Bettie Page as a cultural icon before; always just putting her in that category of 1950s pin-ups second to Marilyn Monroe, never really giving thought to her story. And boy, what a story.
What happened to Betty Page? This was the question people would have been asking between the end of the 1950s all the way into the mid 1990s, because after 1958, not a single new photograph was taken of her. She had simply disappeared. A new cult following was built around her during the 1980s, although it was unclear at the time whether Bettie was even alive. Certainly, Bettie herself had no idea anyone even still remembered her name. She was living in a group home, outside of Los Angeles, penniless, while her iconic image was being reproduced all over the world. In the late 1950s, she had walked away from it all, become a devout Christian and suffered a nervous breakdown. As a child she had been molested by her father and when she was first living alone in New York as a young woman, she suffered in silence following a traumatising gang rape. In the 1970s after her third divorce, she began hearing voices and soon enough, she lost it.
After an altercation with her landlord in which she stabbed her nearly 20 times, Bettie was committed to a mental asylum for ten years, diagnosed with acute schizophrenia. If you’ve only ever looked at Bettie’s pictures in passing, seen those big red lips smiling widely, you would never have guessed she had such a rough life. It wasn’t until she saw a segment on Entertainment Tonight from her group home outside of Los Angeles that Bettie became aware of the resurgence of her popularity.
In 1955, Bettie had appeared at the Playboy centrefold, but she and Hefner had never met. She finally met him in 1993 when he invited her to dinner at the mansion. Hefner realised she did not have proper representation. Having emerged from obscurity for already three years already, Bettie was still penniless and not receiving any royalties.
The founder of the iconic magazine put her in touch with the same agent who also represented the Marilyn Monroe and James Dean estates. In 2011, her estate made the Forbes annual list of top-earning dead celebrities, tied with the estates of George Harrison and Andy Warhol. She never had money problems again and passed away in 2008. Hugh Hefner attended the funeral.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of Bettie’s fascinating life. Hear it from the legend herself if you haven’t already and check out the wonderful documentary, Bettie Page Reveals All, available on Netflix.
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