What happened to Rosa Travers, after she'd been skinned (carbolic acid and phenol), had her nose snipped, received paraffin injections in her breasts and was irradiated to remove undesirable body hair? That would have been the first part of her prize. When all was done, she had an opera audition. Rosa Travers was a sweatshop worker who in 1924 had the distinction of winning the New York Daily Mirror's competition to find the 'homeliest girl in New York':

LRB 27 November 1997 | PDF Download