Bettie Page picture

Bettie Page may be gone but she’ll never be forgotten.  Her mischievous smile and glossy black hair are recognized even by people who know nothing about the femdom scene.  She wasn’t just a pinup model, she was a goddess.  For years she dominated her niche of the modeling scene, and when she disappeared abruptly and mysteriously, she turned into an obsession for thousands of fanatics.

One of the reasons Bettie was so extraordinary was that she was a study in paradox.  Every picture of her exudes charm and attitude, but the attitude changed on a dime.  She could do sweet or sexy, bashful or bold, girl-next-door or exotic, and make each one of them look like something you’d never seen before.  Bettie shunned elaborate staging of her photos.  Her own assets (striking coloring, gorgeous skin and a body to die for) brought out the best in every photographer she posed for.

In the eighties and nineties Bettie was rediscovered as the media became bewitched by her irresistible glamour.  Books were written about her, her face became an icon of modern art, and thousands of people speculated about her disappearance.  Bettie Page lived most of the later part of her life in relative obscurity, unaware of the public’s appetite for her, but by 1999 she became aware of her status as a cult figure and was able to enjoy some of it before she passed away in 2008.  Bettie Page, thanks for the memories.