Bettie Page kicks the bucket!
1950’s Pin-Up Girl Queen, Bettie Moe Page died Thursday evening 12/11/08 at the hospital in Los Angeles. She had suffered a heart attack a week prior, where she never regained consciousness. She was 85 years old.
Bettie Page was the most photographed woman in the world.
Born on April 22nd, 1923 in Nashville, “Bettie Page embodied the stereotypical wholesomeness of the Fifties and the hidden sexuality straining beneath the surface,” authors Karen Essex and James L. Swanson wrote in their 1996 book “Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend.”
She was one of 6 children in her family. Page and her 2 sisters were sent to an orphanage, after her father was arrested for having sexually molested her. She was only 13 years old.
Page completed an arts degree from the Peabody College in Nashville and moved to San Francisco in the 1940’s with her first husband, where she did her first modeling.
In 1947 Page moved to New York, after divorcing her husband, to further pursue her modeling.
Amongst the many, photographer Bunny Yeager crossed her path and months later her photos were all over Playboy, a magazine founded by Hugh Hefner just 2 years prior this event. She was one of the first women to ever appear in Playboy Magazine.
This notorious photo was of Page winking at the camera wearing nothing but a Santa hat and decorating a Christmas Tree. Hefner described it as “a milestone in the history of the magazine”. Later on she has discovered that Yeager made a fortune from the shoot, without ever compensating her.
Looking back on her career, she told Playboy in 1998:
“I never thought it was shameful. I felt normal. It’s just that it was much better than pounding a typewriter eight hours a day, which gets monotonous.”
Beginning 1970’s Page paused on her modeling career, in attempt to defeat acute schizophrenia.
In 1991 the film ” The Rocketeer” directed by Joe Johnston regained her fame. The film was based on the comic book where Bettie Page was the hero’s girlfriend. She made a living off of this by signing memorabilia at conventions.
Bettie Moe Page is the embodiment of beauty. With her free spirit and open sensuality she has paved the way for the sexual revolution of the 1960’s.
“I think that she was a remarkable lady, an iconic figure in pop culture who influenced sexuality, taste in fashion, someone who had a tremendous impact on our society,” said Hugh Hefner.