Less than 24 hours after word spread that the Miss America pageant would accept divorcees and women who had undergone abortions, beleaguered contest officials on Tuesday showed signs of retreating before an onslaught of protests.
After blistering criticism from former Miss Americas, ex-contestants and state pageant directors, the Miss America Organisation promised to negotiate with outraged pageant officials across the United States.
"We have agreed to engage in dialogue with our franchisees to explore possible alternatives that ensure we are compliant with applicable law and consistent with the traditional values associated with Miss America," said Miss America chief executive, Mr Robert Beck.
The 79-year-old beauty and talent contest, which only last year began allowing contestants to wear two-piece bathing suits, dropped a half-century-old ban on women who have been married or pregnant, causing an uproar among supporters who believe Miss America should be a symbol of purity and respectability.
But state pageant directors fear that Miss America, the pure ideal of young womanhood, presented each year with the crooning of the anthem There She Is, could soon be on the endangered species list.
In recent years, the pageant has attracted a number of women who are born-again Christian, opposed to abortion and critical of what they see as the moral effects divorce has had on the American family.
"We have done very well by [the old] rules and have managed to have fine young women," said Yolande Betbeze Fox, Miss America 1951.
"This wonderful apple-pie, American tradition, I don't think it needs to be changed," she added. "Maybe all the [former winners] will get together, make a fuss and picket."
The ban was adopted in 1950, after Miss America 1949, Jacque Mercer of Arizona, got married and divorced during her one-year reign.