"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?"

May 12, 2011 10:39 AM

Many of the photos of classic pin-up Bettie Page were taken by the photographer Paula Klaw, who helped to run the photo shop and men's magazine business owned by her brother Irving. Chuck Keefe (blog), an artist, had several photographs of Klaw's autographed by her, and eventually by Bettie herself. An interesting look at part of the story of two of pin-up's most notorious women....
posted by theartandsound (13 comments total)

“notorious” is an awful choice of word.
posted by davel at 10:53 AM on May 12, 2011

Oops, I live in San Francisco, so nevermind: I'm sure they're hated in other places.
posted by davel at 10:55 AM on May 12, 2011

Probably a reference to the movie about her, The Notorious Bettie Page.
posted by Babblesort at 10:57 AM on May 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

A tumblr I've been enjoying, VintageGal, has huge collection of Bettie Page photos and artwork, including a lot of shots I've never seen before.
posted by me3dia at 11:24 AM on May 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Klaw and his sister were eventually compelled by a court to destroy their inventory of all Bettie Page negatives to avoid being prosecuted for sending pornography through the mail. At the time of the court order, Paula had 6,000 negatives of Bettie. She destroyed three-quarters of them—the worst of the worst—to satisfy the feds, but she hid the rest.

I had no idea about this part of the Page story. And, while I'm not a major fan, I find this very sad. Though, having seen a few fairly disturbing Page images, I shudder to think what was destroyed.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:26 AM on May 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Some people get lost at TV Tropes: I get lost looking at Betty Page pics.

She's a real humdingah.
posted by Trochanter at 11:41 AM on May 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Disturbing Bettie Page images? What's in them, two pairs of handcuffs?
posted by scrowdid at 11:55 AM on May 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

I had no idea about this part of the Page story. And, while I'm not a major fan, I find this very sad. Though, having seen a few fairly disturbing Page images, I shudder to think what was destroyed.

Yeah, I had no idea so much material was destroyed until I saw THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE. I'm a strong advocate for archiving cultural capital, and this saddens me as much as the wiped episodes of DOCTOR WHO and the hours of footage cut from Von Stroheim's GREED.
posted by theartandsound at 12:27 PM on May 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Bettie was a good person with a giving heart. Her life was hard, but her smile was angelic. I am glad that she is remembered.
posted by SPrintF at 12:43 PM on May 12, 2011

Disturbing Bettie Page images? What's in them, two pairs of handcuffs?
I've seen some S/M pics of Betty that would not be out-of-place in today's amateur porn market. I'm not into that stuff, myself, so I tend to find pics of anyone tightly-bound, in stocks, ball-gagged, whipped and seemingly in distress a bit disturbing. They are pretty jarring if all you've seen of Betty are the pretty cheesecakey poses and nudes.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:27 PM on May 12, 2011

hours of footage cut from Von Stroheim's GREED.

When I was getting my film degree I had two vivid dreams that I found a full print of that and "The Magnificent Ambersons" under the floorboards of a theater.

Woke up so sad....

/derail
posted by lumpenprole at 3:59 PM on May 12, 2011

I saw the Bettie Page film. Pretty boring.
The Bettie Page look is cute, but its a bit overdone in the rockabilly/goth/rock scene.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 5:05 PM on May 12, 2011

Mis-ster Klawwww......
posted by onesidys at 5:22 PM on May 12, 2011