Retro pic of the week - Bettie Page

Courtesy of the LA Times:

Between 1949 and 1957 she was immortalized in thousands of saucy photos. Those images have spawned biographies, comic books, fan clubs and numerous websites, as well as commercial products — Bettie Page playing cards, Bettie Page lunch boxes, Bettie Page beach towels, Bettie Page action figures.

According to her agents at CMG, who control the images of Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana, Page's official website, http://www.BettiePage.com , has received 588 million hits over the last five years. That's cult status.

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.

"I'm more famous now than I was in the 1950s," she said.

Page needed about a minute to get through the 10 letters of her name. As she pushed her pen, she reflected on her life and faith and 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!"

"You're right about that, Bettie," said Maricel Hildalgo of the Tamara Bane Gallery on North La Brea Avenue in L.A. The gallery had hustled $100,000 worth of paintings and posters to CMG the moment Page agreed to make herself available for autographs.

"My land! Is that supposed to be me?" asked Page, surveying a painting of her reclining in a negligee with an ecstatic smile on her face.

Putting pen to canvas and concentrating mightily, she muttered, "I was never that pretty."

But to generations of men, she was.

I had another pic i was going to use for this week's retro pic but i came across that article today at the LA Times website and it was a no brainer to use a pic of Bettie Page. You can read the rest of the article here.