Bettie Page dead at 85.

[TomCat]

1950s pinup model Bettie Page dies in LA at 85

By BOB THOMAS Bob Thomas 28 mins ago

LOS ANGELES – Bettie Page, the 1950s secretary-turned-model whose controverisal photographs in skimpy attire or none at all helped set the stage for the 1960s sexual revolution, died Thursday. She was 85.

Page suffered a heart attack last week in Los Angeles and never regained consciousness, her agent Mark Roesler said. Before the heart attack, Page had been hospitalized for three weeks with pneumonia.

"She captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality," Roesler said. "She is the embodiment of beauty."

Page, who was also known as Betty, attracted national attention with magazine photographs of her sensuous figure in bikinis and see-through lingerie that were quickly tacked up on walls in military barracks, garages and elsewhere, where they remained for years.

Her photos included a centerfold in the January 1955 issue of then-fledgling Playboy magazine, as well as controversial sadomasochistic poses.

The latter helped contribute to her mysterious disappearance from the public eye, which lasted decades and included years during which she battled mental illness and became a born-again Christian.

After resurfacing in the 1990s, she occasionally granted interviews but refused to allow her picture to be taken.

"I don't want to be photographed in my old age," she told an interviewer in 1998. "I feel the same way with old movie stars. ... It makes me sad. We want to remember them when they were young."

The 21st century indeed had people remembering her just as she was. She became the subject of songs, biographies, Web sites, comic books, movies and documentaries. A new generation of fans bought thousands of copies of her photos, and some feminists hailed her as a pioneer of women's liberation.

Gretchen Mol portrayed her in 2005's "The Notorious Bettie Page" and Paige Richards had the role in 2004's "Bettie Page: Dark Angel." Page herself took part in the 1998 documentary "Betty Page: Pinup Queen."

Her career began one day in October 1950 when she took a respite from her job as a secretary in a New York office for a walk along the beach at Coney Island. An amateur photographer named Jerry Tibbs admired the 27-year-old's firm, curvy body and asked her to pose.

Looking back on the career that followed, 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."

Nudity didn't bother her, she said, explaining: "God approves of nudity. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they were naked as jaybirds."

In 1951, Page fell under the influence of a photographer and his sister who specialized in S&M. They cut her hair into the dark bangs that became her signature and posed her in spiked heels and little else. She was photographed with a whip in her hand, and in one session she was spread-eagled between two trees, her feet dangling.

"I thought my arms and legs would come out of their sockets," she said later.

Moralists denounced the photos as perversion, and Sen. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, Page's home state, launched a congressional investigation.

Page quickly retreated from public view, later saying she was hounded by federal agents who waved her nude photos in her face. She also said she believed that, at age 34, her days as "the girl with the perfect figure" were nearly over.

She moved to Florida in 1957 and married a much younger man, as an early marriage to her high school sweetheart had ended in divorce.

Her second marriage also failed, as did a third, and she suffered a nervous breakdown.

In 1959, she was lying on a sea wall in Key West when she saw a church with a white neon cross on top. She walked inside and became a born-again Christian.

After attending Bible school, she wanted to serve as a missionary but was turned down because she had been divorced. Instead, she worked full-time for evangelist Billy Graham's ministry.

A move to Southern California in 1979 brought more troubles.

She was arrested after an altercation with her landlady, and doctors who examined her determined she had acute schizophrenia. She spent 20 months in a state mental hospital in San Bernardino.

A fight with another landlord resulted in her arrest, but she was found not guilty because of insanity. She was placed under state supervision for eight years.

"She had a very turbulent life," Todd Mueller, a family friend and autograph seller, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "She had a temper to her."

Mueller said he first met Page after tracking her down in the 1990s and persuaded her to do an autograph signing event.

He said she was a hit and sold about 3,000 autographs, usually for $200 to $300 each.

"Eleanor Roosevelt, we got $40 to $50. ... Bettie Page outsells them all," he told The AP last week.

Born April 22, 1923, in Nashville, Tenn., Page said she grew up in a family so poor "we were lucky to get an orange in our Christmas stockings."

The family included three boys and three girls, and Page said her father molested all of the girls.

After the Pages moved to Houston, her father decided to return to Tennessee and stole a police car for the trip. He was sent to prison, and for a time Betty lived in an orphanage.

In her teens she acted in high school plays, going on to study drama in New York and win a screen test from 20th Century Fox before her modeling career took off.

___

Associated Press writer Raquel Maria Dillon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

RIP Ms. Page

[jynxxxedangel]

Goodbye, Bettie..

Your haircut lives on.

[TheGimp]

no oh man...iam kinda sad now she was my very favorite pin up

now i know how people felt when elvis died and john lennon died all that shit i always said to myself i dont think i could enjoy a musician or artist or model that much but i liked her a lot not just becuase she was a sex symbol but becuase i thought she was a beautiful person and very interesting and thought she was a very amazing person ugh this blows.....

edit to note:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081212/ap_en_...bit_bettie_page

[Simon Bar Sinister]

[13th Floor Productions]

I'm glad that she's found some sort of peace now; she had a lot of trouble in her life. She hasn't been recognized as the true revolutionary that she was. Love or hate what she did, she certainly had an impact on our society.

[Michiko_Dreads]

no oh man...iam kinda sad now she was my very favorite pin up

now i know how people felt when elvis died and john lennon died all that shit i always said to myself i dont think i could enjoy a musician or artist or model that much but i liked her a lot not just becuase she was a sex symbol but becuase i thought she was a beautiful person and very interesting and thought she was a very amazing person ugh this blows.....

edit to note:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081212/ap_en_...bit_bettie_page

I know, u have her tatted on you too.

Seems like the best way to remember someone (even though u got it before she passed on)

Hope she is in a better place.

A place where she is young forever.

[TheGimp]

ya she was a very beautiful woman and iam glad she's in a better place i agree with with 13th she had a very rough past and glad she is at rest now..and if a bunch of damn trend freaks start getting tats of her trying to be col and shit iam ganna be pissed off

[Leland City Club]

ya she was a very beautiful woman and iam glad she's in a better place i agree with with 13th she had a very rough past and glad she is at rest now..and if a bunch of damn trend freaks start getting tats of her trying to be col and shit iam ganna be pissed off

Leland City Club remembers the timeless BETTIE PAGE

R.I.P. Bettie, you touched the hearts of so many..........

We love and will never forget you............

[Rev.Reverence]

ya she was a very beautiful woman and iam glad she's in a better place i agree with with 13th she had a very rough past and glad she is at rest now..and if a bunch of damn trend freaks start getting tats of her trying to be col and shit iam ganna be pissed off

.....where HAVE you been? I know at LEAST 5 peoples with that tat VERY popular Lady there gimp...

(I just don't want you getting all spit-fire angry at peoples.)

It was a good LONG run for her...

[Brenda Starrr]

I'm glad that she's found some sort of peace now; she had a lot of trouble in her life. She hasn't been recognized as the true revolutionary that she was. Love or hate what she did, she certainly had an impact on our society.

*sigh*

She's a true icon. RIP, Miss Bettie.

[Raev]

[Msterbeau]

Everyone dies. I'm not sad about that. I'm sad that she had to endure such a tumultuous life. Some days I wonder if genius, creativity and fame ever come without some serious underlying mental condition.

[Rev.Reverence]

Everyone dies. I'm not sad about that.

I'm sad that she had to endure such a tumultuous life.

Some days I wonder if genius, creativity and fame ever come without some serious underlying mental condition.

Too right Sir...the cost of life is death.

ZEN sais, "Sorrow is the Great Teacher of Man."

..SO...you should not mourn the Dark parts of a life...for WE would not know the Light if there was NO DARK...

The cost of REAL Genius IS OFTEN insanity...(I KNOW!)...

[freydis]

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

May your light burn the brightest, and last the longest. Hope your journey into the next life is a safe and peaceful one. We will never forget you.

The world is a little emptier, now that she's gone...

:

[hunhee]

This sux!

[Head Wreck]

rest well

[TheGimp]

.....where HAVE you been? I know at LEAST 5 peoples with that tat VERY popular Lady there gimp...

(I just don't want you getting all spit-fire angry at peoples.)

It was a good LONG run for her...

oh rev i know iam not the only one with her tated but i bet they pop up a lot more now

[Rev.Reverence]

oh rev i know iam not the only one with her tated but i bet they pop up a lot more now

...for a SECOND...& you can not stop it...BUT...you can ALWAYS boast...YOU had YOURS...BEFORE

[TheGimp]

...for a SECOND...& you can not stop it...BUT...you can ALWAYS boast...YOU had YOURS...BEFORE

true that...makes sence thanks revvy