Happy Birthday Bettie Page!

She’s a bad girl. She’s a good girl. She has been called the most photographed model in history. She influenced fashion and style. Movie stars tried to look like her. She changed America’s sexuality. She was born April 22, 1923 in Nashville, Tennessee as Betty Mae Page. When she was old enough to write she changed the spelling of her name to Bettie.

During the 1950s she appeared in hundreds upon hundreds of girly magazines and cheesecake magazines. Men could not get enough of her. She was made for the camera. She set hearts on fire with that girl-next-door smile and her man-killing curves. Her images remain burned in our memories – wild and timid, bold and flirtatious, kinky and conventional, naughty and wholesome.

She lives on in our culture, but she has not been photographed since 1957 when she abruptly quit the modeling business. She has been contacted for the rare interview or two but she chooses to remain in our memories as she last appeared. She will always look like this to us. And that, my friend, is not a bad thing. Happy Birthday Bettie! Thank you!