The Fifties pin-up whose free spirit set the stage for sexual revolution

Published on Friday 12 December 2008 21:03

SHE was the 1950s secretary-turned-model whose controversial photographs in skimpy attire helped pave the way for the 1960s sexual revolution.

Bettie Page, who has died in Los Angeles at the age of 85, was one of the most photographed women of her day – with an overt sexuality that shocked America.

Page attracted national attention with magazine photographs of her sensuous figure in bikinis and see-through lingerie that were quickly tacked up on walls in military barracks where they remained for years.

"She captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality," said her agent, Mark Roesler. "She is the embodiment of beauty."

Page was born to a family in Nashville so poor she said: "We were lucky to get an orange in our Christmas stockings."

Her father abused both her and her two sisters, and for a while she lived in an orphanage. She got her break as a glamour model after being spotted in Coney Island by an amateur photographer in 1950 while on a break from her job. She went on to appear in a series of iconic photoshoots including a centrefold in the January 1955 issue of then-fledgling Playboy magazine.

Hugh Hefner, the Playboy magnate, paid tribute yesterday, saying: "I think that she was a remarkable lady, an iconic figure in pop culture who influenced sexuality, taste in fashion, someone who had a tremendous impact on our society."

Page retired in 1957 after photographs of her holding whips caused a national scandal – but she remained an influential figure, whose life inspired two film biopics, books, cartoons and fan sites.

A new generation of fans bought thousands of copies of her photos, and some feminists hailed her as a pioneer of women's liberation.

Her story was told most recently in the 2006 movie The Notorious Bettie Page in which she was played by Gretchen Mol.

Her distinctive style is said to be an influence on the contemporary burlesque artist Dita Von Teese, while her cropped gothic hairstyle was copied by Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction.

And while Page later became a born-again Christian who worked for the evangelist Billy Graham, she remained proud of her model work. "I never thought it was shameful. It's just that it was much better than pounding a typewriter ."

In an interview with Playboy she said nudity did not bother her. "God approves of nudity. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they were naked as jaybirds," she said.

As she grew older Page avoided photographs – saying she wanted people to remember her as she was at the height of her fame.

Page suffered a heart attack last week in Los Angeles. She died on Thursday.

BACKGROUND

THE term "pin-up" was first used in 1941 – but the practice of reproducing pictures of glamorous women in magazines or newspapers dates from the 1890s.

"Cheesecake" – to denote a girl who looked good enough to eat – was first used in 1934.

In the 1950s Cheesecake magazine featured a young Marilyn Monroe as a cover girl. Idealised paintings of models were popular in the 1930s, but by the 1960s the era of the pin-up artist was over. In 1998 a group of members of the Women's Institute became pin-up girls to raise money for leukaemia care. The group, who inspired the film Calendar Girls, raised 1.3 million.