Bettie Page meets the Klan
By Jim Linderman
Not seen in over 50 years, and certainly
not identified as Bettie Page at the time of publication, these
photographs were in such questionable taste even the “notorious” pin-up
model has to hide her face. This should give some Bettie fans
pause. Miss Page’s dead celebrity brand has weathered her being hung
from a rack and ball-gagged while bound. I am sure it will survive this
revelation too. Still, let’s see if this turns out to be scandalous at
all. The model was “acting” after all. Bettie Page was a working woman
and model of sorts. Now she is a brand.
Celebrity
branding is fraught with controversy and peril. For both the branding
organization and the dead celeb. I didn’t really want to see Fred
Astaire repurposed into a vacuum cleaner advertisement, but I remember
when it came along. The ghost of Fred Astaire, shilling a Dirt Devil as
though it were his lover. No one asked Fred if he wanted to be seen in a
colorized, bastardized pitch for product. It was beyond offensive, but
nothing is sacred when it comes to commerce. The misuse resulted in the
passage of California Senate Bill 209 in 2001 which was designed to
protect dead celebrities, I guess. Figure out the law if you can. I’ve
seen plenty more apparitions selling things they never heard about
since… and whether they lived or died in California or New York matters,
as each state has their own law.
A recent article in The Atlantic by
Tori Rodriguez under the banner “Male Fans Made Bettie Page a Star, but
Female Fans Made Her an Icon” claims “Page’s liberated sexuality and
unflinching body positivity are what still resonate today.” Apparently
based on an interview with director Mark Mori, whose recent bio-pic is
making the rounds of theaters now, it also reported, “One of the biggest
surprises Mori discovered in making the movie, however, was the
changing nature of Page’s fan base. Once comprised mostly of men, the
bulk of her fan base is now young women—so much so that now, they’re the
film’s target audience. Heterosexual men tend to love Page for obvious
reasons, but for many women, Page symbolizes self-confidence,
unapologetic sexuality, and bold authenticity.” Another critic calls Ms.
Page a “sex-positive feminist…” Well, no wonder the film was
authorized.
The Atlantic article
reflects the now standard revisionist view of Bettie Page, yet few, if
any of the writers fully grasp the model’s work. Neither do many of the
consumers who admire the model. Are these the photographs of a feminist
role model? Posed in lingerie and mask while a cross is burned behind
her in a lurid Ku Klux Klan ceremony? A “Hooded Honey of Horror?” They
are unmistakably Ms. Page. The photos ran in Robert Harrison’s Whisper Magazine in 1953. Harrison was a publisher of numerous girlie magazines, and Whisper was
the most graphic of the lot. The model appeared in Harrison magazines
frequently, but they are certainly not the best known examples of her
modeling sessions. Most were fairly goofy, harmless underwear layouts
which men masturbated to. As she is masked and unidentified in this
offensive and logic defying spread, scholars and collectors have missed
it for decades. Author Henry E. Scott, who documented Robert Harrison’s
scandal magazine Confidential knew of the shoot… but apparently had no idea it was Bettie. In his book Shocking True Story Scott
writes “…he had his first brushes with the law, ranging from a
relatively minor arrest for photographing half-naked models posing as Ku
Klux Klan members on a New Jersey golf course…” You see the results
here. I need not document the Klan, nor elaborate on whether the layout
was bad judgment. The photos speak for themselves, from the past, just
like a dead celebrity. Bettie Page, Southern girl, posing as a Klan
victim for the delight of the male consumers of Whisper Magazine.
I guess there is some justice in scandal
mogul Robert Harrison having a little scandal of his own after death,
but the real scandal here is certainly the sex-positive feminist with
remarkably bad career choices.
Bettie Page was, by far, the most
beautiful and interesting pin-up model of all time. She isn’t “tied
with Einstein at No. 8 on Forbes’ 2013 list of top earning dead
celebrities” for nothing. The informal New York nude “camera clubs” she
emerged from were a good thing. Safe, positive, ground-breaking outings
for camera (and nude women) enthusiasts. Glamour photography can be
traced to the events, and the names of shutterbugs who took advantage of
the surreptitiously arranged group shots are legendary. They were the
fun, interracial predecessor of modern-day risqué fashion
photography. Then came Irving Klaw’s dirty couch. The later photographs
Bunny Yeager took of Ms. Page in Florida further reveal Page’s
astounding appeal in far less dingy locations…but still both are a far
cry from posing nude to posing in a phony Klan rally.
You
will not see the striking sadomasochistic photographs from Irving
Klaw’s studio at the Mall of America Bettie Page clothing branch. You
MIGHT at their Manhattan location on the Bowery, several gentrified
steps from the old location of CBGBs, but I doubt it. You generally
won’t see them at all, as the most dramatic are seldom seen, even to
this day. Many of them, if hung in the window of a shop would literally
and unquestionably bring the police. Not too many kids search them out
before heading to the mall fully armed with debit cards. A “rockabilly”
tattoo here, some sparkling f-me pumps, a billowing dress and we are
ready for the weekend.
Bettie Page had remarkable and unmatched
photographic beauty. No one looks better in a still photograph than
Bettie Page. It is fine to appreciate the ground-breaking photographs
which have influenced popular culture more than most can even
imagine. There are not enough superlatives to describe the results of
her modeling work, or their impact today. Even the ones which were
hidden for decades. They have been published legitimately, as in the
high-quality Belier Press editions unfortunately now out of print, but
also stolen wholesale by bootleggers who turn them into cheap novelties
and even as bogus “vintage” images aged with tea leaves on eBay. Fifty
years on, her image is still being traded on the black and grey market
by criminal pariah, and on a far greater scale than Klaw could have
imagined. Ms. Page survives them all.
On
the other hand, she couldn’t act her way out of a pulp magazine. She
aspired to the stage, but got nowhere. There was a single brief
appearance on a Jackie Gleason show. She couldn’t dance a step, though
she is commonly, widely and mistakenly thought of as a burlesque
dancer. She never danced on stage that I know of, except several times
in horrible, clumsy approximations of seduction for Irving Klaw’s static
stag films and the real stinker Stripoarama. On the big
screen, she carries out a placard like the women between rounds in a
boxing match and winks. Other than feigning a few fairly inept strip
poses, her acting in total consists of repeated eye winks at the
camera. She couldn’t speak without her drawl. Didn’t sing. And yes, the S
& M photographs taken by “Pin-Up King” and pornographer Irving Klaw
and his sister were problematic then and now. After being hounded out
of business by the government and censorship, Irving Klaw’s inventory of
bondage material including Ms. Page was valuable enough to be passed
along to a member of organized crime who continued to market the
photographs across the river in New Jersey. He knew the value, but
whether he appreciated her beauty is questionable. To this day, while
Bettie Page continues to generate profit for someone, the vast majority
of those who love her have never seen the most, shall we say, “active
lifestyle” photographs. Klaw got in trouble and Ms. Page retired early.
Apparently,
her lifestyle choice was for work only, but I judge not
regardless. Fortunately, we are approaching a time when consensual
lifestyle choices are acceptable in all shape, size and form… but a good
many of the bondage photographs I have seen would certainly raise
eyebrows still. I need not mention (or show) the full open crotch shots
which apparently Ms. Page once dismissed as a drunken mistake (though it
was a mistake which happened more than once) and I’m not quite sure
what feminists think of those. She was raped young. She married
often. She suffered personality disorders. She was arrested. Rather than
emerging victorious with a positive body image… she unfortunately
retreated into obscurity, having been taken advantage of and tossed away
by those who used her. Legal representation from those who wished to
control her image for licensing purposes later helped her pay some
bills. Hugh Hefner made her a centerfold, but it was certainly no leap
to a reality show.
The shallow appreciation of Bettie Page
seems based on a massive myth perpetuated to make money. Her life was no
more glamorous (and it increasingly seems far less) than any of
ours. It is based on looking no deeper into the surface of the story
than much of what passes for news and entertainment today. She has
become no less than a beacon of corporate hypocrisy and shameless
product marketing. Truthfully? An example of how women are
abused. Unquestionably the most strikingly beautiful model of the
1950s, but if I had a daughter, I might encourage her to look for a
feminist role model elsewhere.
NOTES: The story of Robert Harrison and his misanthropic pin-up periodicals is HERE…
sorta. While there were hundreds of issues under numerous titles, the
contents were never indexed and virtually no library holds
copies. Harrison published Wink, Eyeful, Flirt, Titter and Whisper along with Confidential. They
were magazine rack staples for many years. The best anthology to date
was published by Taschen Books in 1997. It is over 700 pages, and while
they print numerous Bettie Page photos from the magazines, they missed
those here. The Atlantic Magazine article referenced above is HERE. The new Bettie Page film is HERE. CMG Worldwide, Inc. is the exclusive agent for Bettie Page LLC. You can stay informed of how her career is going HERE. CMG also
represents the estates of dead James Dean, presumably dead Amelia
Earhart, dead Jackie Robinson and well over one hundred other dead
people. Oh… and both “Spanky” and “Buckwheat,” believe it or not. Also
Chris Farley… who I guess they have put “down by the river in a van” for
now. Essentially they represent the gamut from national treasures who
should belong to us to buffoons who could hardly sell an autograph at a
fan convention. You can read the list HERE and see the company headquarters HERE.
They seem proud of the business, and the windows of their gauche and
ghoulish headquarters are proudly filled with photographs of the
dead. The story of “The Astaire Bill” protecting dead celebrities is HERE in Backstage Magazine. The CBS News Magazine 60 Minutes exposed CMG a few years ago, see HERE. The highly entertaining Shocking True Story by Henry E. Scott which documents the foibles of Robert Harrrison is HERE. Much
of the original Irving Klaw material, including model release forms and
original negatives were sold by Guernsey’s Auction House HERE. The Bunny Yeager site is HERE and the recent book by Petra Mason which collects stunning examples of her photographs is HERE. Ms. Yeager was an artist who put Ms. Page into the sunshine.