BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008

Subject: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: Wesley S
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 09:29 AM

Bettie/Betty Page - the pinup queen - just passed away of a heart attack. She was an icon of her age - and certainly pushed the envelope.

Betty Page Obit

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 10:03 AM

A woman of most excellent fancy with a well turned ankle!!

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 10:14 AM

She was a pretty lady..and I bet she was pretty as an elderly lady too.

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 12:21 PM

Lizzie, I hope you're right. However, the Los Angeles Times extended obit, today, states that when she was interviewed a couple of years ago, she stipulated that no facial pictures were to be taken. She wanted her fans to remember the young Bettie.

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 12:24 PM

She had been photographed in recent years. Do a search and you will find some. When the biopics came out, she gave several interviews and was photographed at the Playboy Mansion. She also appeared at autograph shows.

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 12:46 PM

Good gracious - how out of it am I? I don't remember that I've ever heard of her.

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 01:39 PM

Yup, she was still beautiful alright...

Bettie

I can imagine how she must have caused a bit of a shock, way back then...Apparently, she left pin-up modelling pretty early on and headed for Christianity.

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: Art Thieme
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 02:36 PM

Often it happens the other way around.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: PoppaGator
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 02:43 PM

I hadn't heard of Bettie Page, either, until very recently.

A movie about her very intertesting life was a sort of "indie" hit a year or two ago ~ not a big Hollywood blockbuster, but a well-reviewed and widely-distributed feature.

I don't remember the film's title, but if you Google Bettie's name, you should certainly find it. (Or, someone might well post it below in the next few minutes.)

Put in it your Netflix queue!

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: RangerSteve
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 02:51 PM

There's a film of her dancing on Youtube. I don't have the link, but you can do a search for it. It's pretty tame, although it was probably considered racy in 1950. Actually, it seems pretty funny now.

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 02:58 PM

Peeked at those pix, Lizzie, and hope Missus Sunset Coast (and for that matter, I) look as youthful at 80.

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 02:59 PM

There are actually two movies about her, both released within a year of each other.   One was an HBO film.   There is also a documentary that will be released next year.

Even if you do not recognize her name, I would be shocked if you are not familiar with her image. Her photos have been used frequently

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 03:23 PM

Both movies miss great parts of her make-up. She had a life that seemed a bit simple but the times made complex. I wish she herself had more to say in her later years.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 03:53 PM

Rest in Peace...

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 04:16 PM

There are a lot of her photos out on various sites around the Internet. I remember hearing about her and over the years I've read various pieces and looked for her photos. She worked steadily for quite a while, gaining a reputation as a steady model, but never made it into acting, though I think that was a goal of hers.

She did a lot of studio work, but when asked, also posed for private photographers and was apparently willing to pose nude and in some pretty outrageous costumes. I remember that the very tall heels were something she said a lot of photographers asked for.

I think Terry Gross on Fresh Air interviewed her, and I know Gross spoke to a biographer or someone who was working on the most recent film. Quite a few actresses tried for that roll, and what I remember was that while Gretchen Moll was in general able to look like her, she didn't gain any wait to have the more Marilyn Monroe kind of shape that Page did. There were critics who thought the role should have gone to a women who was more classically rounded than most modern American actresses.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 05:47 PM

When I worked in an 'adult' bookstore almost 30 years ago, magazines of Bettie in her leather & whip costumes and in bondage photos were quite popular. It was all pretty tame by today's standards, but she was 'classic' even then.

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 06:12 PM

wait = weight. Duh.

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 07:13 PM

Lads, promise me you'll keep your eyes ONLY on this video, and not the er...other one.   :0)

Bettie in Her Own Words

And this is for Bettie:

This Being Woman - Martyn Joseph


Martyn wrote that song after standing behind an elderly lady in the post office queue one day, and he got to wondering about her life. And Bettie's story reminded me of it so very much. Beautiful song, he understands us. :0)

I wonder how many stood behind Bette in shops, libraries, doctors surgeries and never knew what lay behind her beautiful smile, her merry wrinkles, her pretty silver hair.

"..This being woman, being old
Invisible and unsaid gold
Still sensuous with mystery
Silk of who you've yet to be..."


It's so sad that she felt she had to hide herself away, but that's how women often feel when beauty fades, and that's when you've not been a pin up, so it must have been very hard for her at times..

Sooooo, next time you see a little ol' lady, look just that little deeper, see her eyes, see their sparkle...and wonder.

Then, smile....

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: Peter T.
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 04:09 PM

Actually, Gretchen Mol didn't do a bad job in the film.

There is a nice appreciation of her in the New York Times today, Saturday.

She was an interesting phenomenon, sort of a hybrid between the "Nudist" magazines and the "photographers models" magazines of my youth. The need to keep the pretence up that these things were art really did give them a kind of innocence that is long, long gone.



yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Betty Page - December 2008
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 09:48 PM

"It's so sad that she felt she had to hide herself away, but that's how women often feel when beauty fades, and that's when you've not been a pin up, so it must have been very hard for her at times.."

Actually, I think vanity is something to be admired when you reach a certain age.

She did allow herself to be photographed in recent years - there are several photos of her at the Playboy Mansion where she was an honored guest. I think she came to realize that she was just as beautiful in her later years as she was in her younger days.