The Library of Spanking Fiction: Wellred Weekly
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Articles
Items of interest regarding all things spanking
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Woman to Woman: Flopsy on Bettie Page  Bettie Page, often referred to as 'The Queen of Pinups' was born in Nashville, Tennessee on 22 April 1923. She died, aged 85, in December 2008. Her memory lives on. She is best known for her modelling and fetish photography work. The Bettie Page persona was defined by wholesome innocence one moment, and a dangerous dominance the next.Images of Bettie have inspired artists, designers, writers, BDSM enthusiasts, and the public at large; some have even credited her with launching the sexual revolution. Here is a snapshot of a segment of the life of the woman whose retro look has influenced many contemporary artists, including the iconic Queen of Burlesque, Dita Von Tees. Bondage Babe Between the years 1952 and 1957, Bettie became the first famous bondage model, posing for photographs with a sadomasochistic or bondage theme. During this time she worked chiefly with the brother and sister team, Irving and Paula Klaw, pioneer fetish photographers and film makers. Many of their silent featurettes (around 50 black and white 8mm and 16mm speciality films) starred Bettie Page alternating between playing a bound and spanked victim, and a strict dominatrix. With titles like Betty's Clown Dance and Dominant Betty Dances With Whip, she acted out various scenarios around the themes of bondage, spanking, slave-training, abduction and domination.  These so-called film loops were exhibited in peep shows and sold via mail order. Klaws managed to avoid censorship by not actually featuring any pornographic or nude material. Connoisseurs of such specialized underground fetish erotica delighted in the films that showed women, dressed in black lingerie, seamed stockings, and pumps with six-inch heels, getting spanked, trussed and gagged. But being a bondage babe didn't hold much sway with the mass audience of the 1950s, most of whom never even knew of the existence of Bettie Page. Her fans at that time were the men who watched her films and who bought the girlie mags of the day. After taking a series of acting classes in 1953 with Herbert Berghof, Bettie's career moved into roles on stage and television. She appeared in several off-Broadway plays and a number of TV shows and danced in three feature-length burlesque films. In 1954 at a time when she was the top pin-up model in New York, Bettie met photographer Bunny Yeager. This partnership resulted in the celebrated Jungle Bettie photographs, which showed Bettie clad in a home-made leopard skin lingerie outfit. Bunny later sent nude shots of Bettie to Hugh Hefner, one of which was selected for Playmate of the Month centrefold of the January 1955 issue of Playboy. Exposure in this slick new magazine gave Bettie a wider fan base. Sexual Taboos  Bettie eventually found that her provocative images violated all manner of sexual taboos during that more Puritanical time, finally invoking a United States Senate Committee investigation into pornography. She was subpoenaed to appear in a Capitol Hill courtroom to explain the photos in which she appeared, yet was never called upon to actually testify. However, the negatives of many of her photos were subsequently destroyed by court order, which effectively ended Klaw's bondage and S&M mail-order photography business.In 1957, Bettie withdrew from public life and appeared to vanish completely. Sadly, her later life was marked by mood swings and depression and several years in a state mental institution where she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. In 1959 she became a born-again Christian and worked with Billy Graham. Bettie was completely unaware that the 80s marked an era of Bettie-mania - a revival for Bettie Page with books, comics and films resurfacing to be avariciously consumed by new fans fascinated by her natural ease in front of the camera. In 2006, Bettie did an interview with The Times. She had one request for that interview – that her face would not be photographed, because "I want to be remembered," she said, "as I was when I was young and in my golden times... I want to be remembered as the woman who changed people's perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form." Bettie died in 2008, following a heart attack. She Lives On  Today, we see that Bettie Page has earned pop-cultural icon status. There are a dozen books about her, and a half-dozen movies, tribute songs, and countless websites dedicated to her. It seems that merchandising is rife – did you know that you can surf a thousand products for sale on eBay? For just $6.99 you could get a Bettie Page 'Don't Tread on Me' Metal Candle Tin and Candle, which "features an image of Bettie Page in red lingerie and licking a whip." The hallmark of modern pop culture is that everyone's famous and nobody's shocked. And when fans search the past, they look to venerate artists who were once pariahs. The old films of Bettie Page were sold secretively under the counter, or mailed in plain brown wrappers. Yet decades later she was elevated to the status of pulp goddess. Many consider Bettie Page to be one of the innovators of her time. She pushed the limits of what was accepted in society and pushed for what she believed in. 17 comments
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