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Wow, mr. gaspode and I were talking about how we didn't realise she was still alive just a couple of days ago.

Unfortunately, I will always have Bettie Page mentally tied to my exwife.

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It's not exactly tragic given her age, but she will be missed. I don't think anyone in the fifties would have imagined her impact on American culture and our attitudes towards women's sexuality for so many years to come.

Plus, if it wasn't for her inspiration I have no idea what I'd do with my hair.

The world just got slightly less sexy.

:(

I'm totally getting those bangs this Saturday, completely unrelated to emulating her style.

I had no idea she was still alive. I really wish she'd allowed pic. I'm sure she was a beautiful elder as well.

There is one floating around of her a few years ago. I can honestly say I've never seen an elderly person who looks SO MUCH like their old pictures from fifty years ago. It wasn't even "oh, yeah, I can see that." it was "woah, it's bettie page!"

Van Johnson too.

I remember reading that she got religious towards the end of her life and regretted her nude photography. But that was her only source of income in her senior years.

That's a tough decision to have to make -- relying on income that you think is immoral or live in poverty. Employers aren't exactly chomping at the bit to hire elderly women who've done time in hospitals for the criminally insane.

She had a painful life in a lot of ways but she gained some peace at the end.

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here is the pic of bettie page from recent years

Bettie looked a lot like my mother when she was young (I especially noted it in this pic, and here. so much. *). My mom also has a beautiful smile, but she has her public smile (her "game face" let's say) and her real smile. I remember her telling me that when men came on to her, she would just smile as though they had said "good morning" and pretend that she didn't understand them. Bettie was smart - salutatorian of her high school class, missing valedictorian by fractions of a point, I read, and very troubled. I don't believe the story of her not really understanding the whole bondage thing (as she professes in at least one interview I'm too lazy to look up), and I don't think her sunny smile was the guileless expression of joyful sexuality.

She had been molested by her father and later gang raped, she said, and I think the period of her life as a porn model was probably one way of trying to deal with that, and the religious mania was another. She was so beautiful, so charismatic, exuberant and desirable in images that the compelling fiction of the happy, sensual, natural creature is irresistible, but it was performance. It was her art. I think it's important to note this, because while the myth is more comfortable, recognizing that the iconic Bettie Page is a constructed image admits talent and creativity. She studied acting, and while I'm sure that the meatgrinder of Hollywood would not have done her any favors, it would have been interesting to see how she would have fared as a mainstream actress.

* and, interestingly, in the photo of her in later years - a whole lot like my maternal grandmother