Austin’s burlesque troupe The Jigglewatts are presenting The Bettie Page Tribute Night, hoping to emphasize Bettie”’’s flirty nature. “There’s a lot of humor in it. There’s a lot of wink-and-a-smile,” explains burlesque artist Miss Coco Lectric about the nature of The Jigglewatts”””””””” brand of tease. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m about to take this off. You guys really want to see this? Are you sure?’” she tells the Houston Press.
Join the fun at Houston”’’s Alamo West Oaks as Austin”’’s The Jigglewatts shake and shimmy in tribute to the late great Bettie Page! The live burly-q is augmented by multimedia presentations from Bettie Page”’’s film, Teaserama. Previous versions of this same performance also featured a sneak preview of Bettie Page Reveals All, the forthcoming documentary produced and directed by Mark Mori. Hopefully, this show will, as well.
Tickets are only $12 in advance and available right here on our website!
Performers on hand to celebrate Bettie”’’s enthusiastic embrace of real women and woman-positive portrayals of sexuality include:
Miss Coco Lectric
Ruby Joule
Goldie Candela
Pearl Lux
Grace Truvant
Ruby Rockit
Elisa
Ruby Lamb
Ginger Valentine
Maye Applebottom
and Mistress of Ceremonies…Cherry Zap
“[It’s] to show how much fun we’re having and to show that it’s fun being a woman. It’s fun to be sensual, it’s fun to be funny and cute…it’s fun to not be a size two,” says Letric.
The skinny on the shimmy:
Bettie Page Tribute Night with LIVE Burlesque!
Saturday, Jan 16th
7:30pm Tickets: $12
@michellebranch Halloween is my favorite holiday. I go ALL out. Thinking of being a clothed Bettie Page..I dunno. Last year I was Bella from Twilight, hehe
-Tweet from Michelle Branch, Musician, via Hollywood Crush/MTV.COM
Julia of the Brazen Betties store was kind enough to send a video of the Brazen Betties Bettie Page Lookalike Contest, an official part of “Torrington Day” in Torrington, CT, in both color (above) and black and white.
This contest was the first of its kind in this area. (Torrington is an up-and-coming arts hub.) I”m planning another contest for next year as well. It was such a huge success! I love Bettie and your blog captures her perfectly.
We can”t wait for next year’’s contest! Julia also sent us photos of the first, second and third-place winners:
AHHH! Zombie Bettie? Don”t we know Halloween is over? Is this some exploitative image meant to shock or upset?
Actually, it’’s a homework assignment, of sorts. The artist, Shannon Warren, is a student at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and completed the work according to a specific criteria…
Basically the assignment was to use a famous icon of your choosing, create at least a 2 layer stencil of their face, and use it in a way that would in some way coerce an emotion from the viewer. Whether it was humor, empathy, challenging, etc. With my piece I really wanted to push the limits of “ideal beauty” and see how far you can take someone so beautiful away from the normal social views of beauty with out altering their actual self. So in a way I suppose it’’s meant to be disturbing, but the work is definitely not intended to offend Bettie Page fans. If I didn”t absolutely adore her and everything she stood for, I would not have done a piece on her at all.
I chose to do my work on Bettie because to me she IS the ultimate woman. I know historically she wasn”t the first pinup, but I feel like she really opened up the door for a more diverse culture to take the spotlight, especially in pin up artwork. And in my opinion she commercialized people’’s hidden “taboo” fantasies, which also paved the way for a totally different outlook on sexuality in society. To me, its as though most pinups before Bettie just kind of allowed themselves to be pinups rather than owning it. Bettie Page was an example of society accepting the “perverse” nature of itself, and validating it.
And I chose to portray her in the gory way I did because I feel like zombie pinups are the next wave in delving deeper into different areas of the darker corners of society. Its becoming much more acceptable to be interested in what you personally find interesting. I personally love gore and zombies, but I also love the female form. Because of people like Bettie Page, what I like to make art about is far more acceptable and less likely to be seen as perversion.
If you have an interest in the work, the original painting is for sale. Feel free to EMAIL the artist, directly.
Alycia Fraser, a “self-taught Canadian artist based in British Columbia”, shows her love for Bettie, with two recent graphite pencil portraits.
Why Bettie? Alycia explains: I chose to draw Bettie because she is a gorgeous, unconventional (at her time) beauty! I think she holds a lot of confidence and power in the photos that represent her.
Check out the rest of her gallery at http://www.artbyalycia.com (and tell her the Bettie Page Blog sent you).
As reported by The Oklahoman”’’s Brandy McDonnell, in her BAMblog, two Oklahoma-based bands draw inspiration from Ms. Bettie Page in two recent offerings. The alt-country band Cross Canadian Ragweed chronicles her story in their song, “Pretty Lady”, while the stalwart cult band The Flaming Lips (in this instance collaborating with Yeah Yeah Yeahs” Karen O) give a visual nod to the image of Bettie Page in their video for the song “I Can Be a Frog”.
Brandy blogs:
It’s an interesting concurrence of ideas – and further evidence of Page’s lasting mark on pop culture – that two Oklahoma bands with such different aesthetics found inspiration from the “Pin-up Queen of the Universe” at practically the same time.
Why stop with just two bands? That’’s what we say!
Scott Ehrisman is a painter, political cartoonist, Bettie Page and Tom Waits enthusiast and “one of the most high- profile artists currently working in the Sioux Falls, South Dakota area” according to a bio on the National Coalition Against Censorship page. He is an avid political, cultural and media blogger. His art and commentary can be found at South DaCola.
When asked about the inspiration for his Bettie Page paintings, he replied, “I guess I have been a fan of Bettie for a long time and just recently decided to do some paintings of her. I have always felt that she was too beautiful and innocent for bondage, but hey, maybe that is the appeal. I also love her black hair, never been a big Marilyn Monroe fan.”
(painting with canvas shoes) ””””””””CHUCK AND BETTIE; UNLIKELY PUNK ICONS”””””””” (Aprox: 2 x 4 foot – Mixed Media on wood - custom frame)
Movieline has a “cold case” article in which director Mary Harron reflects on her unauthorized, but generally respectful biopic, THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE.
What was it like to be a member of the mythic Concorde Camera Club, following Cass Carr and snapping photos of nude models at a time when such a hobby could land you in prison?
The amazing blog Camera Club Girls explores the work of Rudolph Rossi, one such photographer. The photos, while hardly the glossy, highly choreographed and produced pin-ups to which we”ve become accustomed, give a clear vibe of these slightly scandalous shoots.
Here’’s what the site has to say about Rossi:
Camera Club Girls: The work of Rudolph Rossi
The extraordinary hand-painted photographs of Rudolph Rossi. Rossi was an informal member of the New York City Concorde Camera Club in the repressive 1950′’s. For a ten dollar fee, he photographed Bettie Page and a plethora of interracial models, then later meticulously hand-painted the photographs creating the illusion of color photography. An exceptional body of work by a previously unknown and unrecognized photographer and erotic artist from a time when such activity was taboo.
The blogger, Jim Linderman, appears to operate other blogs that (call me crazy) may interest Bettie fans… blogs with names like “Vintage Sleaze” for instance.
The Bettie Page look a likes pose as they wait for the announcement of the winners on Main Street. The event was sponsored by Brazen Betties, and was part of the Torrington Day celebration
Torrington, CT seems like a great place to live, given that part of their town”””””””’’s annual festivities included a Bettie Page lookalike contest, hosted by a very cool-looking independent fashion boutique (with a great name, to say the least). On the comments of the paper”””””””’’s online article, however, it”””””””’’s clear that not all residents are of that opinion:
My God Save Us wrote:
” Torrington Days used to be about food, cultures and good clean family fun. Not parading 1950s smut starts down Main St. You should all be ashamed of yourself, especially Mayor Bingham, Rose Ponte and Steve the helper for turning the streets of Torrington into a parading brothel. “
Nice to see that even after half a century, Bettie”””””””’’s aura of empowering sexuality (even fully dressed) is potent enough to ruffle feathers!
