SEARCHING FOR BETTIE PAGE A `NOTORIOUS' LOOK AT '50S PINUP ICON COMFORTABLE IN THE SKIN SHE'S IN.Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer The hunt for the real Bettie Page Bettie Mae Page (though listed "Betty" on her birth certificate) born April 22, 1923 in Nashville, Tennessee, is a former American model who became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos. continues even as those searching for the notorious pinup pin·up n. 1. a. A picture, especially of a sexually attractive person, that is displayed on a wall. b. A person considered a suitable model for such a picture. 2. icon of the 1950s confess they'll never find her. The biography of the model is contradictory - deliberately evasive. The lady herself, now 82, lives reclusively, rarely granting interviews or allowing herself to be photographed. Quotes on her official Web site, www.Bettiepage.com, offer such tantalizing tan·ta·lize tr.v. tan·ta·lized, tan·ta·liz·ing, tan·ta·liz·es To excite (another) by exposing something desirable while keeping it out of reach. nuggets Nuggets can refer to several branches of interest:
"Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what they mean by an icon. I never thought of myself as being that. ... I was just modeling, thinking of as many different poses as possible. I made more money modeling than being a secretary." Her career started late and ended early, following - of all things - a United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. Senate investigation into the effects of pornography on the nation's youth. Which leaves the photographs themselves. A Google search Google is owned by Google, Inc. whose mission statement is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". The largest search engine on the web, Google receives several hundred million queries each day through its various services. turns up hundreds of Page poses - both of the cheesecake and fetish fetish (fĕt`ĭsh), inanimate object believed to possess some magical power. The fetish may be a natural thing, such as a stone, a feather, a shell, or the claw of an animal, or it may be artificial, such as carvings in wood. variety. She posed for Playboy and for other men's magazines This is a list of magazines primarily marketed to men. The list has been split into subcategories according to the target audience of the magazines. This list includes both 'adult' magazines as well as more mainstream ones. carrying titles like Eyeball See eyeballs and eyeball driven. , Escapade and Wink. There's Bettie in bikini, Bettie in lingerie, Bettie nude, Bettie in bondage. A new movie opening today, "The Notorious Bettie Page" looks at Page the woman as well as the sexual icon. But those who study vintage trends say that Page's popularity hasn't faltered since she disappeared from the public eye in the late 1950s. (She participated in an "E! True Hollywood Story" in 1998, but was interviewed off-camera and in hidden light). At the Eagle Rock-based Pink Kitty photography studios, which specializes in re-creating vintage pinup photography, co-owner Lori Mann has no shortage of housewives and working women looking to re-create themselves photographically as dominatrix. Page, Mann says, is their inspiration. "She's a little more like the modern woman than the old pinups," says Mann. "She was vulnerable and had curves and was sweet and all of that, but she also did the dominatrix thing. To a whole new generation, she is new. She reminds them of rockabilly and little bit of Gothic." Gretchen Mol Gretchen Mol (born November 8, 1972) is an American actress. Biography Early life Mol was born in Deep River, Connecticut where her mother, Janet, is an artist and teacher and her father is a school principal. , who plays Page in "The Notorious Bettie Page" calls Page "the greatest pinup," characterizing her as an artist utterly connected to her creative zone. "She did tap into something, I think, that other models didn't, and a lot of that was because she seemed to be getting just as much out of it as she was giving," says Mol. "She seemed to be completely enjoying herself when she was posing in a way that I don't know she was able to in living her life." The actress, who re-created many of Page's poses for the film and studied several hundred others, has a favorite Page photo: an image that she discovered on eBay by a private photographer. Mol purchased the photo and gave it to the film's director, Mary Harron. "(Page) has her hair in a ponytail, and she's kind of twisted on the floor naked, just kind of looking over her shoulder," says Mol. "She's not even looking at the camera, just looking off. She looks like she's about 10 years old, but she's also so beautiful. There's something in her eyes that you didn't see often in those photographs that's just beautiful." Harron knows the photograph. "It's almost like a little sad, interior rare glimpse of her," the director agrees. Ultimately, Page's pictures - public and private - give away everything ... and nothing. The dark-haired model with her generous curves and signature bangs maintained an oddly sweet-natured "Hello world!" gaze even as she's trussed up in ropes or black leather or brandishing a whip. "There are contradictions in the photos themselves," says Harron. "Who is this person? Where did she come from? What's going on What's Going On is a record by American soul singer Marvin Gaye. Released on May 21, 1971 (see 1971 in music), What's Going On reflected the beginning of a new trend in soul music. with her?" The film offers a few insights but no pat answers. We meet Page sitting in a hallway, waiting to give testimony before Sen. Estes Kefauver's Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency juvenile delinquency, legal term for behavior of children and adolescents that in adults would be judged criminal under law. In the United States, definitions and age limits of juveniles vary, the maximum age being set at 14 years in some states and as high as 21 . A court officer inquires if she needs assistance. Thank you, but no, returns Page, a model of Southern graciousness. I'll be just fine on my own. And indeed she is. The film flashes back to Page's upbringing in Depression-era Tennessee. Sexually abused by her father and following a failed marriage, Page moves to New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and ends up finding regular work in the city's camera clubs. An aspiring actress, Page eventually takes up with Movie Star News, the Hollywood memorabilia distributors run by Irving Klaw and his half-sister Paula. It was Paula who also took the racier bondage photos for private clients that the Kefauver investigation targeted. The Bettie Page who moves through the film is a self-possessed and staunchly religious young woman for whom no employment-related request was particularly shocking. You want me nude? No problem. Corsets? Spiked heels? Here are my measurements. "If nothing else, Bettie's lack of self-consciousness was at the top of the list of things to capture," says Mol who spends a great deal of "Bettie Page" in some form of dishabille dis·ha·bille also des·ha·bille n. 1. The state of being partially or very casually dressed. 2. Casual or lounging attire. 3. An intentionally careless manner. . "A lot of what I had to do was physical and was a kind of choreography almost. I had to kind of rehearse how she posed and how she moved, and then I had to sort of let it go to have some freedom in it." Mol says that a stint playing celebrity-seeking murderess Roxie Hart in Broadway's "Chicago" just prior to starting work on "Bettie Page" helped her get in touch with her inner pinup. "I did have to kind of find that part of myself," Mol says. "There almost wasn't time for my own issues." She has "issues"? "Oh sure, don't we all?" she returns. "Most of the time when someone puts a camera on you, instead of springing to life there's a little piece of you that goes, 'How do I look?' and so I had to find out in a hurry how to get rid of that. Mol, a svelte blonde from New England New England, name applied to the region comprising six states of the NE United States—Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The region is thought to have been so named by Capt. whose work in "Rounders round·er n. 1. One that rounds, especially a tool for rounding corners and edges. 2. One, such as a security guard, who makes rounds. 3. A dissolute person. 4. Sports a. " and "The 13th Floor" brought her early buzz, bears little physical resemblance to Page. Even having met Harron previously for a possible role in the director's "American Psycho American Psycho is a 1991 novel by Bret Easton Ellis. It is a first-person narrative of the life of a wealthy young Manhattanite and self-proclaimed serial killer. The graphic violence and sexual content was widely commented upon at the novel's release. ," Mol said she knew that landing the role of Bettie Page was "a long shot." "I did connect with the character in the script. although I didn't know if physically and externally I could pull it off," Mol says. "I felt emotionally there was something I connected to. I just went in hoping maybe Mary would catch it." Harron did, noting that Mol came to the audition with some Page-isms mastered. "She already had some of the body language down. She has a natural knack for that, a talent for posing like Bettie did," says Harron. "I think she had a sweetness also. She was able to convey an undercurrent of sadness and loneliness. There was also this sort of detachment about Bettie, the sense that she was in her own bubble." Neither Harron nor her co-writer, Guinevere Turner, ever met their subject, although Harron says Page has seen the film (which is cited on Page's Web site.) And by the time she was cast, Mol said the prospect of using Page as a resource had also passed. "I wanted to respect her privacy," Mol says, "and I also thought there's a lot of material there, a lot of source material trying to understand her. At a certain point, I almost had so much information, I had to let go. I kind of had to allow it to be my interpretation on some level, too." Evan Henerson, (818) 713-3651 evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 4 photos Photo: (1 -- cover -- color) PINUP GIRL A peek at `The Notorious Bettie Page' (2) Bettie Page, Playboy's January 1955 playmate of the month Playmate of the Month nude girl provocatively gracing Playboy’s centerfold. [Am. Culture: Flexner, 285] See : Beauty, Sensual , sunbathes in a country lane in this 1950s photograph by Weegee. A new movie about her life opens today. Getty Images (3 -- 4) Despite a lack of physical resemblance, the blond Gretchen Mol, below, drew on wigs, wardrobe and attitude to play the title character, above and on the cover, in ``The Notorious Bettie Page.'' |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion