Bettie Page has died.
She was the original hawtness. Forget Betty Grable, or Mae West, or Marilyn Monroe; none of them held a candle to her. No other woman of her era ever made black-and-white look so good.
She died today at the age of 85, long after walking away from her fairly short-lived modeling career; she was, perhaps surprisingly, not an exploited woman in an arguably exploitative era... but it wasn't that no one tried. It was those attempts, coupled with the onset of what was much later recognized as schizophrenia, that led her to abandon her career and fall prey to organized religion in the form of the Billy Graham Crusade. She was tall, athletic (a weightlifter!) and possessed of a beauty that is perhaps the most widely imitated in the world. Ironically, she achieved her greatest success as a model long after she chose to no longer be one. The world is just a bit dimmer today. Rest in peace, Betty.
She died today at the age of 85, long after walking away from her fairly short-lived modeling career; she was, perhaps surprisingly, not an exploited woman in an arguably exploitative era... but it wasn't that no one tried. It was those attempts, coupled with the onset of what was much later recognized as schizophrenia, that led her to abandon her career and fall prey to organized religion in the form of the Billy Graham Crusade. She was tall, athletic (a weightlifter!) and possessed of a beauty that is perhaps the most widely imitated in the world. Ironically, she achieved her greatest success as a model long after she chose to no longer be one. The world is just a bit dimmer today. Rest in peace, Betty.