On November 30, 1932, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) starlet Anita Page won the Californian contest for the “Most Beautiful Forehead in Hollywood” (alternatively translated from historic press wires as the “Most Beautiful Front”).
This was one of the quirky publicity-oriented beauty contests common in Hollywood during the early 1930s. Page was already famous as a popular MGM actress of the late silent era and early talkies (notably Our Dancing Daughters opposite Joan Crawford and the Best Picture winner The Broadway Melody, 1929). She was widely promoted as the “Girl with the Most Beautiful Face in Hollywood” and received up to 20,000 fan letters a month, reportedly second only to Greta Garbo at her peak, along with colorful admirers that included Benito Mussolini.
By late 1932 her MGM contract was winding down (it was not renewed), and she continued briefly in other studios before largely retiring from the screen in the mid-1930s. The forehead contest fits the era’s light, image-focused publicity around stars’ physical features.
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