on Mar 12th, 2006Bettie Page Turns Over a New Fig Leaf
In Hollywood, a good script is known as a page turner. That means the reader, hired by the studio to find new material, is so into the story that she can’t help but keep turning the pages until she finds out what happens next.
Readers of Playboy might also be referred to as page turners. They flip past the interview and get right to the centerfold, turning the pages, slowly, mind you, until they finally get to the story, the biography of the woman who has captivated their attention for the span of several inches, at least.
Bettie Page was one such centerfold. Now 82, she’s getting some long-deserved recognition that feminism would be reluctant to bestow, I suspect. Taboos are society’s forbidden fruit of desire, often rooted in sex, relationships, and the body. Any website that gets 588 million hits in just over 5 years says something about our acceptance; the fact that it was Betty Page’s website means she no longer has to hide behind a plain brown wrapper (Wal-Mart be damned!).
For the last 13 years, she’s been living in seclusion in various Southern California communities. Nearly five decades after the last photos of her appeared in magazines like Chicks and Chuckles, Page is finally earning a respectable income for her work.
“Being in the nude isn’t a disgrace unless you’re being promiscuous about it,” she said. She added with a laugh, “After all, when God created Adam and Eve, they were stark naked. And in the Garden of Eden, God was probably naked as a jaybird too!”
A Golden Age for a Pinup
Bettie Page — Nurse Bettie, Jungle Bettie — soldiered in the sexual revolution. At 82, she finds her image earns a respectable living.
By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 11, 2006
Gretchen Mol stars as Bettie Page in the upcoming release, The Notorious Bettie Page, from Picturehouse Films. The movie is directed by Mary Harron.
Visit The Notorious Bettie Page website
Watch the movie trailer for The Notorious Bettie Page
