Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend

by Karen Essex

Book Overview

The ultimate girl-next-door, and one of the most popular Playboy centerfolds, Bettie Page challenged the conservative 1950s, posing as a fierce dominatrix, and earning both a cult underground... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1575440806
• ISBN13: 9781575440804
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Stoddart
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 2.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 9.1" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

Ultimate tribute and book on Bettie Page

There was one another 50's icon who rivals Marilyn in popularity today--Bettie Page. True, she didn't make any A-movies, but like Marilyn, embodied that woman who drew a fine line between good girl/bad girl and crossed the lines as easily as one drank Coca-Cola. Unlike Marilyn, Bettie survived, but like Marilyn, her legend lives on for one simple reason: she dropped out of sight in 1957 following the fall of Irvin and Paula Klaw by the Kefauver Committee on indecency and pornography and refused to have herself be photographed as she is now. Thus, she is remembered as she was back then. And as her life has become simpler, she values her privacy. She says so as much in the hand-written foreword, at the same time surprised and honoured that so many people are interested in her.Karen Essex and James L. Swanson book is a great place to start for those curious about Bettie Page. Basically, it's a biography accompanied by lots and lots of colour and b & w photos, many of them topless. There are two of them which has her completely nude. She also posed for countless magazine covers and photographers. Art Amsie's photos are the best of the lot here. Bunny Yeager is touched on briefly, but that woman has a book on herself so... Looking at the early Bettie, before she became a pin-up from 1947, is also quite a revelation. She is still beautiful, but in an ordinary way, like a typical girl growing up in 1940's America.There is clearly a dualism going on here. There's the pretty wholesome girl in the bathing suit or maybe not, and then there's the darker leatherbound fetish girl, be she receiver or giver. That latter half led to her downfall. The point also was that she enjoyed her work, mainly the lighter beach stuff. You can see it in those twinkling eyes and smile of hers.The last section of the book features models who have been influenced by her, be they in clothes or just looking like her. Of the lookalikes, Eva Herzigova, Debi Mazar, and Janice Dickinson have got it down to the bangs, (it's the bangs that did it for Bettie, after all), long black hair, and prominent eyebrows.Apart from being one of fantasy artist Olivia's favourite subjects, Bettie's images appear on album covers by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and the David Lee Roth Band. Her three videos, Teaserama, where she acts opposite stripper legend Tempest Storm, Varietease, and Strip-O-Rama have come out. She'll live on, no doubt about it.Anyone interested in Bettie Page-start with this book. You won't be disappointed.

"I'd like to eat ice cream out of her belly button...."

So said one of her photographers. What a marvelous book. If you're like me, and have been a Bettie fan for years, you've been waiting for this book. For years one could find stuff on her only in comic shops and the like, dealing in old memorabilia from the Fifties, or in various "alternative" shops that sold her image on T shirts. As a teen that's where I learned about her, thanks to "The Rocketeer," the comic "The Bettie Pages," and psychobilly trash-punk band the Cramps, who for a short time had a bass player the spittin' image of our fair maiden. Now that we've finally opened our eyes, we can buy several books on her, this being by far the best. It is the ne plus ultra of Bettiebooks, of pin-up books in general. What a trend-setter; a humble, troubled, open and honest woman who was not exploited, who has not turned herself into a PC victim--she's idolized by smart, hip young women who see in her freedom, sexuality, playfullness, life itself. This book had better be reprinted--it's an absolute crime to be unavailable. Get this book by any means necessary!

Pin - Up Legend Reveals the Inner Icon

Within moments after my wife proposed gifting this book to our business partner last Spring, I seized it for myself. She had run across the only copy left in one of those funky shops which cater to the growing interest in cultural icons.The authors, Karen Essex and James L. Swanson, render a definitive biography of one of the most enigmatic figures of our memory. Their slick 288 page paperback version lovingly portrays the images and life of Bettie page. You can take this book two ways:On the coffee table, it presents a seductive collection of family photographs and pulp covers documenting the pin-up icon.In bed, it seduces you to learn about the studious young woman who triumphed over family heartbreak to become a legend.In the Fifties, I was one of the multitude of pre-adolescent boys who furtively witnessed her near-perfect body and impish smile - without knowing who she was. Now, more than forty years since her last session, Essex and Swanson answer some of the questions and heap on plenty of deja vu in the process.The authors expose a life of someone who is noble and genuine. The "real" Bettie Page turns out to as fascinating as her ubiquitous image. Secretarial stints, jobs in Hati, persistent self-improvement and disappointing husbands propel her into a series of vicissitudes worthy of a Henry Fielding novel. Amid the rich and varied photographs, drawings and memorabilia, Essex and Swanson weave an engaging tale of someone quite surprising. Her guileless and genuine approach to life are almost Zen-like when viewed from our age of media hype and agents. Here is the story of a bright, beautiful, autonomous loner who deals directly with her life, shunning pretense, flattery and victimhood.The Bettie Page you discover in this book, as her beautiful visage, is both accessible and mysterious.Maybe I'll follow through with the gift idea my wife had last Spring.

Photographic proof that a goddess walks the Earth!

This is the definitive book on the life and all too short career of Bettie. After reading this facinating book, I feel like I know Bettie. If you are a Bettie fan (read: can see with at least one eye) you must have this book. This is the jackpot friends. A word of warning. The text is sad on occasion. Some horrible and tramatic things happened to Bettie during her life. The reader's heart cannot help but go out to her. The fact that Bettie could relate this to the authors bears witness to her strength of as a human being. I love this book so much that I hope the authors will come out with a second volume.

Absolutely the best collection of pictures and information.

I have been looking for hard to find pictures and information about Betty Page for many years. A friend gave me this book and I was amazed. The pictures are top-notch quality, and the text is precise and in-depth. The book shows how Betty Page influenced Art and America, as well as other artists's use of her looks for their own style. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to anyone with even the slightest of interests in Betty Page or Pin-up Girls