Bettie Page dead at 85
From the L.A. Times obit:
A religious woman in her later life, Page was mystified by her influence on modern popular culture. "I have no idea why I'm the only model who has had so much fame so long after quitting work," she said in an interview with The Times in 2006.
She had one request for that interview: that her face not be photographed.
"I want to be remembered," she said, "as I was when I was young and in my golden times. . . . I want to be remembered as the woman who changed people's perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form."
Comments (2)
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Page's life is one of those mixed up stories that proves simultaneously strange, sad and uplifting. For instance, despite being "born again," she never admitted any guilt for posing nude. In fact, she remained proud of it.
What an odd world.
Posted on December 12, 2008 10:04 AM
Yeah - one of the things I didn't know until I read the obit is that she seems to have been in a mental hospital for...what looks like a long time.
If you wrote her story as fiction, people wouldn't believe it. I remember seeing "The Notorious Betty Page" and thinking that if it wasn't a bio-pic people would have thought the plot was outlandish.
Posted on December 12, 2008 11:15 AM