Biography for
Bettie Page (I)

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Date of Birth

22 April 1923, Kingsport, Tennessee, USA

Birth Name

Bettie Mae Page

Nickname

Girl with the Perfect Figure

Height

5' 5½" (1.66 m)

Spouse

Harry Lear	(14 February 1967 - January 1972) (divorced)
Armond Walterson	(26 November 1958 - 1963) (divorced)
Billy Neal	(15 February 1943 - November 1947) (divorced)

Trade Mark

Short bangs.

Trivia

Playboy Playmate of the Month January 1955.

After she faded from public view in the 1960s, many conflicting rumors about her fate circulated. In reality, she unsuccesssfully tried to live a domestic married life, and then later entered a religious seminary, briefly working as a Christian missionary.

While she now licenses the use of her name to promote various collectables (such as figurines, t-shirts, and books of her pin-up photos), she herself does not make public appearances, stating "I want people to remember me the way I was."

Her exact location of residence is a closely guarded secret.

Measurements (during her glamour modeling career): 36-24-36 1/2 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).

Her photos were the inspiration for the leading lady of the "Rocketeer" comics, which was made into the film The Rocketeer (1991).

She was given a screen test by 20th Century Fox but was never signed by the studio.

After she retreated from the public eye, Bettie was plagued by mental problems and actually stabbed three people. She was sentanced to a long spell in a mental institution as punishment. This was all a closely guarded secret until it was exposed by journalist Richard Foster.

Is close friends with Hugh M. Hefner who is a huge fan of hers.

Saw her popularity increase in the eighties with the publication of a comic, The Betty Pages. She is now recognised as something of an icon.

Is one of six children.

Graduated from Peabody College with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Her favorite drink is Root beer (Hires).

Can play the guitar and piano.

In the 1950s, the United States Congress called her to testify to explain the photos in which she appeared. While she never appeared before the committee (she was excused), the negatives of dozens of her photos were destroyed by court order. The negatives that survived were illegal to print for many years.

While she was posing, she was studying drama at a theater workshop. She worked hard to lose her southern accent, because it was keeping her from getting more mainstream work.

Is portrayed by Paige Richards in Bettie Page: Dark Angel (2004) and by Gretchen Mol in The Notorious Bettie Page (2005).

Has a great dislike for profanity.

Personal Quotes

"I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer. I wasn't trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time. I didn't think of myself as liberated, and I don't believe that I did anything important. I was just myself. I didn't know any other way to be, or any other way to live."

"I never was the girl next door".

"It makes me feel wonderful that people still care for me... that I have so many fans among young people, who write to me and tell me I have been an inspiration."

"[Jerry Tibbs was] the one who got me wearing bangs. For years I had my hair parted down the middle in a ponytail, tucked down around the sides. But he said to me, 'Bettie, you've got a very high forehead. I think you'd look good if you cut some bangs to cover it.' Well, I went and cut the bangs, and I've been wearing them ever since. They say it's my trademark."

"My favorite actress of all times is Bette Davis in Dark Victory (1939). I have seen it six or seven times and I still cry."

"I never kept up with the fashions. I believed in wearing what I thought looked good on me."

"I was never one who was squeamish about nudity. I don't believe in being promiscuous about it, but several times I thought of going to a nudist colony."

"No, I don't think my fans want to see me old and fat. I've got to get another 20-25 lbs. off somehow - remember me as I looked when I was younger. I get sad when I see my favorite movie stars when they're old. Who wants to see Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau now as the The Odd Couple (1968)? Jack Lemmon is a fan of mine."

"No, I stopped coloring my hair in October 1978. I was no longer working as a secretary, I was no longer working out in public. I didn't color my hair, it is grey now. In fact I'm worried I'm losing it. Big gobs come out. Used to be it took me two hours to dry my big gob of hair."

"I'm very sorry that when I turned my life over to the Lord Jesus in January 1959, I threw out all my netstockings, bikinis - some from Frederik's of Hollywood."

"The only person I did bondage for was Irving Klaw and his sister Paula. Usually they would shoot four or five models every Saturday. He wouldn't pay for the regular pictures unless we did some bondage. So I did bondage shots to get paid for the other photos."

"I love to swim in the nude and roam around the house in the nude. You're just as free as a bird!"

"I don't know what they mean by an icon. I never thought of myself as being that. It seems strange to me. I was just modeling, thinking of as many different poses as possible. I made more money modeling than being a secretary. I had a lot of free time. You could go back to work after an absence of a few months. I couldn't do that as a secretary."

"Being in the nude isn't a disgrace unless you're being promiscuous about it. 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!"

About her mother: "All I ever wanted was a mother who paid attention to me. She didn't want girls. She thought we were trouble. She didn't help with homework or teach me to sew or cook. She didn't go to the school plays I was in or go to my high school graduation. When I started menstruating at 13, I thought I was dying because she never taught me anything about that." (LA Times 3-11-06)

About her mother's younger lover when he made a move on her: "My mother nearly murdered me over that, then made me live with my father. So I couldn't review my exam notes, which were at home. Because of that I got beat out of graduating valedictorian by a quarter of a grade point and lost my dream of getting a scholarship to attend Vanderbilt University. It was the worst disappointment of my life." (LA Times 3-11-06)

About her second husband: "Six weeks into the marriage, on New Year's Eve 1959, I wanted to go dancing with him at a nightclub. He said he'd rather get drunk with his brothers." (LA Times 3-11-06)

"Young women say I helped them come out of their shells, and 13 rock groups have written songs about me. One song has these lyrics all the way through, 'I love Bettie Page. I love Bettie Page. I love Bettie Page.'" (LA Times 3-11-06)

Regarding the title The Notorious Bettie Page (2005): "Notorious? That's not flattering at all. They should have used another word." (LA Times 3-11-06)

Where Are They Now

(2001) Living in seclusion somewhere in Southern California.

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