Interesting story on a BDSM icon - Betty Page

I thought that some in our little group might have more than a passing interest in this article and upcoming movie documentary:

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/voice-bettie-page-leaps-shadows-225312818.ht ml

Bettie was fabulous! It's a shame that she had mental troubles and so many legal troubles and, unfortunately didn't make much money off her own images, the rights mostly owned by others, including Bunny Yaeger and Irving Klaw. She did get some money very late in her life and I think Hugh Hefner may have had something to do with it. She also said in more than one interview that she never really enjoyed sex, which is sad on many levels...

I had never heard of Bettie Page, until the 80s when Dave Stevens wrote and drew a comic book called The Rocketeer. Cliff Secord (the Rocketeer) had a girl friend named Betty. She looked just like Bettie Page. This comic book, probably more than anything else, was responsible for a renewed interest in Bettie Page. I believe she made some money selling autographed pictures of herself through the mail.

The 80's was when I first heard about her. I walked into the comic book shop and there were all these books featuring her. It took me years before I finally worked out what all the fuss was about her.

If any Bettie Page fans haven't seen it, there's a piece about her in the Wellred Weekly that you might like: http://www.wellredweekly.com/index.php?article=265

Thanks for the information, Flopsy. It was a very interesting read. The woman was a beautiful woman with a lot of problems.

There was a good movie made about her a few years ago - The Infamous Betty Page.

Some of things that movie revealed:
She (and her sisters) were molested as girls.
She was "taught a lesson" for missing one class in high school, costing her the valedictorian scholarship (if she had gotten that then her life would have been very different).
She was rape.
When she was nude she didn't act "naked" but accepted that she wasn't wearing clothes - which was rare for models at that time.
She didn't understand any of the fetish stuff. There's a wonderful scene in the movie when a fan of her FemDom stuff approaches her and tries to be verbally dominated ("Tell me I'm worm") and her response is to tell him that he's a nice man and try to build up his self esteem.
She almost testified in front of a government hearing on pornography, but they decided that they didn't need to hear from her.

From that movie (and other sources) I'd say that she was nice girl who tried to be a legitimate actress but didn't have a problem taking her clothes off for the camera to pay her bills.

Goodgulf

Betty was one of the sexiest women in Dom garb I've ever had the pleasure to view. I have one of hers sitting down with one leg raised in seamed fishnet stockings. Wow!