ABOUT BETTIE





"I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer. I
wasn't trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time.
I didn't think of myself as liberated, and I don't believe that
I did anything important. I was just myself. I didn't know any
other way to be, or any other way to live."


Full Name: Betty Mae Page
Birthdate: 22 April, 1923
Birthplace: Jackson, TN
Deathdate: 11 December, 2008
Parents: Walter & Edna Page
Siblings: 2nd of 6 children
Eye Color: Blue-gray
Hair Color: Black (naturally)
Height: 5 feet 5½ inches
Weight: 128-130 lbs.
Measurements: 36-23-35
Favorite Drink: Hires Rootbeer
Musical Instuments: Guitar & Piano
Smoke/Drink: No/No
Education: Bachelors degree from Peabody College
Other Professions: Secretary, teacher
Marital Status: Single, divorced three times.
Children: None
Last Current Residence: Southern California.
Official Website: http://bettiepage.com/





- Bettie attended Hume-Fogg High School in Nashville, TN and graduated second in her class in 1940. She missed being the valedictorian by a quarter of a grade point. Bettie was editor of the school newspaper and year book and was voted "most likely to succeed."

- Bettie got her start in modeling in October of 1950 when she met Jerry Tibbs, a police officer and part-time photographer, on the shore of Coney Island. She had already done some amateur modeling so he
offered to take pictures of her and help her assemble a portfolio. Her trademark hair style came about when Tibbs suggested she cut her bangs because of her high forehead. She went with his advise and has kept her hair like that ever since. Bettie's pin-up photos were featured in Robert Harrison's girly cheasecake magazines and proved to be quite popular. Her career as a modelbegan to take off.

- She was featured as the centerfold in the January 1955 issue of Playboy. The PHOTO (taken by Bunny Yeager) featured Bettie wearing nothing but a Santa hat. Later that year she was titled "Miss Pin-up Girl of the World."

- Many of Bettie's skimpy bikinis and unique lingerie outfits were sewn by Bettie herself. "I never kept up with the fashions," says Bettie. "I believed in wearing what I thought looked good on me."

- Bettie's controversial BDSM photos and films were shot by brother and sister Irving and Paula Klaw. The Klaws owned and operated their New York movie still, pin-up and fetish photo business, Movie Star News. Bettie was their most popular model, and she posed for them hundreds of times. Unfortunately, their fetish photos caught the attention of Tennessee anti-porn senator Estes Kefauver, and a senate hearing to be held against the Klaws for suspicion of distributing pornographic material to juveniles. Although the Klaws were never convicted, the scandal was enough to force Movie Star News to close down, and many of the infamous photos were destroyed.

- In 1957, while at the peak of her modeling career, Bettie suddenly vanished from the public eye. From there she slipped into relative obscurity, until images of her began to resurface in the liberated 1970s and '80s. Dave Stevens featured Bettie as a character in his pulp comic, The Rocketeer, and a new generation of fans established Bettie as a pin-up icon.

- Since she began modeling, Bettie has appeared in over 1000 magazines. She has been the subject of countless works of art (most famously by pin-up artists Olivia De Berardinis and Robert Blue), and has been photographed more times than Marilyn Monroe, Greta Garbo and Madonna combined. She has served as a muse to burlesque perfomer Dita Von Teese, as well as many other modern pin-up models, and has inspired an inifinite number of womens' black-banged airstyles, particularly in the goth and rockabilly lifestyles. Some have even attributed the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s in part thanks to Bettie's free-spirited expression of sexuality in her photos.

- After enduring some personal hardships during the '60s and '70s, Bettie lived the rest of her life in peace and privacy in Southern California, gardening and enjoying the sun. She was aware of, but never understood, her iconic status."I don't know what they mean by an icon. I never thought of myself as being that. It seems strange to me. I was just modeling, thinking of as many different poses as possible." Bettie prefered not to be photographed in her old age, wishing her fans to remember her as she had been when she was young. Betty Page died of a heart attack, on 11 December 2008, at age 85. While the mortal Betty has passed, Bettie Page the Queen of Curves is ageless, immortalized by her many photos. That Bettie will continue to live on forever in the hearts and fantasies of all those who remember her.






"Bettie has now become a basic element in the pinup world.
Her black hair, seamed stockings, and snub nosed-stilettos, are
her signatures. Anyone who dons them is wearing her crown.
Although the fantasy world of fetish/bondage existed in some form
since the beginning of time, Bettie is the iconic figurehead of it all,
for no star existed before her."
-Olivia De Berardinis, pin-up artist

"In a time when when nude modeling was loaded with stigmas
and very taboo, she dared to pose as a fetish model. It's difficult
in today's permissive culture to imagine how extraordinary this was.
And she was better than anyone had ever been - maybe even than
anyone ever will be. Bettie didn't go looking for this fetish world, but
once she was in it, like Alice Through the Looking Glass, she had a
great adventure exploring."
-Joel Beren









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Teaserama (1955)
Also starring Tempest Storm

Bettie's dance & striptease:
..



Varietease (1954)
Also starring Lili St. Cyr

Bettie's harem dance:
..



Teaser Girl in High Heels




Delightful Betty Dresses Up




Second Initiation of the Sorority Girl

All films shot by Irving Klaw






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Disclaimer: This group is just a fansite, I don't own or make any money off of anything depicted on this page.
For official Bettie Page news, merch, and much more, the website is www.bettiepage.com.