BETTIE PAGEModel and dancer Bettie Page, who died on 11 December, 2008, was hailed worldwide as the queen of pin-ups during her brief career.Her provocative pictures and films, often featuring risqué lingerie, made her one of the most famous models of the 1950s and paved the way for a decade of sexual discovery and expression.Her work ranged from saucy poses in Playboy, calendars and themed photo books, to 'speciality films'.At the height of her fame it was estimated her image adorned more than a million locker rooms, mess rooms and garages across the States and in just seven years in the limelight she appeared in more magazines than Marilyn Monroe.Bettie May Page was born on 22 April, 1923, in Nashville, Tennessee. Her childhood was unsettled byher parents' divorcewhen she was 10 and she and her sisters would entertain themselves by dressing up as movie icons.Ms Page would later use the sewing and make-ups skills she learned at this time during her modelling career.She studied to be a teacher then changed her focus to acting. With this aim she moved to New York in 1947 and though her acting career never took off, a chance meeting with an amateur photographer resulted in her first pin-up photoshoot.Between 1952 and 1957 she worked primarily with photographer Irving Klaw who sold her image in mail-order photographs and films, many of which catered for more unconventional tastes. In 1955 she posed topless for a cheeky, Christmas-themed Playboy shoot.But in 1957, at the height of her fame, her career came to a dramatic halt. A notorious court case, which saw Klaw's mail order business closed resulted in her being ostracised by the authorities.A few years later she converted to Christianity and spent much of the rest of her life doing missionary work - a stark contrast to her previous vocationin whichshehad beennicknamed 'The Dark Angel'.In the late 1970s, her raven hair and the subversive nature of her work made her into a cult figure for the new counter culture that would come to be known as the goth movement. This led to a revived interest in Bettie Page material and several anthologies were released.Despite this, she remained reclusive, giving few interviews and even then insisting that she not be photographed or shown on television in order that she be remembered as the lithe and curvy woman she was during her modelling years.Bettie Page was married and divorced four times and had no children. She died in hospital in Southern California after suffering a heart attack at the age of 85, leaving behind a legacy of sensual and liberating work that had, in her own words, "changed people's perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form."
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