Bettie Page Biography

 

 

The Tease from Tennessee

 

"I think that she was a remarkable lady, an iconic figure in pop culture who influenced sexuality and someone who had a tremendous impact on our society." Playboy founder, Hugh Hefner.

 

Bettie Page (April 22, 1923 – December 11, 2008) was the most photographed American pinup and fetish model during the 1950s. She was also one of the earliest Playmates of the Month for Playboy magazine. Her trademark black bangs and effervescent smile continue to influence contemporary culture.

 

Bettie’s personal life was unfathomably dramatic, marked by shocking extremes. Nearly born in a movie theater in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, she was the second oldest of six childrn. Her childhood was scarred by overwhelming poverty: from lack of food, to emotional impoverishment, and a stint in an orphanage. Bettie's mother was too busy to be nurturing; her priority was working to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. As a result, Bettie regularly parented her siblings from an early age. Making matters worse, Bettie was subjected to her father's emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.

 

Determined to transcend her hardscrabble childhood, she set her sights on academic achievement. Bettie obtained a Bachelor's degree from Peabody College. Despite academic excellence, Bettie found it difficult to find a suitable career niche — until moving to New York City in 1950.

 

Upon discovering that she could make more money during a couple of hours of pin-up modeling than during a secretary's 40 hour work week, the die was cast: Professional and amateur photographers in New York and Florida discovered the most devoted, highly motivated, innately talented, model they were likely to ever encounter for pin-up, nude, and fetish posing.

 

Page’s reputation as a cherished pinup model cultivated various monikers. She’s been variously labeled Queen of Hearts, The Queen of Curves, Queen of the Pin-Ups, The Tease from Tennessee, and Miss Pin-Up Girl of the World. As an incomparable fetish model, she was dubbed The Queen of Bondage and The Dark Angel.

 

Bitten by a desire to perform from an early age, the bright lights of Broadway and New York-based TV shows tantalized Bettie. She took acting classes at the prestigious Herbert Berghof Studio. Her popularity as as a model even led Howard Hughes to summon her for a screen test. Regrettably, despite noted starlet agent, Hilliard "Hilly" Elkins of the William Morris Agency, sanctioning Bettie's efforts, Page's acting career never panned out.

 

Ominous events invaded Bettie's life, too: Misled to believe she'd be going dancing, Bettie found herself enduring a gang rape. She was also traumatized by stalkers. In the wee hours leading up to her iconic "jungle girl"/Africa USA shoot with Bunny Yeager, Bettie was terrified by a man who tried to break into her room. Shocking anonymous letters made sadistic threats, including pulling off Bettie's breasts with pliers. Less malevolent, though still alarming, she felt targeted by a mysterious man who stared at her apartment building.

 

Moving Beyond the Cameras

Flash to the end of 1957. Bettie was 34 years old. After appearing in more than 1,000 magazines between 1950 and 1957, Bettie walked away from modeling. She viewed herself as too old to continue posing. She also felt that her photographic glut would cause interest to wane.

 

Another consideration was the revised business direction for her primary employer, Irving Klaw. Amid the sexually repressive 1950s, Klaw was targeted by a 1955 Senate Subcommittee's investigation on pornography and obscenity . . . and with Bettie as his most popular model, she found herself dragged into the muck. Steeped in McCarthyism-type mentality, those hearings turned into a witch-hunt. Physically and emotionally drained by incessant harassment, Klaw quit creating new pin-up and fetish photos. That's a whole other fascinating tale; long after he discontinued his photo mill, the government refused to quit badgering Klaw.

 

Around that time, too, Bettie discovered that her apartment building (in the area we now know as Radio City in Manhattan) was scheduled for demolition. In short, with a mandate to move, and a self-proclaimed wanderlust spirit, Bettie left New York City. She pointed her compass to Florida.

 

Post-Modeling Life

A new life path began on New Year's Eve, 1958. In her words, Bettie was "saved by the Lord." With hopes of becoming a missionary, she spent three years in Bible schools in three cities. While at the Moody Bible Institute, Bettie spent 19 evenings working as a Billy Graham Counselor when his Crusade came to Chicago in 1962. She also accumulated credits toward a Master's degree, though never quite finished.

 

As time passed, Bettie battled depression and violent mood swings associated with delusional thought processes. This necessitated several in-patient stays — voluntary and involuntary — at mental institutions in Florida and California. Included was an arrest for attempted murder while delusional, leading to incarceration for ten years in a mental institution.

 

New Decades . . . . New Fans

Following relative obscurity, the 1980s were marked by a popularity resurgence. People generally credit that revitalized interest to artist Dave Stevens inserting Bettie as the love interest in his comic book series, "The Rocketeer." A significant cult following grew, fueling a cottage industry of Bettie memorabilia. It mushroomed during the 1990s, as young people discovered her images on the Internet.

 

This occurred without Bettie's knowledge or participation.... until she surprisingly resurfaced at the age of 69. After being lost from public view for 35 years, her fans went wild when a November 14, 1992 TV broadcast of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" featured an audio interview with Bettie.

 

Today, Bettie's official web site gets more hits than Marilyn Monroe's. Her image, including jet-black hair and trademark bangs, has been iconic within the gay, fetish, comic book, rockabilly, goth, punk, and tattoo subcultures. It even influenced many artists and designers in fashion, film and photography.

 

Fans' international adulation reflects one of Bettie's experiential juxtapositions. On the one hand, she was revered around the globe. On the other, her love life was marked by ongoing searches for the happy home she never had as a child. Bettie married four times, ending in three divorces and one annulment.

 

The Bettie Effect

Bettie turned the world on its ear by restructuring the mundane act of having her photo taken into timeless images, the likes of which have yet to be created by anyone else. In the process, she took the tawdry pin-up photography of 1950s America and infused it with a compelling aesthetic, raising it to the level of art.

 

Bettie has become a symbol of sexual rebellion, of "the outsider," a kind of Che Guevara of sexuality. With her utter naturalness and trailblazing fetish imagery, She has become an iconic transformative figure, giving many people confidence in expressing their own sexuality — a unique pinnacle.