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Innocent and tempting, arch and teasing, Bettie Page (1923-2008) stands out as the most iconic of all 1950’s pinup girls. Bettie’s killer curves and sparkling eyes adored men’s magazines, advertisements, mail-order photographs, album covers from 1950 to 1957.
Although her birth certificate reads “Betty Mae Page,” “Bettie” is the configuration that she utilised since childhood, and is seen on autographed pictures from the 1990s and 2000s. EBay sellers often hedge their bets by referring to her as “Bettie Betty Page in auction listings, furthering the confusion.
Asked for her opinion of modern pinup girls, Bettie has stated that Demi Moore’s celebrity impersonation bears little resemblance to her, and described Madonna as “highly overrated.”
Bettie Page has inspired many contemporary pinup artists, such as Jim Silke, Dave Stevens, and Olivia. I initially came across a fictionalized Bettie Page in Dave Stevens’ “Rocketeer” comic book serial in 1992. The unassuming main character Cliff Secord’s girlfriend Betty was modeled after Betty Page, who at time was known only to vintage pinup retro aficionados. Cliff’s rival for Betty’s affection, the lanky, bearded, beret-wearing pin-up photographer, Irving, could not have been more different from the real-life Irving Klaw.
Throughout the 1940s, Irving Klaw and his sister Paula’s Manhattan-based Movie Star News had a lively business in movie stills, cheesecake photographs, and pinups. When Irving noticed the demand for damsel-in-distress movie stills exceed the supply, he began producing his own bondage photos. Paula did most of the photography, and tied the actual knots. To the disappointment of contemporary BDSM enthusiasts, neither the Klaws nor Bettie were into bondage.
The 1954 Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency headed by Estes Kefauver (the era’s Tipper Gore) attacked comic books and pornography, trying to linking them with juvenile delinquency. Klaw was subpoenaed and appeared in front of the Subcommittee on national TV, pleading the Fifth to every question. Though Klaw’s bondage photographs did not involve nudity, his entire business was tarred by the association with pornographic, sleazy pinups. Facing social, political, and legal pressures, Klaw retired from the trade. While Klaw attempted to burn all his negatives (succeeding with about 80%), his sister Paula preserved some of the better images, which are available today in collections of vintage pinups.
In 1954, Miami-based former model Bunny Yeager photographed Bettie decorating a Christmas tree, wearing only a Santa hat. Playboy magazine purchased it for their January 1955 issue, yielding one of their most memorable Christmas pinups. A former model herself, Bunny realized Bettie’s full potential as a female pinup model, capturing her as a beach bunny, a leopardskin-clad jungle queen (at the Africa USA wildlife park in Boca Raton), and sun goddess.
While Bettie’s religious rebirth on New Year’s Eve 1958 is typically named as the reason for her retirement from modeling, additional factors include the stigma of the Kefauver probe, a back injury, a blackmail attempt, using a fake hard-core photo, stalking incidents, and her advancing age.
Richard Foster’s 1997 book “The Real Bettie Page: The Truth about the Queen of the Pinups” indicates that Bettie’s religious fervour let loose personal demons she had handled during her professional life.
In the late 60s, the former pinup queen endured fierce mood swings, which ended her marriage to Harry Lear, her third husband. Broken by the finalization of her divorce from Lear, Bettie was arrested for public disturbance with a .22 pistol in Boca Raton. Though the marriage was over, Lear allowed Bettie to stay in his home with his three children. Some months afterward, Bettie paraded Lear and his three children at knife point before a picture of Jesus, commanding them, “If you take your eyes off this picture, I’ll cut your guts out!” The incident resulted in a four-month stay in a state mental hospital. Generous to a fault, Lear allowed Bettie to return to his home, this time in an addition constructed for her.
In California in 1979, Bettie assaulted an elderly couple with a breadknife, requiring a year- long hospitalization. In 1982, Bettie stabbed her landlady 12 times. The trial for attempted murder resulted in her being ruled insane and institutionalized for ten years.
Bettie challenged the measure of time in mental health facilities, insisting “That book is full of lies. Richard Foster is the devil posing as a human. A monster.”
