She’s a 36-23-35 model and pin-up girl with black hair and of Cherokee descent and some folks are now citing Kingsport, Tennessee as the hometown of Bettie Page – a mysterious calendar girl with sparkling blue eyes who’s rumored to have been photographed more than Marlyn Monroe and Cindy Crawford combined.
There’s plenty of controversy on the web about her actual birthplace as some resources state she was originally from Nashville, TN. However, according to the book, “Bettie Page Confidential ” and the Wikipedia website (for what that’s worth), Bettie was born April 22, 1923 to parents Walter Roy Page and Edna Mae Pirtle in Kingsport (there’s a Southern name if I ever heard one).
Bettie is, as some would say…”easy on the eyes.” If you want to see a a model who can turn on a dime from light to dark, saint to sinner, virgin to vixen look up Bettie on Google and check out her complete “body” of work and if you’re like me, you’ll be ready to take up a case with the Mayor to change the name of Kingsport from…The Model City…well, to “The Model City – Home of Bettie Page.”
If you spend much time researching this icon of men’s magazines and erotic photography, you’ll discover an intriguing life surrounding by conflicting information, but nevertheless, it’s a good story. I can’t hardly report this as truth, but from what I gathered from a number of resources, here’s what you’ll find.
Betties parents divorced when she was ten and some say her next residence was with her sister in an orphanage. Whatever happened during this era leads to her high school in Monroe County and she graduated from Peabody College in Nashville just shy of valedictorian.
She became a teacher only to be discouraged by the flirting students, made a run for Miss Tennessee in 1944 and left for San Francisco with her boyfriend. From there she entered into modeling school, dumped her husband, moved to Haiti and rumored to have participated in a voodoo ceremony. From there she moved to New York and began shooting photos for magazines and pin-up calendars in the nude and earned a $25 hour wage.
Betties life must have been overwhelming. She was catapulted in the sexually oppressive fifties and ran into a boyfriend photographer that passed her around to other photographers and soon enough she was seen everywhere. She was overwhelming successful in France and there are plenty of fan sites that show off her work.
The 1955 cover of January’s playboy magazine featured Page as the Playmate of the month and some stories even report billionaire Hugh Hefner was declined when he tried to meet her.
There’s so much to uncover about this urban legend confused by the discrepancies in books and websites, but Betties life took and turn and her circumstances led her to a religious awakening and she quit the business and was evidently tormented by her past. She really started to reel in Boca Raton, Florida where she was in-and-out of trouble threatening people with guns and knives and moved from her faith to the asylum. In one institute and another, she finally ended up in Patton Prison after assaulting an employer with knives when she was a housekeeper.
In 1992, Bettie was a free woman and from there, much is shrouded in secrecy. The web has exploded with legends and photos and it’s suiting her books and movies are coming forth about this sexy tale of triumph and tragedy.
Ebay is enamored with Bettie too. A keyword this week revealed over 900 items of photos, calendars, autographs and more. She’s even got a Myspace website too and the French eroticism of Bettie is haunting and gothic with images that will last forever.
Bettie is on the silver screen too with a movie release this year titled, “The Notorious Bettie Page ” with Gretchen Mol playing the part of Bettie. Guess I’ll have to check this one out.
There’s a lot of mystery about this dark-haired vixen who was once quoted as “the most perfect female body ever photographed since the invention of the camera.” Some people liked her opera gloves, but the interesting plot to this story is the franchise and it seems to be getting bigger all the time. It’s unfortunate the facts aren’t altogether, but that makes for good marketing doesn’t it? Bettie keeps popping up here and there to fuel the viral image she left and is reported to be remembered as she was…which won’t be hard for some us indeed.