Rest In Peace Bettie Page...A true Hollywood Pin-Up Queen and Bondage Model dies today, December 11
She was 85. She suffered a heart attack last week in Los Angeles and never regained consciousness. Before her heart attack, she had been hospitalized for three weeks with pneumonia.
She set the stage for the sexual revolution. A gal way ahead of her time. According to PLAYBOY magazine, Bettie Page was THE Queen of Pin-Ups. The model of the century, yet she remained one of it's best kept secrets. For those who understand who Bettie Page was, no explanation is necessary and for those who don't, no explanation is possible. Why is that? Because Bettie Page was an secret phenomenon, a bewildering "bad girl school girl next door" figure, a true guilty pleasure.
Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy once said, "Exactly what captures the imagination of people in terms of popular culture is something hard to define, but in Bettie’s case, I’d say it’s a combination of wholesome innocence and fetish-oriented poses that is at once retro and very modern.”
She was THE gal with the trademarked short black bangs, man-killer curves, yet, innocent, sweet smile. She grew up loving the glam Hollywood scene and dreamed of becoming an actress. She should have been the next Marilyn Monroe. However, her life is an impossible incursion of near misses, bad luck and lost opportunities. Full of contradictions, some have called her "The Dark Angel," and for good reason, and for more reasons than one. Sometimes Bettie Page's bewildering persona both attracts us and repels us at the same time. For me, I was in awe.
"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."
Bettie Page
Bettie Page
