Time for another random book off the shelf here at the Library. Today's choice is 1987's THE BETTY PAGES # 1, the first issue of Greg Theakston's ode to every fanboy's favorite pin-up girl. Bettie (the correct spelling as we would come to know after she resurfaced) first turned up on my radar in a nostalgic photofeature in some long forgotten men's mag of the mid-seventies, her infectious smile outshining (for me at least) her more obvious charms. When I saw this little mag, a decade or so later, I still remembered her so I picked it up and joined the legions of Bettie's fans along with Harlan Ellsion, the late Dave Stevens and dozens of high and low profile creative artists.
Little was known of Bettie at the time and Theakston in this and future issues sought to remedy that. Along with reprinting various photo spreads from the fifties and celebrating pin-up artists from Gil Elvgren to Wally Wood and Bill Ward (whose TORCHY strip appears in this debut issue), there were articles and interviews with and about folks who knew her and even a series attempting to tarck down the missing pin-up queen. When she was tracked down, it would perhaps sadly NOT be Theakston who had done it but that's another story.
THE BETTY PAGES, however, was a kind of underground hit, bringing new converts to the cult with every issue. Not really into the bondage and fetish gear pics all that much, I found myself consistently fascinated by her perfect figure, her big, bright smile and the fact that she often seemed to be having quite a bit of (non-sexual) fun while posing. These days with a relatively recent feature film and a number of hardcover books she's now more famous than ever. He may not have been the one who rediscovered her but I'd have to give Greg Theakston and THE BETTY PAGES a lot of credit for helping whole new generations discover the inspirational beauty of Bettie Page. Thanks, Greg!
My first real exposure to Bettie was the last issue of the 'Bettie Pages' (the one where they corrected the spelling)-- I found it in a comic shop when I was way too young to buy it, but they sold it to me anyway... guess they figured it was ok for a little girl to see a naked woman... little did they know that this little girl LIKES looking at naked women :D
ReplyDeleteI have been hooked on her ever since, and have a life-size cardboard stand-up in my bedroom (in a leopard bikini though)
And as far as her looking like she was having fun-- she was...
ReplyDeleteI remember reading in an interview that she thought of most of it as a game and never considered that people actually could/would find things like bondage and spanking to be erotic...
But then again, according to her bio, she isn't/wasn't exactly playing will a full deck either... I seem to remember some report about her snapping and trying to stab someone