Betty Page died Thursday, December 11th. She was 85.
There have been many imitators but there really was ever only one Betty Page.
In October 1950 Betty was just another secretary in just another New York office who took a break from work one day for a stroll along the beach of Coney Island. The legend goes that she caught the eye of an amateur photographer who dug her body and her look and asked if she might pose for him. She was 27 and a brand new career away from the typewriter and in front of lens was about to begin.
If Marilyn Monroe was the girl-next-door pin-up girl then Betty was the dirty-secret-next-door pin-up queen. Her photographs from the 50’s in skimpy attire or baring it all were bold and unheard of at the time but she went even further with her controversial photos that fully embraced S&M during a period where sex was barely even talked about in the bedroom let alone anywhere else. Her images are timeless no matter what the pose, the attire or lack thereof, no matter the scene, the props, or the positions, they are always of the one and only Betty Page.
In 1957 Betty decided to leave the public eye as she was being hounded by federal agents, denounced by moralists and the reason for a congressional investigation launched in her home state of Tennessee. It was time to leave while the getting was good. Betty also believed that, at age 34, her days as “the girl with the perfect figure” were nearly over.
Never to be publicly photographed again Betty moved to Florida in 1957 and married a younger man. An earlier marriage to her high school sweetheart ended in divorce. Her second marriage also failed, as well as a third and she suffered a nervous breakdown. In 1959, lying on the beach in Key West she saw a church with a white neon cross on top. She walked inside and became a born-again Christian, or so the legend goes, and worked for evangelist Billy Graham’s ministry. In 1979 she moved to Southern California and was soon arrested after going off on her landlady, while under arrest she was examined by doctors who determined she had acute schizophrenia. She then spent 20 months in a San Bernardino state mental hospital. Another fight with another landlord resulted in another arrest where she was found not guilty due to insanity. She was a scrappy schizophrenic. Betty was placed under state supervision for eight years.
Betty resurfaced in the 1990s, and while occasionally granting interviews she always refused to let her picture 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.” She also claims she was unaware of the cult of fame that had grown around her in the time since she had left the public scene.
“She captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality,” her agent, Mark Roesler said. “She is the embodiment of beauty.” Betty attracted national attention for her ahead of their times for sexuality photos. One of the first centerfolds in the then new Playboy her photos, ranging from her playful poses to her bold sadomasochistic poses, were tacked up on walls in military barracks, garages and elsewhere, where they remained for years.
“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,” Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. “She was a very dear person.”
A friend of Betty’s said, “She had a temper to her.” I picture Betty Page as a bold, free spirit, who was a spit-fire, did what she wanted in life and never did anything half assed. It was all or nothing. When posing for photographs she pushed the boundaries, when getting married she went for it three times, when discovering Jesus she dove right in and when going crazy she went all the way. This is a woman who left the limelight while she still was young, never looked back and never was photographed publicly again. I wish more stars would follow this path, Madonna please take note.
Betty page is an icon of the 21st century. She is hailed as a pioneer of women’s liberation and the subject of songs, biographies, websites, comic books, movies and documentaries.
Page was placed on life support last week after suffering a heart attack in Los Angeles and never regained consciousness.
R.I.P Betty Page, 1923-2008
