Bettie Mae Page was an American model who gained notoriety in the 1950s for her pin-up photos.
46 Facts About Bettie Page
2.
Bettie Page was often referred to as the "Queen of Pinups": her long jet-black hair, blue eyes, and trademark bangs have influenced artists for generations.
3.
Bettie Page was "Miss January 1955", one of the earliest Playmates of the Month for Playboy magazine.
4.
In 1959, Bettie Page converted to evangelical Christianity and worked for Billy Graham, studying at Bible colleges in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, with the intent of becoming a missionary.
5.
The latter part of Bettie Page's life was marked by depression, violent mood swings, and several years in a state psychiatric hospital with paranoid schizophrenia.
6.
Bettie Page's parents divorced when she was 10 years old, and her mother worked two jobs, one as a hairdresser and the other washing laundry.
7.
Bettie Page enrolled at George Peabody College with the intention of becoming a teacher.
8.
Bettie Page graduated from Peabody with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1944.
9.
Shortly before graduating from Hume-Fogg High, Page had met William E "Billy" Neal, a former rival high school sports star two years older than she.
10.
In September 1942, he was drafted into the Army for World War II, and he and Bettie Page married on February 18,1943, before he shipped out.
11.
In late 1947, Bettie Page moved to New York City, where she hoped to find work as an actress.
12.
Bettie Page supported herself by working a secretarial job at the American Bread Company, near Penn Station.
13.
In 1950, while walking along the Coney Island shore, Bettie Page met NYPD Officer Jerry Tibbs, who was an avid photographer, and he gave Bettie Page his card.
14.
Bettie Page suggested she would be a good pin-up model.
15.
Bettie Page entered the field of "glamour photography" as a popular camera club model, working initially with photographer Cass Carr.
16.
In 1951, Bettie Page's image appeared in men's magazines such as Wink, Titter, Eyefull and Beauty Parade.
17.
Bettie Page alternated between playing a stern dominatrix, and a helpless victim bound hand and foot.
18.
In 1953, Bettie Page took acting classes at the Herbert Berghof Studio, which led to several roles on stage and television.
19.
Bettie Page appeared on The United States Steel Hour and The Jackie Gleason Show.
20.
Bettie Page's Off-Broadway productions included Time is a Thief and Sunday Costs Five Pesos.
21.
Bettie Page acted and danced in the feature-length burlesque revue film Striporama directed by Jerald Intrator in which she was given a brief speaking role.
22.
Bettie Page then appeared in two more burlesque films by Irving Klaw.
23.
At that time, Bettie Page was the top pin-up model in New York.
24.
Bettie Page herself made the leopard-skin-patterned jungle girl outfit she wore, along with much of her lingerie.
25.
The famous photo shows Bettie Page, wearing only a Santa hat, kneeling before a Christmas tree holding an ornament and playfully winking at the camera.
26.
In 1955, Bettie Page won the title "Miss Pinup Girl of the World".
27.
Bettie Page became known as "The Queen of Curves" and "The Dark Angel".
28.
In 1957, Bettie Page gave "expert guidance" to the FBI regarding the production of "flagellation and bondage pictures" in Harlem.
29.
On New Year's Eve 1958, during one of her regular visits to Key West, Bettie Page attended a service at what is the Key West Temple Baptist Church.
30.
Bettie Page found herself drawn to the multiracial environment and started to attend on a regular basis.
31.
Bettie Page dated industrial designer Richard Arbib in the 1950s, and then married Armond Walterson on November 6,1958; they divorced on October 10,1963.
32.
Bettie Page returned to Florida in 1966 and married again, to Harry Lear, on February 14,1966.
33.
In 1993, Bettie Page signed with Mark Roesler and his Curtis Management Group, later CMG Worldwide.
34.
Bettie Page occasionally autographed pinups at her agents' offices in Los Angeles, California.
35.
Eros Comics published several Bettie Page titles, including the tongue-in-cheek Tor Love Bettie which comically suggested a romance between Page and wrestler-turned-Ed Wood film actor, Tor Johnson.
36.
In 1996, Bettie Page granted a TV interview to entertainment reporter Tim Estiloz for the NBC morning magazine program Real Life.
37.
The book stated that a Los Angeles County Sheriff's police report said Bettie Page had paranoid schizophrenia and, at age 56, had stabbed her elderly landlords on the afternoon of April 19,1979 in an unprovoked attack, during a fit of insanity.
38.
Bettie Page allowed a publicity picture to be taken of her for the August 2003 edition of Playboy.
39.
In 2011, Bettie Page's estate made the Forbes annual list of top-earning dead celebrities, earning $6 million and tied with the estates of George Harrison and Andy Warhol, at 13th on the list.
40.
In 2014, Forbes estimated that Bettie Page's estate earned $10 million in 2013.
41.
In 2023, a historical marker commemorating Bettie Page's life was erected in Nashville.
42.
Roesler was quoted by the Associated Press as saying Bettie Page had a heart attack and by Los Angeles television station KNBC as claiming Bettie Page had pneumonia.
43.
The Notorious Bettie Page follows her life from the mid-1930s through the late 1950s.
44.
Bonus footage added to the DVD release includes color film from the 1950s of Bettie Page playfully undressing and striking various nude poses for the camera.
45.
In 2012, Bettie Page Reveals All was filmed and premiered, then released nationwide the following year.
46.
The documentary included narration from Page herself, culled from more than six hours of interviews with her, as well as commentary from Dita Von Teese, Hugh M Hefner, Rebecca Romijn, Tempest Storm, Bunny Yeager, Paula Klaw, Mamie Van Doren and Naomi Campbell.