“The origins of what captures the imagination and creates a particular celebrity are sometimes difficult to define,” Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner
Bettie Page, a 1950s secretary-turned-model, died Thursday. Betty Page’s controversial photographs in skimpy attire-or none at all-helped set the stage for the 1960s sexual revolution. She was 85. Betty Page’s photos included a centerfold in the January 1955 issue of then-fledgling Playboy magazine, as well as controversial sadomasochistic poses.
The real Bettie Page found Jesus and moved to Florida, but the make believe Betty Page is alive and well. A quick stop by DeviantART finds a little over 2000 images for Betty Page. A Google Image search gets about almost 600000 images of Betty Page. An Amazon search gets hundreds of returns for Bettie Page. Betty Page has about 1000 videos on YouTube. Countless artists continue to recreate the Betty Page of the 1950s in their own fashions.
In an interview published in Playboy magazine in 2007, Page expressed mixed feelings about her achievements. “When I turned my life over to the lord Jesus I was ashamed of having posed in the nude,” she said. “But now, most of the money I’ve got is because I posed in the nude. So I’m not ashamed of it now. But I still don’t understand it.”-L.A. Times
Betty Page made the world a more interesting place to live.
