The Notorious Bettie Page (4 Stars)

True Stories #7

Name: Bettie Page

Lived: 22 April 1923 – 11 December 2008

Film dates: 1936 to 1958

Film made in 2005

This is the second of Mary Harron's three biopics about controversial women. The film was made very late. In the 1950's she was a household name in America. To her fans she was the Queen of Pin-Ups. or even the Pin-Up Queen of the Universe. To those who didn't like her she was the ultimate evil. Naturally, most of the hatred was based on prejudice. People read her name in the newspapers, and they assumed she was evil without even knowing her.

The problem wasn't Bettie Page. The problem was America.

Bettie was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. As a young teenager she wanted to be a model. She posed for her brother's camera, and sometimes she even pulled her skirt up over her knee, which shocked the neighbours. She lived in a God fearing community, and Bettie also visited church unquestioningly. She was married at 19, but her husband was abusive, so she divorced him four years later. After this she moved to New York City to make a new start.

Bettie wanted to become an actress, but after coming second in a beauty contest she got a job as a model. First she posed for scantily clad glamour photos. Then she met Irving Claw, and she posed in bondage outfits, sometimes alone, sometimes with other women. Most of the photos were custom orders. Paula Claw, Irving's sister, said that she immediately recognised what men wanted.

This is when the problems started. It was deemed illegal to send pornographic material by mail. I have two questions to ask:

1. Why were the letters with the "illegal" photos opened? If they'd remained sealed, nobody would have complained.

2. What's pornographic about a girl with a whip? Bettie wasn't even naked in the photos.

Irving Claw was put on trial for indecency. He was ordered to destroy all his photos and films. Fortunately, his sister hid most of the material from her brother, telling him she'd burnt it. Good girl!

Bettie made several visits to Miami, where she was photographed by Bunny Yeager. She posed nude in Miami, but it was purely glamour photography. No bondage was involved. It was all very tasteful. Bettie was the Playboy Centerfold of the Month in January 1955.

What's remarkable about Bettie Page is that she was truly innocent. For her the bondage photography had nothing to do with sex or lust. She was just dressing up. It was a form of acting. She didn't understand the court case against Irving Claw. She considered what she was doing to be harmless. 

The photographer John Willie asked Bettie, "What do you think Jesus would say about what you're doing now?"

She replied, "I think God has given each of us some kind of talent, and he wants us to use it. That's why he gave it to us. God gave me the talent to pose for pictures, and it seems to make people happy. That can't be a bad thing, can it?"

In 1958 Bettie committed her life to Jesus. She gave up modelling and began to preach on street corners. She spent the lest of her life doing Christian work.

Mary Harron has made a wonderful film about this notorious woman. It's difficult to understand what the fuss was about. Was America really so prude in the 1950's? I don't find Bettie's photos pornographic at all.

But her legacy lives on, at least among insiders. In the 1990's I visited a comic shop in Stuttgart that sold magazines with collections of Bettie Page's photographs. I checked them out, but I didn't want to buy them. To me they were totally unerotic, even though I'm interested in bondage. I especially like to see girls with whips. And yet the photos of Bettie in poses like that don't turn me on. It's easy to explain. She's always laughing and having fun. There's no lust in her eyes. She wasn't attempting to turn men on. All she wanted to do was serve God by dressing up in leather outfits. That leaves me cold. The photos don't look like she's trying to seduce me.

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