Classic cult bondage film and pin-up queen Bettie Page dies at 85
Just earlier this night, Bettie Page, the queen of many a short bondage film and cult striptease movie, passed away. According to the L.A Times, she died at Kindred Hospital in Los Angeles, “where she had been on life support since suffering a heart attack December 2, according to her agent, Mark Roesler.”
Page’s very minor roles in short and feature films were the natural follow up to a very lucrative career in the 1950s as a fetish and pin-up model where her natural and wholesome, girl-next-door looks contrasted nicely with costumes that consisted of brief bikinis, structured corsets, lingerie sets, and bondage gear—or even nothing at all.
Accounts vary on why Page dropped away from the spotlight—many blame a series of Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency where Page gave testimony—and she disappeared for years, only to resurface in the 1990s thanks in part to a resurgence in popularity thanks to The Rocketeer, and continued TV biographies and feature movies about her life like The Notorious Bettie Page, which I happened to enjoy very much.
Rest in peace, Dark Angel.
on 2008-12-12 at 17:47
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Page starred in a few mainstream movies too, didn’t she?
on 2008-12-12 at 20:20
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According to IMDB, she didn’t. But she’s such a large part of pop culture and underground film that it doesn’t matter, does it?