During her 1949-1957 acme, Bettie Page’s pinup-perfect assets were legendary: that pageboy coiffure and those iconic, to-die-for bangs; the rouge lips that seemed to mouth S-E-X; and, of course, the Rubenesque body, which would later be idealized by the painter Olivia—who was just one in a legion of kowtowing worshipers—during Page’s late-life renaissance. But it was also Page’s abracadabra disappearance from the spotlight in 1957—some speculated that she had died; in reality, she simply slipped away to become a reborn Christian, even serving Billy Graham—that sealed her in myth; left with just the image, people’s imaginations tend to wander.
Indeed, her ever-popular visage wandered onto more merchandise and media than, say, Barbie. She adorned lunchboxes, shot glasses, t-shirts, and figurines. She popped up in the 80s as the inspiration for the Rocketeer’s girlfriend in David Stevens’ comic. Of course, there’s Mary Harron’s 2005 biopic
The Notorious Bettie Page with Gretchen Mol as the bangin’ pioneer. And in this age of internets and reproduction, her website has tallied over half a billion views in the past five years alone.
Page was and remains a bare-all embodiment of Benjamin’s idea of aura: her allure and beauty lay in the eye of beholder, both male and female. And the numerous girlie glossies in which she posed spoke to the theory—
Stare, Gaze, Vue, Eyeful, Bare, He, She, and
Sir! Page even supplemented her come-hither stills by appearing in a few burlesques reels with telltale titles like
Strip-O-Rama and
Varietease. 1955, however, was a parabolic year: the high came as the Santa-cap-sporting and winking centerfold in
Playboy’s January issue, the low arrived with Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver’s anti-pornographic crusade, which inched her towards retirement two years later.
Whether in a bikini, in bondage, or bare-naked, as Nurse Bettie, Banned in Boston Bettie, or Maid Bettie, she was a trailblazer who kindled the flames for the sexual revolution in the 60s. She once proclaimed that, “there’s nothing disgraceful concerning nudity unless one is being promiscuous about it. Don’t forget the Bible says when God created Adam and Eve, they were stark naked. Who can argue with that?”
Page, who was 85, will be laid to rest on Tuesday, a stone’s throw from another voluptuous 50s pinup, Marilyn Monroe.
