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When Playboy Enterprises went public in 1971, the company issued the only stock on the market that bore the image of a nude, Willy Rey, the February 1971 Playmate. |
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Bettie Page - The Missing Years |
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Monday, 22 January 2007 |
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The 1990's edition of the popular The Book of Lists included Bette Page in a list of once-famous celebrities who had seemingly vanished from the public eye. This raised the question of what happened to her during the missing years.
 | | Bettie Page Pin-Up from the 50s |
A series of comics, books and movies in the 80s and 90s renewed interest in Bettie Page, a famous pin-up model of the 50s. The 1990's edition of the popular The Book of Lists included Page in a list of once-famous celebrities who had seemingly vanished from the public eye. This raised the inevitable question: what had happened to Bettie Page during those missing years?
This question was answered in part with the publication of an official biography in 1996, "Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-up Legend." Her biography described a woman who dealt head-on with adversity, always looking forward, never looking back. It told how she had remarried her first husband briefly, in order to satisfy requirements so she could become a missionary; neither the remarriage nor her missionary work was a success.
She married a third time in 1967 to a man named Harry Lear in Florida, divorcing him in 1972. At the time of the rebirth of her celebrity, Page was living penniless in California, unaware of her renewed celebrity.
 | | Left is artist Olivia De Berardinis, who painted the Nurse Bettie picture that Hef is holding, Hugh Hefner, center, and Bette Page, right in 2003. |
A second biography, written by Richard Foster and published in 1997, "The Real Bettie Page: The Truth about the Queen of Pinups," tells a less happy tale. It details numerous accounts of violence on her part against not only her third husband and her two step-children, but also against other people, in addition to several stays in mental institutions, the last one from 1983 to 1992 at Patton State Hospital in Highland, California.
It also furnished information that Page had still not received all of the money due to her since her rediscovery.
Foster's book immediately provoked attacks from her fans, including Hefner and Harlan Ellison, as well as a statement from Page that it is “full of lies”. However, Steve Brewster, founder of the Bettie Scouts of America fan club, has stated that it is not as unsympathetic as the book's reputation makes it to be. Brewster adds that he also read the chapter about her business dealings with Swanson, and stated that Page was pleased with that part of her story.  | | Closeup of Bette in picture above, at age 80. |
In a late-1990s interview, Page stated she would not allow any current pictures of her to be shown because of concerns about her weight. In 2003, however, she changed her mind and allowed a publicity picture to be taken of her for the August 2003 edition of Playboy, shown here.
In 2006, the Los Angeles Times ran an article headlined “A Golden Age for a Pinup," covering an autographing session at her current publicity company, CMG Worldwide. Once again, she declines to be photographed, saying that she would rather be remembered as she was.
Bettie Page was also named to the Polly Staffle Hall of Fame. |
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