[2] 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.
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.
Though reference to the art being exhibited is lacking, other than appearing in the newspaper sometime in November that same year,[6] Leaver and her manager met with Vittor and rejected any form of contract and refused her approval that the statue be publicly shown.
[10] 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.
[12][13] In the late 1930s, Leaver had been contacted by Columbia Pictures requesting the release of photographic images of her taken during her short stint in Hollywood, when she had been at 20th Century Fox, during her year serving as Miss America.
Although she could never prove it, Leaver, who had been paid $250 for the photos, was convinced that the striking image atop Columbia’s logo was modeled after her photographs and her nude statue.
[14] Years later, discussion of Leaver’s controversial nude statue would return to prominence when Vanessa Williams lost her Miss America title, by comparing Leaver not being invited back to crown her successor as she had “posed for a nude statue” – despite wearing a bathing suit while posing, with her grandmother present and with no knowledge that the artwork would display her naked.