anything that surprised you, or did it always exist this way in your head?
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