Beyond the Lens: The Life of Bettie Page

By Tessalee Lark on October 24, 2016

Bettie was born in Nashville, Tennessee on April 22nd, 1923, as the second child of Walter and Edna Page. She had four other siblings, and the family moved frequently because of how poor they were. Because of this, Bettie had responsibilities like taking care of her younger brothers and sisters, as well as household chores. This only increased when her parents divorced, as her mother had to work two jobs in order to support her family. When Bettie was ten, her mother placed her in an orphanage temporarily along with her two sisters so that she could save enough money to take care of them.

As a teenager, Bettie was fascinated with the glamorous actresses of Hollywood, so she and her sisters began imitating them using different hair styles and clothes. Taking pictures of each other was commonplace between the girls, which would later benefit Bettie in her career, along with learning to sew at the local community center. It is also worthy to note that Bettie graduated second in her class, and her schoolmates voted her “Most Likely to Succeed.”

Bettie Page’s High School Senior Photo via aceofspadesvintage.blogspot.com

In 1943, Bettie married Billy Neal, and the pair moved out to San Francisco. Bettie wanted to be an actress, but nothing in the field really worked out for her. However, she did begin her first modeling job where modeled fur coats. In 1947, she divorced Billy and moved to New York, always the notorious free spirit, and worked as a secretary while still modeling on the side. A few years later, she met Jerry Tibbs, an amateur photographer, while walking the boardwalk at Coney Island, and he was the first to suggest that she would be a good pin-up model (models who posed semi-nude or nude). He even took pictures of her, and made up her first pin-up modeling portfolio for her. Bettie made all of the bikinis and costumes that she modeled by hand.

Bettie in the 1950′s via USA Today

She also met Cass Carr, another photographer who would organize photo sessions between members of camera clubs and a few models. Bettie participated in many of these sessions and that was when her career really took off. In just a few months, pictures of her were published in men’s magazines like Wink and Beauty Parade. She did not just model in New York, however. Many of her modeling pictorials take place in Florida. Between 1952 and 1957, she also modeled for Irving Klaw, who ran a company that made mail-order pictures with pinup and BDSM themes, which made her the first famous bondage model. She was also used in numerous 8mm and 16mm short films which catered to specific clientele of Klaw’s. Although the short films were considered “underground,” they never featured nudity or were sexually explicit. In 1955, she won the title of “Miss Pinup Girl of the World,” with her pictures being featured on everything from playing cards to record albums. In January of that same year, she was even a Playboy centerfold.

Famous modeling picture of Bettie Page via pinterest.com

Between the years of 1950 and 1957, the United States was a very conservative country, and although she never did anything that was sexually explicit, Bettie’s pictures (along with the pinup industry as a whole) were considered to be taboo. This actually caused an investigation by the United States Senate Committee, which started after a boy committed suicide after supposedly looking at some BDSM photos featuring Bettie. Many photographers and models’ careers were ruined as a result. Bettie’s popularity was at its peak in 1957, however, but she still left New York and her modeling career. She moved to Florida, and stayed out of the public eye for several decades, creating a kind of mystery as to her whereabouts, as she had told none of her contacts about the move. Later in life, Bettie would reveal that during that time, she spent several years in a religious order, married twice, and spent time in a mental institution for madness.

Bettie’s return to the public eye happened in the 1970’s when artists began painting portraits of her old photos. This sparked a plethora of books and magazines being published featuring Bettie’s pictures throughout the 70’s and 80’s. In addition, there was a comic based on her in the 1990s. Bettie had a cult following by this point, but she was completely unaware of it. She was not receiving any kind of compensation or request of approval for her images at that time, and it was only when she met with Hugh Hefner in the late 1990s that she was put in touch with lawyers who were able to guarantee her royalties and ultimate approval on everything that had her image. Her images have influenced fashion designers, artists like Beyonce’ and Dita von Teese, and there is even a planet named after her. It can be argued that the popularity of retro fashion and styles would not be possible without her.

With the exception of one publicity picture for Playboy in early 2000’s, she never allowed for photographs to be taken of herself, or made public appearances. She said that the reason for this was that she simply wanted to be remembered for how she was. She passed away from a heart attack in 2008, and her grave includes the quote “Queen of the Pin-Ups.”

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