Miss America pageant to leave Atlantic City.

Byline: Jacqueline L. Urgo

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. _ There she goes.

In this "show us your shoes" hometown of Miss America, the proverbial other shoe has dropped.

After months _ possibly years _ of speculation that this most famous of pageants, born by the seaside here in 1921, might pack up and move away for good, the Miss America Organization on Thursday told local officials it wants out of Atlantic City.

And Atlantic City said, "Goodbye."

After a closed-door meeting, the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors announced it would release the pageant from its contract to stage the annual event in Boardwalk Hall through 2007.

Just where pageant officials plan to go next is unclear, although the organization in June signed a contract with the cable network CMT, raising questions about whether the contest could find a new home in …