Bettie Page Art Show in LA, curated by Lenora Claire
Yes, Dorothy, it is true: the image at the top of this post is none other than the Queen of All Media, the controversialicious Perez Hilton, in drag as Bettie Page (photographer: Austin Young). Click on this link, if you dare, and ye shall see false bewbs exposed in the full, uncropped image (NSFW).
The lovely Lenora Claire, whose talent and bodacious curves were introduced to us by recent guestblogger Richard Metzger, shares word of an art show opening this weekend in LA in appreciation of the late Bettie Page. The image above is part of that show.
Lenora tells Boing Boing:
Below, Lenora spanking herself dressed as Bettie Page. (Thanks, Richard Metzger!)For me and for many women (and a few men) I know, our discovery of Bettie Page during our adolescence shaped our beauty aesthetic, as the black-banged beauty was our first introduction to the world of corsetry, sky high heels, and other important elements of our sometimes painful personal style. Over the years my tastes (and cup size) have evolved, but it's been joy to watch Bettie rise from counterculture cutie to full blown legend. After the nationwide success of my Golden Gals Gone Wild show which featured erotic art based on the Golden Girls and was featured on everything from NPR to National Enquirer, I knew I needed a follow up with some serious knockout appeal.
I'm thrilled to present Bettie Page: Heaven Bound which opens with a gala opening reception Saturday, May 2nd at the World of Wonder gallery in Hollywood and runs until May 29th.
The show features over 20 years of Bettie-inspired work including stunning new watercolor images by the queen of pin-up Olivia (who I still can't believe I had the opportunity to pose for let alone work so closely with on the dream project) as well as Bunny Yeager who shot many of Bettie's most iconic images; Austin Young who shot beautiful images of myself and of celebs including Perez Hilton, Cassandra Peterson aka Elvira, and Jane Weidlin from the GoGo's as Bettie; Colin Christian who just completely blows my mind; and a slew of other artists I'm so proud to present. Since Bettie wasn't a traditional gal and neither am I, the opening night reception will feature a spanking machine complete with costumed cuties dressed as Nurse Betties to help you after your turn on our weapon of ass destruction, a photobooth by PoliteinPublic.com, celebrity guests such as Dita who will be attending but not performing, as well as Bettie's actual high heels on display and other exciting surprises. Hope to see you all there.
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*shudderrr* Perez, there are some lines not meant to be crossed.
I totally missed out on the beauty-aesthetic designed by Bettie Page that all you old folks reminisce about, but damn, is she but gorgeous. Far outdoes whoever is an archetype of beauty nowadays.
never met her, but I like to imagine Gretchen Mol did a good job portraying her character.
I was going to ask for a unicorn chaser....but the second and third pictures took care of that quite nicely.
Ah, but will there be a section for the Orca Betties?
The bettiepage.com site (linked above) has some wonderful music embedded. Anyone know where it can be purchased? My searches have turned up nothing :-(
"When I turned my life over to the lord Jesus I was ashamed of having posed in the nude. But now, most of the money I've got is because I posed in the nude. So I'm not ashamed of it now. But I still don't understand it."
--Bettie Page
@ Iwood #6:
That's funny, because the fact that there are beautiful women who are willing to pose in the nude is one of the reasons I'm still willing to entertain the notion of a loving God.
#7 posted by Brainspore:
Hey, don't talk to me, talk to her. I mean...hold a séance or maybe ring up John Edward.
Mol did an incredible job of portraying Bettie. Especially the scene in the Revival Tent where she "feels the Holy Ghost": I've (unfortunately) seen this happen and, while it isn't always that dramatic, she nailed it. Her portrayal in general matches exactly with everything I've read about Bettie (full disclosure - I'm a long-time Bettie cultist) and I think that's as close as you'll ever get to the real deal. Even interviewing Bettie in person wouldn't have helped with the movie since her life, and probably personality, was a lot different after the period portrayed in the movie: she had a total breakdown and was institutionalised for some time after it.
Mol's acting was even more impressive when you consider what a bundle of mysterious contradictions Bettie was. She was totally uninhibited in some ways but had weird taboos in others. She was out on Fire Island once for a photo shoot with some photography club and took a break to "answer a call of nature" in the bushes. At that moment the cops rolled up in a boat and arrested everyone. The guy who organised the trip noticed on the trip back that she was shaking with emotion and asked her what had happened; wondering if perhaps the cop who had dragged her in out of the scrub had abused her in some way. "That man!", she snarled, "That man saw me go!"
She was the original "Dark Angel" who did more than anyone else to promote Bondage and assorted other fetishes but seemed to be totally clueless as to their appeal. "We did a lot of pictures about girls getting tied up. It was pretty silly. I mean, why did people want to look at that stuff anyway?"
Ahh, Bettie - a mystery for the ages!
BTW - I've always been annoyed that, while the bondage films seem to be in mint condition (it seems the bondage guys store all their artefacts in argon-filled bubbles) the rest of her film loops are mostly in awful condition. Any noble Digital Wizards out there willing to do mankind a great service and clean these up?
boo to you for devoting any time or space to perez hilton. that is a negative person who benefits from hurting others.
I got too see Jane Wiedlin's photo and it is AWESOME!
#10 posted by NadreckBTW:
I've never been into the bondage loops. But I did see a couple of very short snippets of other loops (a bubble bath and a dance routine).
I have to say that they really lessened the mystique for me. Because...well, Bettie couldn't dance all that well, apparently, something that's not captured by still shots. And in the bath her posing and hamming seemed naive, almost adolescent, rather than seductive.
It was an odd experience, a bit like a real version of the myth that Clara Bow's film career tanked once talkies arrived because of her nasal Brooklyn voice. I realized that the best things about Bettie were the nuances I'd created in my own mind. That's not to say that the same loops won't work just fine for someone else. But I think that a large part of the pin-up experience is created by the observer, and that it can be fragile.
hey the leopard print picture is untagged? is it bettie, mol OR bernie dexter??
@Anonymous
That image is one of Bunny Yeager's most iconic images of Bettie Page. I have a beautiful original signed by Bunny framed 60x40 piece for sale for $3,000 seen here http://worldofwonder.net/2009/04/29/Bunny_and_Our_Honey/ I also have signed framed Bunny 16x20's for 650. Marla Rutherford show two beautiful large images in the show as well
#13 IWOOD:
Yeah, well any erotica is going to be really subjective and the stuff with the greatest appeal is the stuff that's really suggestive because then you get to fill in the suggested stuff from your own mind; "nuances" as you say. Bettie was (IMHO) the ultimate mistress of that art. The best* of her pictures were very intimate in the sense that she seems to know what you're thinking about what she's thinking - or so you think. Her expression and pose convey messages which are responses to something which an off-camera viewer (you) is thinking: from the comedic ("These? These are my tits. Why do you ask?") to the raunchy ("That's right boy: no sleep for you tonight!"). They're frozen slices of a story that you provide the rest of from your own mind.
As to the live-action: I think I know the snippets you're talking about and they're the worst of the worst of her stuff. They're probably from one of the three colour vaudeville movies she was in as an "added attraction" (she was never really part of the vaudeville circuit). She's much better in the 8mm stuff shot by Klaw which, as I complained about above, is in sepia and white with hunks missing out of most frames.
* Given that there were literally about a million shots taken of her even a Bettie cultist like myself must admit that there were a lot of not-so-great pictures of her.
Some good pics from opening night...
http://www.chinashopmag.com/2009/05/bettie-page-heaven-bound/