Iconic Pinup Model Dies at 85
Today, more than 50 years after her career as a pinup model ended, the name and image of Bettie Page are still as well known as ever they were to rockabilly rebels, light bondage enthusiasts, and the women who make up roughly 102% of the fan-base of “burlesque” entertainment.
Yesterday, Bettie made headlines again when she died after her family took her off the life support she had been on since her heart attack earlier this month.
In the 1950s, Bettie had a career as a pinup model, appearing in men’s magazines like Playboy and posing for the nudie pics of “camera club” photographers.
She also infamously appeared in the mail-order S&M and bondage photos for fetish photographer Irving Klaw, with whom she also did movies.
In the late 1950s, a Senate Subcommittee investigation into the nudie and fetish industry and her conversion to Christianity ended her career and she spent the rest of her life mostly out of the spotlight.
A revival of interest in the late 1970s and early 80s brought Bettie back into public consciousness, for better or worse, and she became the inspiration for Dita Von Teese, Thora Birch, and countless countless girls to dye their hair black and wear bangs.
Her life has been chronicled recently in the films Bettie Page: Dark Angel with Paige Richards and The Notorious Bettie Page starring Gretchen Moll.
Both movies gave the lead actresses the opportunity to recreate some of Bettie’s most famous nude photo shoots and gave audiences the opportunity to experience what it must have been like to masturbate in the 1950s.
Even in her years of obscurity working for Rev. Billy Graham, Bettie never condemned her former life or her fans, but Mr Skin wonders how she felt about the non-nude Abomination before the Lord that passes for “stripping” in burlesque.
