Bettie Page: Difference between revisions

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[[Image:Bettie Page - September 09, 1954.jpg|left|thumb|Newpaper clip indicating Bettie Page named "Number One Pin-up Girl in the Word" from the Vidette-Messenger in Valparaiso, Indiana]]
'''Bettie Mae Page''' (born [[April 22]], [[1923]] in Nashville, Tennessee, - [[December 11]], [[2008]] in Los Angeles, California) is a former [[American]] [[pin-up model]] and [[fetish model]] who became famous in the [[1950s]]. She faded into obscurity in the [[1960s]], she experienced a cult following in the [[1980s]].
'''Bettie Mae Page''' (born [[April 22]], [[1923]] in Nashville, Tennessee, - [[December 11]], [[2008]] in Los Angeles, California) is a former [[American]] [[pin-up model]] and [[fetish model]] who became famous in the [[1950s]]. She faded into obscurity in the [[1960s]], she experienced a cult following in the [[1980s]].


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== The years out of the spotlight ==
== The years out of the spotlight ==
This renewed attention raised the inevitable question: What had happened to Bettie Page since the late 1950s? The 1990s edition of the popular ''Book of Lists'' <ref>{{cite book |last = Wallechinsky |first = David |coauthors = Amy Wallace | |title = The People's Almanac Presents the Book of Lists - the '90s Edition |publisher = Little Brown & Co |year = 1993 |isbn = 978-0316920797 }}</ref> included Page in a list of once-famous celebrities who had seemingly vanished from the public eye. On New Year's Eve 1958, during one of her regular visits to Key West, Page attended a service at what is now The Key West Temple Baptist Church. She found herself drawn to the mixed race environment and started to attend on a regular basis. She would in time attend three bible colleges, including the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, Multnomah School of the Bible and, briefly, a Christian retreat known as "Bibletown", part of the Boca Raton Community Church. During the 1960s she attempted to become a Christian missionary in Africa but was rejected for having had a divorce.
Since the revival of Bettie Page. Many have ask what happened to her since the last 1950s? The 1990s edition of ''Book of Lists'' <ref>{{cite book |last = Wallechinsky |first = David |coauthors = Amy Wallace | |title = The People's Almanac Presents the Book of Lists - the '90s Edition |publisher = Little Brown & Co |year = 1993 |isbn = 978-0316920797 }}</ref> had Bettie in a list of once famous celebrities who had vanished from the public. New Year's Eve of 1958, she attended a service at The Key West Temple Baptist Church, while on one of her regular visits to Key West. Which she started to attend there regularly. Then she would attend 3 bible colleges, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, Multnomah School of the Bible and a Christian retreat known as "Bibletown" for a brief time in Boca Raton, La. She attemped to become a Christan missionary in Africa, but reject to her divorces.


The question of what Page did in the obscure years after modeling was answered in part with the publication of an official biography in 1996, ''Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-up Legend.''<ref>{{cite book |last = Essex |first = Karen |coauthors = James L. Swanson |title = Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend |year = 1996 |publisher = General Publishing Group |location = Los Angeles |isbn = 1-881649-62-8 }}</ref> Her biography described a woman who dealt head-on with adversity, always looking forward, never looking back. It told how she had remarried her first husband in order to become a missionary; neither the remarriage nor her missionary work were successful. She married a third time in 1967 to a man named Harry Lear in Florida, divorcing him in 1972. At the time of her celebrity revival, Page was living an impoverished life in California, unaware of the public's renewed interest.  
What Bettie did in her time of obscurity waw answered in the official biography in 1996, ''Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-up Legend.''<ref>{{cite book |last = Essex |first = Karen |coauthors = James L. Swanson |title = Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend |year = 1996 |publisher = General Publishing Group |location = Los Angeles |isbn = 1-881649-62-8 }}</ref> It described how she tried to remarry her first husband, so she can become a missionary. Neither of them were successful. She did however marry for a third time in 1967, a man named Harry Lear, but divorcing him in 1972. At the time of the revival, she was unaware of people's interest in her from her modeling days.


Another biography, ''The Real Bettie Page: The Truth about the Queen of Pinups'' <ref>{{cite book |last = Foster |first = Richard |title = The Real Bettie Page: The Truth About the Queen of the Pinups |year = 1997 |publisher = Carol Publishing Group/Birch Lane Press |isbn = 1-55972-432-3 }}</ref> written by Richard Foster and published in 1997, told a less happy tale. It detailed numerous accounts of violence on her part against her third husband, her two step-children and others. It revealed several stays in mental institutions, the last being Patton State Hospital in Highland, California from 1983 to 1992. It also furnished information that Page had still not received all of the money due to her since her rediscovery.
Another biography, ''The Real Bettie Page: The Truth about the Queen of Pinups'' <ref>{{cite book |last = Foster |first = Richard |title = The Real Bettie Page: The Truth About the Queen of the Pinups |year = 1997 |publisher = Carol Publishing Group/Birch Lane Press |isbn = 1-55972-432-3 }}</ref> written by Richard Foster and published in 1997, told a less happy tale. It detailed numerous accounts of violence on her part against her third husband, her two step-children and others. It revealed several stays in mental institutions, the last being Patton State Hospital in Highland, California from 1983 to 1992. It also furnished information that Page had still not received all of the money due to her since her rediscovery.
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== References and further reading ==
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}


Revision as of 07:23, 11 February 2009

Bettie Page

Bettie Page
Personal
Also known as Betty Page
Born April 22, 1923(1923-04-22)[1][2]
Nashville, Tennesse
Died December 11, 2008 (aged 85)[3][4]
Los Angeles, CA
Ethnicity Caucasian
Nationality American
Body
Measurements 36-23-35[1]
Boobs Natural
Height 5 ft 5.5 in (1.66 m)[1][2]
Weight 128 lb (58 kg)[1]
Body type Athletic
Eye color Brown
Hair Black
Medium, Straight
Pubic hair Full
Performances
Playboy Playmate January 1955
Shown Topless, Bush, Full frontal
Official website  Official website
Databases
  IMDb    IAFD    AFDB  
Newpaper clip indicating Bettie Page named "Number One Pin-up Girl in the Word" from the Vidette-Messenger in Valparaiso, Indiana

Bettie Mae Page (born April 22, 1923 in Nashville, Tennessee, - December 11, 2008 in Los Angeles, California) is a former American pin-up model and fetish model who became famous in the 1950s. She faded into obscurity in the 1960s, she experienced a cult following in the 1980s.

Early life

Bettie was born in Nashville, Tennessee, the second child of her family.[5] During Bettie's early years, she moved around the country with her family for steady money.[5] Bettie had to face the responsibilities of caring for her younger siblings. Her parents divorced when Betty was at the age of 10. After the divorce, Page and her sister lived in an orphanage for a year. During the time, Bettie's mother worked two jobs.[5] As a teenager, Bettie and her sisters tried different makeup styles trying to imitating their favorite actors, she also learned to sew. These skills would be useful for her pin-up photography when Bettie did her own makeup, hair, made her own bikinis and costumes.[5]

Bettie graduated from high school with a trust fund of $10,000[5] and enrolled at George Peabody College in hopes of becoming a teacher. In the next fall she began studying acting in hope to become an actor. At the time, she began her first job typing for author Alfred Leland Crab. She graduated from Peabody with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1944. In 1943 she married Billy Neal shortly before he left for active duty in World War II. The next few years, Bettie traveled from San Francisco, California to Nashville to Miami, Florida and to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.[5] In November 1947, while back in the United States, Bettie filed for divorce from Neal.

Modeling career

After her divorce, Bettie worked in San Francisco and Haiti. She moved to New York City, with the goal of becoming an actress. She supported herself working as a secretary in the meantime. In 1950, while walking on Coney Island, Bettie met Jerry Tibbs, a police officer who had an interest in photography. Tibbs took photos of Bettie and put together her first pin-up portfolio.[5]

In the late 1940s, men formed camera clubs as a means of circumventing legal restrictions on the production of nude photos. These clubs existed to promote artistic photography. Many of them were merely fronts for the production of erotic photographs. When Page entered glamour photography she did so as a popular camera club model, working with photographer Cass Carr.[5] Her name and image became known in the erotic photography industry, and in 1951 her image appeared in men's magazines suck as Wink, Titter, Eyefull and Beauty Parade.[5] At the same time she posed for Irving Klaw for mail-order photographs with pin-up, Bondage or sado-masochistic themes. Making her the first famous fetish model.

Working with Herbert Berghoff in 1953, Bettie had roles in New York stage productions, and made several television appearances as well. Her off-Broadway productions included Time is a Thief and Sunday Costs Five Pesos. She also appeared in the Jackie Gleason show.[5] But Bettie's love was pin-up modeling. In 1954, during one of her annual visits to Miami, Florida, Page met photographers Jan Caldwell, H. W. Hannau and Bunny Yeager.[5] At that time Page was the top pin-up model in New York, and Yeager a former model and known photographer. Yeager signed Bettie for a photo session at the African wildlife park, Africa U.S.A. Park in Boca Raton, Florida. The Jungle Bettie photographs from this shoot are among her most celebrated. The photos include nude shots with a pair of cheetahs named Mojah and Mbili. The leopard skin patterned Jungle Girl outfit was made by herself.

After Bunny Yeager sent shots of Bettie to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, whom featured Page as the January 1955 Playmate of the Month, the centerfold model for the two-year-old Playboy magazine. In 1955, Bettie won the title "Miss Pinup Girl of the World."[5]

While pin up models had careers measured in months, Page was in demand for some years, continuing to model until 1957. Thought she posed nude, she never appeared in scenes with explicit sexual content. The reasons for her departure from pin-up, glamour, and fetish modeling vary. Some reports mention the Estes Kefauver Hearings of the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, which ended Irving Klaw's bondage and S&M mail-order photography business. In fact, the United States Congress called her to testify to explain the photos in which she appeared. While she was excused from appearing before the committee, the print negatives of her photos were destroyed by court order. Years after, the negatives that survived were illegal to print. [2]

The most obvious reason for ending her career was her conversion to Christianity while living in Florida in 1957, after which she severed all contact with her prior life. The last generally known facts of her life, was the divorce from Armond Walterson in the early 1960s and that she was working for a Christian organization. For a time Page even entered a religious seminary, then worked briefly as a Christian missionary.[2]

The Bettie Page revival

Bettie Page bondage photo

Eros Publishing Co. published A Nostalgic Look at Bettie Page, a mixture of photos from the 1950s in 1976. Between 1978 and 1980, Belier Press made four volumes of Betty Page: Private Peeks, reprinting pictures from the private camera club sessions, which reintroduced Page to a new but small cult following. [6] In 1983, London Enterprises released In Praise of Bettie Page - A Nostalgic Collector's Item, [7] reprinting camera club photos and a old cat fight photo shoot.

Comic book talent Dave Stevens based the love interest of his hero Cliff Secord ("The Rocketeer") on Bettie Page. In 1987, Greg Theakston started a fanzine called The Betty Pages [8] and recounted tales of her life of the camera club photoshoots. The next 7 years the magazine sparked a world-wide interest in Page. Women dyed their hair and cut it into bangs in an attempt to loo like the 'Dark Angel'. The media caught on with the hype of the Bettie revivle and wrote a number of articles about her.

In the mid 1990s, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous did an episode on Page, as for Entertainment Tonight. Bettie, who was living in a group home in Los Angeles, was surpirsec when she saw this episode on Entertainment Tonight, having no knowledge she was famous again. Bettie did a interview with her editor Greg Theakston for "The Betty Page Annuals" Right after, Page signed with agent James Swanson. After not recieving royalties from Swanson, she fired him 3 years later. Then soon signed with Curtis Management Group, whom represented the James Dean and Marilyn Monroe estates. Soon then began collecting royalties for her financial future.

There have been serveral comic books based on Bettie or her likings. One from Jim Silke based on Bettie. Dark Horse Comics published a comic on fictional advertures about her. Eros Comics made a number of Bettie Page titles. One popluar comic was "Tor Love Bettie" a tongue-in-cheek with suggested a romance between Bettie and wrestler turned actor Tor Johnson.

Some short films of Bettie have been reissued on DVD, as well five shorts called Betty Page in Bondage. A biographical movie, The Notorious Bettie Page, was released in 2005 and shown in theaters in 2006, based on the story of Bettie Page who is played by actress Gretchen Mol. In 2006 Bettie Page and Halo Guitars agreed to produce a limited edition of custom guitars. 100 hand-made guitars by Waylon Ford, painted by the artist Pamelina H., and signed by Bettie Page. [9]

The years out of the spotlight

Since the revival of Bettie Page. Many have ask what happened to her since the last 1950s? The 1990s edition of Book of Lists [10] had Bettie in a list of once famous celebrities who had vanished from the public. New Year's Eve of 1958, she attended a service at The Key West Temple Baptist Church, while on one of her regular visits to Key West. Which she started to attend there regularly. Then she would attend 3 bible colleges, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, Multnomah School of the Bible and a Christian retreat known as "Bibletown" for a brief time in Boca Raton, La. She attemped to become a Christan missionary in Africa, but reject to her divorces.

What Bettie did in her time of obscurity waw answered in the official biography in 1996, Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-up Legend.[11] It described how she tried to remarry her first husband, so she can become a missionary. Neither of them were successful. She did however marry for a third time in 1967, a man named Harry Lear, but divorcing him in 1972. At the time of the revival, she was unaware of people's interest in her from her modeling days.

Another biography, The Real Bettie Page: The Truth about the Queen of Pinups [12] written by Richard Foster and published in 1997, told a less happy tale. It detailed numerous accounts of violence on her part against her third husband, her two step-children and others. It revealed several stays in mental institutions, the last being Patton State Hospital in Highland, California from 1983 to 1992. It also furnished information that Page had still not received all of the money due to her since her rediscovery.

Foster's book immediately provoked attacks from her fans, including Hugh Hefner and Harlan Ellison, as well as a statement from Page that it was “full of lies”. However, Steve Brewster, founder of the Bettie Scouts of America fan club, has stated that it is not as unsympathetic as the book's reputation makes it to be. Brewster adds that he also read the chapter about her business dealings with Swanson, and stated that Page was pleased with that part of her story.

In a late-1990s interview, Page stated she would not allow any current pictures of her to be shown because of concerns about her weight. In 2003, however, she changed her mind and allowed a publicity picture to be taken of her for the August 2003 edition of Playboy. In 2006, the Los Angeles Times ran an article headlined A Golden Age for a Pinup, covering an autographing session at her current publicity company, CMG Worldwide. Once again, she declined to be photographed, saying that she would rather be remembered as she was.

In 1996, Bettie Page did grant an exclusive one-on-one TV interview to entertainment reporter Tim Estiloz for a short-lived NBC morning magazine program Real Life. The interview was granted as part of Page's participation in publicizing her biography, Bettie Page: The Life Of A Pin-Up Legend. The interview featured her voice reminiscing about her career and relating many insightful anecdotes about her personal life, as well as photos from Bettie's own personal collection. At Page's request, her face was not shown during the interview. The video of the interview was broadcast only once, but recently resurfaced on YouTube under the title, "REAL Bettie Page TV Interview: Her Life In Her OWN Words". [1]

Death

Bettie passed away on December 11, 2008 due to taken off life support from a heart attack 6 days before, when not regaining consciousness. She was hospitalized for three weeks with pneumonia.[3]

Filmography

Classic Bettie Page
  • Striporama (1953)
  • Teaserama (1955)
  • Varietease (1954)
  • Irving Klaw Bondage Classics, Volume I
  • Irving Klaw Bondage Classics, Volume II
  • Bettie Page: Pin Up Queen (Cult Epics, 2005)
  • Bettie Page: Bondage Queen (Cult Epics, 2005)

Self:

  • Dance of Passion (2001) (as Betty Page) .... Herself
  • Playboy: Playmate Pajama Party (1999) (V) .... Herself
  • E! True Hollywood Story .... Herself (1 episode, 1998)- From Pinup to Sex Queen: Bettie Page (1998) TV Episode .... Herself
  • Betty Page: Pin Up Queen (1998) (V) .... Herself
  • Teaserama (1955) .... Herself
  • Varietease (1954) .... Herself
  • Striporama (1953) .... Herself
  • Teaser Girl in High Heels (1950) .... Herself

Archive footage

  • 2004 - Striptease: The Greatest Exotic Dancers of All Time .... Herself
  • 2004 - Taboo: The Beginning of Erotic Cinema .... Herself
  • 2004 - Bettie Page: The Girl in the Leopard Print Bikini .... Herself
  • 2003 - Playboy's 50th Anniversary Celebration (2003) (TV) .... Herself
  • 1998 - Betty Page: Bondage Queen (as Betty Page)
  • 1991 - Hyperdelic E-Mission(uncredited) .... Stripper

Film biopics

  • 2004 - Bettie Page: Dark Angel
  • 2006 - The Notorious Bettie Page

In Pop Culture

  • In one of his numerous fictional back-page biographical sketches, Harlan Ellison claimed to be "writing a biography of Bettie Page for young adults".
  • Alternative country band BR5-49 recorded an ode to Page named "Bettie, Bettie" on their 1996 debut EP Live From Robert's.
  • Indie rocker Paul Spencer wrote a song entitled "Bettie Page", which appears on his 2005 debut album The Whole Shebang. The song includes the lyric "Locks the world in a cage, she's kinky like Bettie Page", paying tribute to Page's notorious risqué photographs.

Big tit movies / pictures of Bettie Page

External links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Facts on Official Website
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Internet Movie Database: Bettie Page
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Yahoo News
  4. ↑ Bettie Page Memorial in Official Website
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 Official website biography Accessed April 4, 2007.
  6. ↑ http://www.cultsirens.com/page/page.htm
  7. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/Nostalgic-Look-Bettie-Page-Number/dp/B000UGFZD6/
  8. ↑ http://www.cultsirens.com/page/page.htm
  9. ↑ http://www.haloguitars.com/bettie.html
  10. ↑ Wallechinsky, David; Amy Wallace (1993). The People's Almanac Presents the Book of Lists - the '90s Edition. Little Brown & Co. ISBN 978-0316920797. 
  11. ↑ Essex, Karen; James L. Swanson (1996). Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend. Los Angeles: General Publishing Group. ISBN 1-881649-62-8. 
  12. ↑ Foster, Richard (1997). The Real Bettie Page: The Truth About the Queen of the Pinups. Carol Publishing Group/Birch Lane Press. ISBN 1-55972-432-3. 


  Playboy Playmates of 1955
Bettie Page Jayne Mansfield Marilyn Waltz Marguerite Empey Eve Meyer
Janet Pilgrim Pat Lawler Anne Fleming Jean Moorehead Barbara Cameron Janet Pilgrim
1953 · 1954 · 1955 · 1956 · 1957 · 1958
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