Bettie Page Biography

When you view the history of movie and television you'll notice a trend of light haired beauties parading before the camera. The most well known vintage pinup girls and movie actresses are mostly blondes. There are a very few brunettes and redheads (Rita Hayworth, for one), but one thing is commonly missing, the black haired beauty. Bettie Page filled that void with a vengeance.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1923 to an auto mechanic father and a part Indian mother , Bettie grew up to some very mean times. Her father was said to have abused her and her sisters and ended up in prison. Bettie's parents divorced when she was 10 and soon after she and her sister were sent to an orphanage to live, as her mother, working two jobs, could not afford to support the family.

Although hardship followed her, Bettie was a straight A student in high school. She received a scholarship to Peabody College, a school for teachers, and graduated with a Bachelors Degree In Arts, no small feat for a woman in the 1940s. She got married to her hight school sweetheart and he was shipped off to war soon after. Moving to Haiti in 1947 she works as a secretary briefly and files and retains a decree of divorce from her husband. Soon after she moved to New York to study drama and works as a secretary in the mean time.

Unsuccessful with a traditional modeling career, Bettie works part time doing photographs for “mens clubs” called camera clubs. Nude photography was illegal in most states, unless taken as “art”. The camera clubs were for such a purpose.

In 1950, while walking the beach at Coney Island she meets an amateur photographer, Jerry Tibbs. Jerry convinces Bettie to change her hair by creating bangs and thus begins her career as a pin up model.

In 1951 Bettie is introduced to Irving Klaw. Irving Klaw, at the time, produced photography based on darker imagery. His spectacular and edgy photos of Bettie were in great demand. Bettie became the most requested model for layouts of this particular type of magazine. Bettie had a special lack of modesy which was unique to girls during that time period and made her even more popular with the genre of nude and edgy photographers. She also began a lucrative burlesque film career, making over 50 different films.

In 1954 Bettie is introduced to Bunny Yaeger, who becomes the most famous photographer of Bettie Page imagery. Yaeger's photographs brought Bettie to the attention of Hugh Hefner who gave Bettie a breakthrough layout in January 1955, appearing in only a Santa hat placing a present under a Christmas tree.

Bettie was in great demand and retired at the height of her career, in 1957. There were speculations, at the time, about why she retired, for example; many thought she was burnt out. Some thought it was her new relationship with her future husband Armand Walterson. Another popular thought is that she was frightened by the Kefauver Hearings of the Senate Subcommitte, who were investigating Bettie's former boss, Irving Klaw. Bettie claims, in her biography, she was hounded by investigators at the time.

It is now known, from Bettie's biography in her own words, she had a religious conversion and moved on to work in the church. At one point she worked as a missionary. And spent much of the remainder of her life in seclusion working for the church as a born again Christian.

In 1978, Playboy reprinted some of Bettie's old photographs, however during this time Bettie's live was in upheaval. Locked away in a mental institution and later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Bettie was unaware of her meteoric re-rise to the top of noir photography and pin up fame. She learned much later, in 1992, that she had built a new fan base and retained a lawyer to help recoup some of the losses.

Bettie appeared for in public with Anna Nicole Smith at a party and the Playboy mansion in 2003. Hugh Hefner notoriously helped her in legal and financial matters until her death from heart failure in 2008, at the age of 85.

Today Bettie Page's unique dark haired looks are glamorized in numerous publications and by famous celebrities. Dita Von Teese, a popular burlesque model and actress, is a direct copy of Bettie's signature look. Katy Perry, while similar to Bettie, is most definitely influenced by her and Marilyn Monroe.

The Bettie page fan site is visited by 750,000 people a day. Its a testament to the beautiful, creative and unique history of Bettie that so she has so many fans 50 years after she became a star.