All language subtitles for [Mark Mori] - Bettie Page in REVEALS ALL (2012)

Ladies and Gentlemen,
here she is now.

Let's get together
and meet that very delightful,

that sultry siren of the southland,

the lovely Bettie Page.

( crowd applauding )

( '50s beach music playing )

Who are you?

I'm an illusion.

You're an illusion?

Then you're not real?

Of course, I'm real.

It is very difficult

to find a parallel for her.

I mean, this combination of...

naughty and nice.

And it is all
in the context of innocence.

She expressed sexual liberation.

Bettie is still this subversive,

adventurous, sexual persona

that people are trying to emulate.

I think it's like the confusion

between maybe the real person

and the artwork and the cartoons,

like all of these--

it's sort of confusing even
whether she was a real person or not.

People love Bettie Page
for her whole being

for the radiance that she exuded,

the sexuality that she showed

without being cheap, ever.

And women gravitated to that concept.

The remarkable thing about her image is

how much it has influenced pop culture

from movies to music
to fashion. It's remarkable.

( "Bettie Page"
by Paul Spencer playing )

( people chattering )

Perez Hilton: One of the things
that I love about her iconography

is that she just portrayed
herself as a very strong woman,

even if she was not
in the position of power.

( women scream )

She's lasted because
she has that rare quality

that's sort of hard to define,
it's that sort of ultimate star quality.

I feel like a lot of girls like me

can identify with Bettie

because you can
kind of capture the spirit

of that sexy, sensual, timeless look.

She looks fantastic
and I think that's what men prefer.

I don't think men prefer
the really skinny, bones thin women.

I think Bettie Page is a real woman.

I mean she have form, boobs,

butt, and that's very beautiful.

I gave her a lot of credit because
she opened the door for a lot of us.

She's the most important glamour icon

that she really
paved the way for all the rest.

And she's beautiful
but yet she's approachable,

she's the girl next door.

Bettie Page is the good girl
but she's a bad girl.

She's fun, she's playful.

All right, bitch, bring it.

( all cheering )

( screams )

Oh, st-- ah!

I mean, she's the reason why
we're all here today

in a sense is because of her,

I mean, she's the original pinup girl,
she's the original.

We're all going to be dust,

they'll be nothing else anymore,

and there'll always be
Bettie Page no matter what.

She had the magic.

She was deeply religious.

She was willing to do
all kinds of crazy outrageous things.

There's some rather large skeletons
in that woman's closet.

How do you reconcile that behavior

with the image that she projects
in these photographs?

She reached the peak of popularity
in her profession and disappeared.

Nobody knew
what happened to Bettie Page.

( Avery Parrish's
"After Hours" playing )

( "Amazing Grace" playing on bagpipes )

Bettie, if you know what's going on,

I want to tell you this is your friend
Robert Schuller saying,

"This too is the day that God has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it."

We all thought we knew her
from different perspectives,

but I'm sure no one
will leave this place today

without having had another glimpse

into the private heart of Bettie.

Mark Mori: Okay, Bettie,
I'll just ask you some questions.

Bettie: Okay.

Mark: You were born in Nashville, right?

Bettie: I was born
in Nashville, Tennessee,

April 22nd, 1923.

We were so poor, we lived on beans,

fried potatoes, and macaroni.

You couldn't talk to Mama,

she didn't want
any girls in the first place.

She always wanted only two boys.

My father was
a womanizer of the worst sort.

A sex fiend is the way to put it.

I mean sex with anything that
he could get his "you know what" into.

Chickens, and sheep,
and cows, and anything.

And in order to get 10 cents
to go to the movies,

I let him fool around on the outside.

Now, he didn't penetrate me inside
like he did my two sisters.

Mama left him and hitchhiked
30 miles to Nashville

with six children,

and she was uneducated,
only a third grade education,

she had no trade at all,

and she couldn't take care
of all six of us children,

so my two sisters and I were put
in a Protestant orphanage for a year.

The orphanage was run
by three old maids.

They would talk to us like dogs,
they were very mean to us,

and they had me
scrubbing floors all the time.

I was only 11 years old then.

We just hated that place.

I was so glad to get out of there.

I learned to pose
from movie star pictures

in magazines and newspapers.

And my sisters and I
would try to mimic their poses.

We'd even get out in the front yard
with our underwear on.

( Bettie laughs )

I had several photographers

and amateur photographers

come up
and approach me and ask me

if they could take pictures of me,
I always said yes.

My dream when I was in high school
was to be Valedictorian,

and I studied so hard
trying to be Valedictorian

because with it was a four year
scholarship to Vanderbilt University.

But I was beat out of Valedictorian

by one-quarter of a point now,

can you imagine, and I had to settle
for being Salutatorian.

And all I got
was a $100 scholarship

to George Peabody College
for Teachers.

After high school,
I started dating Billy Neal.

He was a big sports hero around town.

And he taught me to dance,

which I've always loved.

And he taught me
everything about sex too,

which I enjoyed.

Well, when the war came on,

he was drafted one day into the army,

and he started bugging me
about marrying him.

We got on the bus and went

30 miles to Galliton, Tennessee,

and were married in five minutes.

And when I got on the bus
to go back with him,

I said to myself, "What have I done?"

Well, we were in San Francisco, 1 944.

And this fella,
he took a lot of pictures of me

and sent some of them
down to 20th Century Fox.

I had a screen test with John Russell

who later played
the lawman on a TV series.

But that test was awful.

They tried to make me up

to look like Joan Crawford.

Didn't even look like me.

( 20th Century Fox theme playing )

While I was at the studio,

- this big car pulled up beside me...
- ( wolf whistles )

...and a big fat guy,

very ugly looking fella,

wanted me to go to dinner with him.

I told him no.

And he said, "You'll be sorry. "

Well, he was at the head of the table

when I went to learn

the results of the screen test.

That test was awful.

I was so disappointed and unhappy

over the failure of the screen test,

when I got back to San Francisco,

I started eating.

Within two months,
I ballooned way up to 162 pounds.

Well, my sister came to visit me,

Goldie, from Nashville.

She said that the landlord,
he had cussed her out

and accused her of causing

the sink in the bathroom
to fall off the wall.

I went to the door,
and boy, he flew in on me,

beating me in the face
with his fist, just a mad man.

And Goldie grabbed the milk bottle
and cracked him over the head with it.

And he started bleeding
down the front of his head,

and he thought
he was dying, and we did too.

Because Goldie was underage,

under 21,
I'm the one who had to testify,

even though I'm not the one
who hit him over the head.

But they gave me a 30-day suspended
sentence and I had to pay 10 dollars,

and it was in the paper,
a great big picture of me

and a big headline,
"Tenant Bashes Landlord".

( Bettie chuckles )

Well, Billy came back
from fighting overseas.

He had battle fatigue,
you know, he was in the hospital,

in the army hospital
in Guam for about six months.

When he came home,
he wasn't the same guy.

He was a jealous maniac.

Accused me of sleeping
with every sailor in San Francisco,

and he went off the deep end.

So I tried so hard to make a go of it
with him but it was impossible.

We were sitting in the kitchen,

and he had a knife right at my throat,

he was gonna cut me with it
if I divorced him.

I went ahead
and divorced him anyhow.

When I went to New York,
I was getting over

my divorce from Billy Neal
and the miserable marriage.

I liked all the lights on Broadway.

And I liked Central Park.

All I paid for my apartment
on West 46th Street,

46 dollars and 29 cents a month.

I used to go
to the Roseland ballroom.

And then I went dancing so much.

I was a movie fiend in those days.

Didn't cost much of anything,
40 or 50 cents,

something like that,
to see a double feature.

One night, I was very lonely,

and I was walking along Broadway,
and a good looking fella came up

and started talking to me,
introduced himself.

He was very polite and courteous,
seemed like a very nice fella.

He asked me,
"Would like to go dancing?"

I said, "Sure, I'd love to go. "

So we got in the car,

and he and I sat in the back,

and the girlfriend
and the boyfriend driving.

Well, we stopped at a red light,
and two guys jumped in the car.

We went farther on,

two more fellas got in the car.

But when it hit me,
a big pain shot through me

as we crossed that bridge and I thought,

"We are not going dancing. "

You can imagine
how you would have felt then

with six men in the car
and the two women.

The guy in front and his girlfriend

got out of the car
and went behind the building.

I thought real fast,
and I said I'm menstruating,

you can't have sex with me.

And all five
of those snakes forced me

to perform oral sex
on every one of them.

They could have killed me or something
and left me dead behind that school.

I went home to Mama right away,
I was so frightened.

Back in New York,
the first secretarial job I ever had

in New York was
for the American Bread Company.

I was a secretary
to the office manager.

I had a small room up on the fifth floor
of an old brownstone house.

( knocking on door )

Somebody knocked
on the door around midnight.

Woman: Who is it?

And he said,
"Bettie, open the door, it's Billy. "

- Woman: What do you want?
- Bettie: "Let me in. "

A friend of mine in the next apartment,
a little fella named Jimmy,

a 50-year-old man,
came out to the door

and asked what was going on.

Well, Billy told him
to mind his own business,

and he cut
little Jimmy across the face,

a couple of inches with a knife now.

He was going to kill me with a knife
is what he was going to do.

He must have left.

He didn't come back.

I was working
as secretary, way up high

in the Eastern Airlines building
on the 12th floor,

overlooking the skating rink
in Rockefeller Center,

a very nice place to work.

And that's where I met the love
of my life, Carlos Garcia Arrese.

( laughs )

You know I was a nut
over dancing back in those days.

And he taught me the rumba,
and mambo, and cha-cha, and samba.

And he was very good at it.

Well, we dated
and we were making mad love,

he was a very good lover.

One night I was up at his apartment,

all of a sudden,
a big loud knocking on the door,

"Carlos, open up the door,
l know you're in there. "

And she was really mad,
and I thought, oh gosh, who's that?

And he said, "Bettie, that's my wife. "

I said, "Your wife!"

I never felt so low in my life,
I felt like two cents.

I didn't want to see him again
because he had deceived me.

But if I had known he was married
I would never have dated him.

I always wanted
to be a fashion model.

And I went to-- let's see, what was
the name of the most famous one?

Ford, that's it. She says, "Oh, my. "

She says, "You would never do
as a fashion model. "

She says, "In the first place,
you're not tall enough. "

But she says, "More than that, "
she says, "you're too hippy. "

You've got to be
skin and bones, you know.

Even back then,
to be a fashion model.

In October 1 950,
I was walking out on Coney Island.

Nobody was on the beach in that area,

except this black fella, Jerry Tibbs.

He gave me his card and he said,
"I'm a Brooklyn policeman. "

He said, "I think you'd make
a good pinup modeI. "

He said, "l have a studio,
if you wouId come over there

free of charge,
I'll make you up a portfolio

that you could
take around to the studios. "

I posed in a couple of bikinis of his.

But he said, "Bettie, have you ever
tried to wear bangs?"

He said, "You have a very high forehead,
I think you'd look good in bangs. "

So I went home and cut me some.

And I've been wearing them ever since,
its sort of been a trademark of mine,

I'm still wearing them.

Mark: That's that
famous Bettie Page look, isn't it?

( Bettie laughs )

Bettie: I think I was about 27

when I started modeling,

but I looked much younger.

All of the writers and editors

would say I was 22 years old,

they were saying that
for years that I was 22.

I never refuted it, I never said
anything one way or another,

let them think what they wanted to.

( Bettie laughs )

The first modeling I did
was for the camera clubs.

First one was Cass Carr
who was an orchestra leader.

Every Sunday we'd say we're going out

to Headly Farm
in New Jersey or some other farm,

or we're going out to Fire Island
or Broad Channel Bay.

Bettie Page and four other amateur
models will be with them,

and it would cost
ten dollars or five dollars.

Bettie: There would be maybe
30 or 40 camera club members

and three or four models.

We would go
on field trips, on weekends,

upstate New York, over in New Jersey,

on the beaches,
especially on Fire Island.

I got 25 dollars a day.

And we would be gone all afternoon
and they would bring lunches,

and I enjoyed
the outings very much.

They were always polite
and courteous to us.

I enjoyed posing for them.

It was absolutely fun
photographing Bettie.

And I could tell, I think
it shows up in the photographs,

that she enjoyed it too.

She was happy.

She was exhilarated.

She projected.

She came right out at you.

Whereas others were just pretty.

When she turned,
she didn't just turn and smile,

her hands, her body, her feet,

everything moved, everything moved.

She smiled with her face,
she smiled with her whole body.

And that's something very few girls got.

Amsie: The good pinup
involves three things:

Pose, clothes, and expression.

She knew just when I said, pert, saucy,

frisky, haughty, angry, sullen,

whereas with many other models
I'd have to tell them,

"Well, no, tilt
your head up a little bit,"

"Move it up like that,"
"Raise your eyes," etcetera.

She would pop up
into that right away.

Bettie: I was very happy posing.

And I never had any problem

thinking of what to do with my body.

I could think of a thousand different
poses that just came natural to me.

Sometimes I would imagine

the camera was my boyfriend.

And I would play to my boyfriend.

Amsie: All I do know is that
when Bettie Page was announced

as being the feature model

of next Sunday's shoot,

there was a big crowd.

Mark: Did the guys in the camera clubs

ask you out for dates a lot?

Bettie: No.

Now I wouldn't date anybody
who drank or smoke.

I just don't like the taste
of cigarettes on your breath,

and I hate alcohol.

One of the most interesting
characters in this entire story

was Richard Arbib,

one of her ex-boyfriends.

He was a top designer of the '50s.

Designed cars, watches,
extremely well known designer.

Richard had split up with his wife,

and met Bettie,

and they had a red hot romance,

they were deeply in love.

He took her
in his two seater down to Florida.

Arbib:
Well, we just decided we'd take off

and go to Florida for three weeks.

She wanted to have sex with me
in the car and I said,

"If you're going to do that, I've got
to stop 'cause I'll go off the road. "

So she's going away at me,

and all of a sudden
there's a flashlight in the door,

it was raining cats and dogs,
there's a state trooper there.

And I thought he was going to arrest us
for having sex in the car.

All he said was, "You all know
you've got one tail light out. "

Bettie had a very normal sex life.

She wasn't inhibited,
she wasn't hung up in any way at all.

She liked sex
and she was very good at it.

Theakson: Arbib told me
he designed a watch for Bettie.

It was a custom made piece
for Bettie Page.

He was renowned for his watches.

This was a unique
one of a kind piece.

He presented it to her
and she wore it proudly.

And for some reason,
Richard decided that

he was going to give it
one more shot with his wife,

and it didn't work out with his wife,

and when he came back,
Bettie was gone.

And that was the regret of his life.

All of the guys that I knew
that met this woman,

had this, "The one that got away"
ennui about them.

She wasn't just a pretty face with
nothing behind it, she was not a facade.

She had a high IQ.

And had a great range
of things that interested her.

Bettie:
I used to make a lot of my clothes.

I made all my bikinis,
most of my lingerie.

I enjoyed making them.

Bettie used to design stuff.

She could have made a fortune.

'Cause she had an eye for it,
she knew what was sexy.

Bettie: Bikinis were never heard of
on the beaches in this country.

( big band music playing )

Male announcer: Don't know what
the wild waves are saying,

but the gals are talking about
the latest thing in swimming attire.

A suit with a built in girdle.

Bettie: I made them real skimpy.

It was considered very risqué.

One of the jobs I had in New York

was with a couple
down in Greenwich Village.

Well, they had me bring
every one of my costumes,

especially all my bikinis.

And I wondered why they had me
change costumes so many times.

And then they had taken my designs

from the pictures they'd took of me

and had them
manufactured under my name

and selling them
as "Bettie Page's Bikinis" now.

I should have sued them or something,
but I didn't do anything about it.

The first bona fide
commercial work I did

was for Robert Harrison's magazines.

You know,
he had five or six girly books.

Wink, Titter, Flirt, Beauty Parade.

They had four
or five writers in the back room

that made up all kinds
of crazy things we had to act out.

But one thing I didn't like
and none of the other girls did either,

Robert Harrison insisted
that our breasts be taped.

He was a nut about the cleavage.

I'd have to hold my breasts together,

and they put a great big thick
two-inches wide tape,

all the way across.

I hated that.

Mr. Harrison said,
"Bettie, I want you to represent

my magazines at the artists ball. "

They have a contest
for the best costume.

And guess what I was wearing?

Just two telephone dials,
one over this breast, one over this,

and a suggestion box,

and black net stockings up to the waist,

and that was it, and I won it that year,

and I got a whole set
of Revere kitchen ware.

( Bettie laughs )

( patriotic classical music playing )

Announcer: Estes Kefauver of the Senate
crime investigation fame

brings the Democratic
political pot to boil

by announcing his candidacy
for the presidential nomination.

Bettie: Senator Estes Kefauver.

He's from my home state, you know.

He was trying to drum up votes,

and get the public on his side,

by going after juvenile delinquency
and pornography.

What I expected,
having served in World War II,

which I thought was a fight
for democracy and liberation,

what I expected after World War II was

something like what I perceived
as the "Roaring '20s" was like

after World War I, a huge celebration.

And what we actually got
was repression.

Repression on several fronts,

it was social and sexual and political.

Man: Are you now or have you ever been
a member of the Communist Party?

The thing that
the American people can do

is to be vigilant, day and night.

To make sure
they don't have communists

teaching the sons
and daughters of America.

We have an image of the fifties
as a time when everything was placid

and everybody lived in
a sort of Ozzie and Harriet life,

but going on
at the same time in the culture

was an enormous amount of fear

of infiltration of new things

that were going
to undermine and infect the culture,

and make
the youth of America delinquents,

as the term that had been invented.

And a lot of it focused on pornography.

Male announcer:
The peddling of obscene books,

a furtive and despicable occupation

has become a lucrative sideline

for unscrupulous shopkeepers
in some high school neighborhoods.

Smith: People basically,
I think, felt that anything

that got people sexually
excited was a bad thing.

I mean, even to talk about sex
in the 1 950s was a taboo.

The Postmaster General
had a very visible campaign

of trying to suppress
the use of the mails

to deliver sexually explicit materials.

Postal inspectors could open your mail,

they could confiscate it,

they could come
and do raids on your premises

to keep you from mailing
material at another time.

Of course they could
turn you over to the prosecution.

So they had a great deal
of power at their disposal.

Anything that would be
perceived as being lewd,

a term pretty broad,

could be treated as a crime

if you circulated it through the mail.

And certainly nudity alone
was considered enough to be obscene

by the standards
of the authorities at the time.

Bettie: I don't even believe God
disapproves of nudity,

after all, he put Adam and Eve

in the Garden of Eden
naked as jaybirds.

As a part of posing for the camera club,

most of it was in bikinis,

but sometimes there would be

a few shots topless.

Theakson: Bettie Page was very sexual,

but in a very free
and innocent kind of way.

She's gorgeous

and she makes you feel good.

She makes direct eye contact with you,

and it's engaging.

I've seen her work

with some very shy newcomers,

and actually help them out.

Bettie would suggest something,
"How 'bout this one,

how 'bout this one,
how 'bout this one?"

And that way she would
get him out of his shell.

Theakson:Bettie is sexuality
in it's sparkly, cleanest,

most beautiful, charming, smilingest.

Theakson: But there was some discussion

about the kind of women

that would do camera club shoots

because primarily they were nude,
totally nude shoots.

And Bettie would say,

"Whenever there was
a shoot that I was attending,

where things started
getting sketchy, I got out of there. "

Amsie: Everybody would have
liked to date Bettie Page,

but nobody made the moves.

Mark: Are there any boyfriends
of Bettie that you know of,

that you've talked to her
that you know of?.

I talked to a lot of guys,

not only photographers, but her lovers.

Charles West was one of them.

Apparently met her
through a camera club.

He did a notorious series
of photographs with Bettie.

Charles West: One day, a Saturday,
she and I were walking

down 5th Ave. at Rockefeller Center.

She wore that same
tight translucent sweater.

We were on our way to a shooting session
in the Time Life building.

You should have seen the swiveling
heads, both male and female.

My God, wasn't she beautiful.

Gorgeous.

My photos were taken very privately,

I never intended
for any of them to be published.

God gave her a lovely body
and she knew it.

As a model,
she used it to full advantage.

Her body was
absolutely without blemish,

and everything

exactly right in proportion.

And that was the same with her face,
and you put the two together,

and you had
just about the perfect woman.

There was also a very sheer
pair of white panties.

Also, super long black
opera length gloves.

She was absolutely pure,

plain and natural.

And of course she shows up
that way in her photographs.

And I just think
you see the real girl there.

No one ever dominated Betts,

either physically or psychologically.

She was her own person and she never
could have mistreated anyone.

Yes, she and I made love.

And she was marvelous.

She's an extraordinary creature.

My memories of Betts are ever present.

Nudity back then was, was very unusual.

That was '52,

a time of restrictive sexuality.

You talked
to your friends in college even,

and the fellow
who had been sexually active

was the unusual guy.

Know when and how

you're going to say "no".

Take the case of the girl
who finds herself in this situation.

Girl in car:
Say, is anybody else hungry?

How about it you two, couldn't we go
someplace for something to eat?

Heinlein: I was on my way
into the army at that time,

on my way to Korea eventually.

So I thought it was a time
to have a little bit of fun.

Bettie:
We were upstate New York on a farm.

Mark: But maybe this have been
your first opportunity

to see a woman without
much clothes on?

Ah, that's not a bad guess.

( laughter )

Heinlein: The photographers
all sort of gravitated to Bettie Page.

You were drawn as if by a magnet.

She lit up the place.

I don't think
anybody can really explain

why some people
have that kind of charisma.

It was kind of
a revolution for me really

to see that openness.

Bettie: Somebody went
to the police about it,

some old fogy no doubt,
went to the police and said

we were running around
in the woods nude out there.

And here came a squad car.

Man: Calling car 6 and 7 eighths,
car 6 and 7 eighths.

Heinlein:
Here they are coming with drawn guns,

coming on a bunch of photographers.

I mean, what were we going to do?

I mean, this is absolute nonsense.

And they said, "Also, take
the pictures out of your cameras."

I opened the back of the camera.

The counter, which may have been,

say on film number 5,

well, I snapped back to zero.

I immediately closed the camera
and thought to myself,

why not try to keep

what films I have in the camera.

And I showed it to one
of the deputies and I said,

"Look, you see, the counter's on zero,

but to tell you the truth
I have a new roll in there,

I'd rather not expose it
by opening the back. "

I said, "Okay if I keep it that way?"

And he said sure.

But I didn't come upon the idea
of holding onto those photos

until I saw it snap back to zero.

The charming thing was that

a little kitten wandered by.

And she picked it up,

and she held it to her breast.

I found that exquisite.

And I did take a picture of that
but half of it was destroyed.

One of the deputies said something,

which was rather nasty,

but I do remember her saying,

"Don't you talk to me like that.

I won't have it. "

And I think she had more courage

than the dozen and a half
photographers that were there.

They decided to charge the guys
for disturbing the peace,

and the girls for indecent exposure.

Heinlein:
She was just terribly offended by it.

Menning:
Bettie says, "I'm not indecent.

I will not plead guilty to that. "

Bettie:
And we sat there in the anteroom,

outside the court room for five hours.

( Menning speaking )

Theakson: Bettie demanded
that this release form be rewritten

so that it didn't say
"indecent exposure".

Bettie: And the judge warned us

never to come in his county again.

( Bettie chuckles )

Theakson: Her being put in jail
because she was posing,

making a living,
gave her pause for thought.

She really had never considered
that it could happen to her.

And in fact, it was an alarm
to wake her up to the fact

that a lot of people
did not like what she was doing.

( dramatic classical music playing )

On Friday, we shall continue
the investigation of the relationship

of pornographic
materials to delinquency.

Hefner: In the 1950s,

the repression
was coming from the government.

And it also involved Kefauver
and his investigations,

in terms of pornography and crime.

You couldn't sell in many places

a magazine that had the kinds of nudity

that we see in a modern Playboy.

That was considered going too far.

Bettie: I never had any bad feelings

about posing in the nude

or semi-nude outfits.

I found out I could make
more money posing in two hours

than I'd make all week as a secretary.

All the girls
who worked for Robert Harrison

would end up posing for lrving Klaw.

He had a big business,
he and his sister Paula,

selling movie star pictures
before they got into, locally,

shooting models in New York.

And one of the cameramen
brought her in and said,

she's a super model, she works well,

and she's a love, give her a shot.

And we did.
You should have seen her then.

The long black hair
and always smiling,

giggling and whatever,
she was so great to work with.

She loved posing.

Bettie: Irving Klaw,
he was a real sweet fella.

He was a big fat chubby guy.

And he was sort of short
and he was almost bald.

But he was so nice.

He never made any passes
at the women or anything.

They would bring food there,
sandwiches and all for us.

They were always
very generous about that.

Paula Klaw: He got some of the ideas
from some of the customers.

And he would sort of talk to me about,

"What do you think of this
and what do you think of that",

and between the two of us
we'd figure it out.

In some of her earliest
Irving Klaw photos,

Bettie looked a little gawky.

But Klaw would give her
a set of these photos.

She could summarize
what she was doing right

and what she was doing wrong,

and I think she became
a much better model.

Paula Klaw:
She liked being in front of the camera.

She enjoyed her body.

She liked the way she looked.

She liked her hair.

She enjoyed herself.

She never cried about anything--

"It's too tight, '"'It's too loose, "

"Don't do that, " or anything.

She was just a super lady to work with.

Bettie: Irving said I was
his most famous model that he ever had,

and he had some
1,500 pictures of me going.

A lot of them to service men.

Paula Klaw: We made this set
of pictures, we'd advertise it,

and we noticed the increase in sales.

Bettie: One of the biggest sellers

is a picture of me wearing

my little leopard-skin bikini,
and I'm looking real mean,

holding this whip
with one foot up on a stool

and a cigarette dangling
out the side of my mouth.

And the teenagers.

Irving said that's
their favorite picture of me now.

You know, I never smoked.

( Bettie laughs )

I hate cigarettes.

Well, I shot stills but there was
more money into making films

so we started with the 16mm,

because that was
very popular at that time.

( "Curves of Bettie Page" playing )

♪ Well, she's a drama queen
from a golden age ♪

♪ Talking about
the curves of Bettie Page ♪

♪ Flinging through
the pages though, I just can't wait ♪

♪ She's the kind of woman
that I want to date ♪

♪ Oh, Bettie, Bettie, Bettie, Bettie ♪

♪ Oh, Bettie, Uh-huh-huh ♪

♪ Oh, Bettie, Bettie, Bettie, Bettie ♪

♪ Oh, Bettie, yeah ♪

♪ I'm gonna run to you, girl,
I'm on the rampage ♪

♪ Just want Bettie, Bettie Page, yeah! ♪

( whip cracks )

( whip cracks )

Bettie: Seven inch heels,

one pair, that he kept for me only,

that fitted me just fine
that I could wiggle around,

and move around,
and kick around in those.

Menning: Yeah, Bettie could walk great
in high heels, unlike most girls.

Most girls, they could
walk in high heels,

some of them,
but they didn't look natural.

Bettie, she could move in 'em just like,

just like she was in moccasins.

Paula Klaw: My brother
would set it up and I would direct,

and I worked the 16mm.

Male announcer:
Teaserama is a complete,

all new burlesque show,

filmed in beautiful new Eastman Color.

Teaserama features the world's
most beautiful, exotic girls.

Tempest Storm is the girl
with a 40-plus bust,

who goes 3D two better!

So big, we had to use
wide screen to film Teaserama.

Bettie Page,
the nation's top pinup queen.

There's sexy seconds
to every minute in Teaserama.

Bettie: In one of them starring
Tempest Storm, I played her maid.

And I also introduced the acts

wearing my bikinis and other costumes.

And then I did a little dance number.

It was a nothing tap dance I made up

within a half an hour
before the movie was to be shot.

Paula Klaw: There was no sex
in those movies that we shot.

It was just fun.

Bettie: Irving Klaw would pay me $150

every time I did one of these movies.

And I would take the money
and go to visit my mother in Pittsburgh,

or my brothers in Nashville,

or my sister in Coral Gables.

Bettie happened to be in Miami
on a little vacation.

And she gave me a call.

And she said she was
a New York model.

And I said, "Oh,"
and I was very impressed.

Bettie: I posed for Bunny

in Florida in the spring of 1954.

She had just started out
as a photographer,

she used to be a pinup model.

I said, "You do pinup modeling?"

And she says, "I do nudes, too."

And when I heard that
she did nudes, I was really excited

because I had never photographed

a professional nude model before.

So I told her to come on over,
I would use her sight unseen.

Bettie was so perfect in every way.

It would be hard for anybody
to take a bad picture of Bettie.

Bettie: Because she was a woman,

I felt more comfortable
posing in the nude for Bunny.

And we'd go out there
about 7:00 in the morning

before anybody came on the beaches
and do our shooting then.

( "Casbah" by
Los Straightjackets playing )

Bunny: We worked so well together
because she caught on

to what I was trying to get out of her.

And she just played like she was
a teenager in front of the camera,

and followed
every direction I gave her.

And that was a thrill too,

because I had not worked
with somebody that professional before.

You knew she was trying
to look her very best.

She would work on her tan

and sunbathe the nude
for a certain time everyday

so that her skin would be so glorious.

Bettie had a different torso
than most girls.

Her bone structure there,

close to her waistline,

went way in to a very tiny waist.

And there are very few girls
that are built like that.

Bettie: I was 36-24-37.

I worked out
at the health club three times a week.

I've always liked to exercise.

I wanted to keep in shape
for my modeling.

Bunny: She lied to me about her age.

She told me she was 24 when she posed
for me but she was much older.

I think that she was 32.

We shot pictures at Kiddie Land Park.

And I put her in a bikini

and shot her on the merry-go-round

and all these stupid rides.

And she, she had a ball, you know.

We had to go
before they opened up at 10:00

because I was getting worried
with the briefness of the bathing suits.

I was a little scared and I thought,
"Bettie, we might get arrested.

How do you feel about that?"

And he says, "Oh, I wouldn't
want to, but you know.

What are we going to do?"

So we just took our chances.

So they're very sensual pictures.

Very sexy.

( boat motor humming )

Bunny: We went out on the boat
and it was late in the afternoon,

and the sun was already getting low.

But that made for
good shadowing of Bettie's body

for some beautiful nudes on the boat.

And she actually caught a fish
while I was shooting her.

It was unbelievable.

I had never seen anybody
catch a fish so fast.

We must have been in good waters.

But that picture that you see
of Bettie holding the fish up.

That was for real.

While we were shooting
some pinups on the beach one day,

I asked Bettie,
"Are you afraid of wild animals?"

( tribal music playing )

Bunny: I had seen
too many Tarzan movies, I think.

Bettie: She set up a session
for me up in Boca Raton

at Little Africa
to pose with the animals.

Bunny: When you come into Africa USA,

they had a greeter at the gate,

dressed all up like a native.

I said, "Would you like to take
some pictures with my model?"

He said, "Sure. "
He was happy about that.

Bettie: I was very fond
of my one-piece outfit

that I made
with the scallops and high bottoms.

I was dressed just like a cheetah.

There wasn't much to the bottom of it,

but maybe that was
the most alluring part of it.

I was very proud of that design.

( Bettie laughs )

Bettie: The pictures that sold the most
were with two cheetahs.

Beautiful animals.

They had been sick the night before

and they were in a bad temper.

I was afraid to be around 'em.

Bunny: The trainer said, "Please,
don't let go of that chain, Bettie,

because if they run,

they run 55 miles and hour
and they'll be gone. "

She kept control,

and we got great pictures.

All my life I had worshiped

these pinup girls
on the calendars, and I thought,

"I'd love to shoot a calendar
of someone as beautiful as Bettie. "

And I thought, the holiday season
will be coming up soon.

And I had
this little white Christmas Tree.

And I had her pose,

kneeling on a white shag rug.

Bettie: I didn't know that Bunny Yeager

was going to send pictures
to Mr. Hefner for Playboy Magazine.

Hefner: She was Miss January of 1955,

but Bettie had a fame
that kind of coincided

and predated
her appearance in Playboy.

Bettie:
You know, that little Santa Claus hat

and I'm winking,
and I'm sitting on my knees

with a little Christmas Tree ball
covering "you know where".

( Bettie laughs )

She had a very unique look
and also a very unique attitude.

Bettie: Back in New York,

you couldn't work for lrving

without doing about an hour
or an hour and a half of bondage,

or you didn't get paid.

Bondage, I'm noted for being

the number one
bondage queen, they call me.

( Bettie laughs )

Most of the work came

from requests he would get in the mail,

from doctors, lawyers,

businessmen,

men up in high society even,

wanted all of these things.

Paula Klaw: One was a big official
in the government

and one guy was a big lawyer.

Mark: Are either
of these guys still alive?

No, I don't think so.

So you care to say who they were?

No. Promises.

Paula Klaw: The guy came in
with all the rubber outfits.

And there was leather.

There's a big leather fetish out there.

Men wanted her with the boots on.

Pay for it,
bring the costumes, we'll do it.

Bettie: For some reason,
men like to see girls,

one spanking the other one.

Why, I don't know.

And they liked
to see women helpless, tied up.

I never thought it was anything strange.

Theakson: Bettie had not been exposed
to this type of culture.

She was instructed
that this is what the job was.

To her it was acting.

Which she enjoyed doing,
which is why her bondage stuff

is just so terrific,
because she's acting.

She's making believe
that she's terrified.

For the most part,
anybody in a bondage photograph is

just going on
like half-assed, hardly doing it.

Bettie was acting.

Bettie: Paula, she was the only one
that ever tied us up.

She didn't hurt us,
she was very careful about it.

Paula Klaw:
She felt safe with me being there.

Don't hurt the babies, you know.

Bettie: Some of the pictures
looked like I was really being hurt.

There was only one time
that I was ever frightened.

Some guy, some lawyer
I think he was, wanted me tied up.

And my feet were off the ground
about six inches.

I thought my arm holes
were going to pull out of the sockets.

And I said,
"Hurry up, it's hurting me. "

And they kept shooting me
from all kinds of angles.

And finally they let me down.

And Irving later told me
that those pictures sold more

than any picture that he'd ever sold

of movie stars than anybody else.

( Bettie laughs )

About two months later...

I was doing
a little 16mm wrestling movie.

I heard something pop.

I couldn't straighten out
my right knee at all.

Finally, I called a doctor.

He said,
"It'll be about a six inch scar. "

He said, "You won't be able
to do your pinup modeling anymore. "

I was lying in bed
feeling very unhappy

at the thought that
I wouldn't be able to model anymore.

And all of a sudden,
I heard a man's voice

just as loud and clear
as you'd hear any human talk.

He said, "Bettie, you can
straighten out your knee. Try it. "

And within a couple of seconds
I was able to straighten out my knee.

I knew immediately
it was the voice of God.

Theakson: She was the girl next door.

Just so good,
and went to church on Sunday,

that women identified with,
that they liked the idea

that they could exude sexuality

and not be thought of as a tramp,

that she's playing a role,

whether it be dominatrix

or the girl next door,

and it was never demeaning
at any point whatsoever.

Bettie: The craziest request I ever had,

this guy wanted me to pose

in a black leather pony outfit

that he sent to Irving and Paula.

I had to get on all fours like a horse,

and my head covered up
with this hood on.

I said, "Well, how would he even know
who was under there at all?"

You couldn't even see my face.

We died laughing about it.

And some we turned away.

Well, there were no nudes,
that's number one.

If there were men
in the pictures, it was pornographic.

And we didn't want to sell
anything that was pornographic.

( Menning speaking )

( knocking on door )

Bettie: These two guys
came to me and said,

"Bettie, we want you to testify
against Irving Klaw as a pornographer. "

I said, "What are you talking about?
Irving never even did nudes. "

They'd come in with search warrants.

They took a bunch of stuff.

They took a lot of the photographs
and negatives of the models.

They confiscated our mail
and we were getting bad publicity.

( dramatic classical music playing )

( gavel bangs )

Male announcer: Repercussions
from the New York hearings

have been nationwide,
with contempt and perjury citations

indicated by the committee.

Bettie: Now there's supposed
to be a young boy,

I think he was 17 years old,
somewhere in Florida.

The Kefauver committee was blaming me

for contributing to juvenile delinquency

because this boy killed himself
looking at one of my bondage pictures.

What would I have to do with that?

Man: Sir, I direct
your attention specifically

to page 3 of this publication,
showing a young lady trussed up.

And ask you to look at that picture,

with her arms tied
behind her back, her mouth gagged.

There is a definite connection

between this sort of thing
and his death.

Bettie: They made me
come down to the courthouse,

and they had me
sit outside the courtroom

while they had Irving on the stand.

Man: Mr. Chairman,
our investigation reveals

that Mr. Klaw is one of
the largest distributors

of obscene, lewd,
and fetish photographs

throughout the country by mail.

I decline to answer

under the Fifth Amendment
of the Constitution.

Well, Mr. Klaw, I must warn you that

I'll have you cited for contempt.

Do you still refuse to answer?

I decline to answer.

Would that be sufficient or should I say
it all the way through, Mr. Kefauver?

Kefauver: We're not asking any quarter

nor giving any quarter, Mr. Klaw.

Bettie: Those creeps.

Ol' Kefauver and his committee.

I told them, "I'm not testifying
and lying about Irving Klaw. "

I said, "I don't care.
You can't force me to do it. "

I said, "I won't do it. "

But we also went before the judge.

And the judge said,
"You want to keep your freedom,

you have to destroy all the negatives. "

I said that was wrong.

We have every right to do
and print whatever we like.

We're not hurting anybody.

And so I was the one that was
in charge of chucking it away.

But I didn't.

We did hide them,
until we were sure that the courts

would throw it out

and agree that this was not pornography.

I kept the ones I know I could sell,
just the ones with Bettie.

I knew one day
these were going to be famous.

Bettie: She was able
to sneak a few of mine away

that they didn't know about.

Nearly all three-fourths of his pictures

that he had taken
in his movie star photos and all,

they were all burned.

And it just ruined the poor man

and put him in bad health,
and he ended up dying.

I always thought, live and let live.

Let anybody do what they want to do

as long as they're
not hurting anybody else.

I still feel that way.

Mark: There was
a lot of people in America

that would have considered
what you were doing

to be nasty back in those days.

I never thought
I was doing anything wrong.

I never even thought there was
anything wrong about the bondage.

The only thing I regret
in all of my modeling experience,

one time three
camera clubs got together.

And they got me
to drinking blackberry brandy,

it's very tasty, you know.

And I must have gotten drunk,
the only time in my life I was drunk.

But I don't remember what happened,

I remember starting to pose for them

in my regular poses
but never open poses.

And there were four or five shots.

And I was so disappointed in it.

That's one of the reasons
I left New York,

was because of those pornographic
pictures being sold on me.

I was 34 in 1957,

and I thought
I was getting too old to model.

And that there were
so many pictures of me around,

I thought the photographers
were tired of shooting me.

And then too I'd had all that unhappy
experience with the Kefauver committee.

So I just left everything.

She just disappeared
and there was much mystique about her.

Nobody knew beyond that,

that their was
a fascinating story about this woman,

who reached the peak of popularity
in her profession and disappeared.

Over my years of research,
I heard a lot of crazy rumors.

That she was slinging hash in Texas,

that she had married Lash LaRue,

that she had moved to England
and married a duke.

That the mob had rubbed her out
because of a photo shoot gone bad.

That she had passed out literature

in the Chicago O'Hare airport
for Billy Graham.

That was the only one that was true.

The whole Bettie Page phenomenon,

which is separate
from the human being,

developed while
she was simply off the scene,

and she was not really aware of it.

Bettie: It still amazes me

after 40 years,

as popular as my pictures are now,

especially with young people.

Most of the boys say
they learned about me

from their fathers' girly magazines
that they found in the attic,

or prowling through their fathers'
dresser drawers and things like that.

( Bettie chuckles )

And they claim that I opened up
the sexual revolution.

( chuckles )

Robert Blue: The first time
that I ever saw Bettie Page

in any of this material, I mean,
I immediately recognized her

as someone that had the visual power

to provoke something inside.

I was thinking
that I was doing something

that was part of
the modernist movement of painting

and that was to take
a taboo photograph,

blow it up bigger than life-size
in a beautiful oil painting,

and put it in a high-end gallery.

Bettie Page really set the stage

for the vogue photographers

that came in the '7 0s and the '80s.

Olivia De Berardinis: There's never
been anyone like Bettie before.

Monroe had Harlow and Dietrich,

she had all those blond bombshells,

but Bettie,
there was nothing like Bettie.

She's the first icon of her nature.

And feminism has changed,

so women are actually using sexuality

in a different way,
they're more accepting of it.

I would paint a few pictures

and then I would see them
appear in front of me.

And the girls would start
showing up dressed like her.

Either they had purple hair,

but they'd have the Bettie Page bangs,
they'd be tattooed.

It'd be a form of Bettie, but different.

Bettie meant something to them.

So I kept painting Bettie for them.

The fetishistic outfits that she wore,

I mean, those are dreams to paint.

You know, the seam stockings,
the garter belts,

the snub-nosed stilettos, and that hair.

It's a lot of fun to paint those things.

Her attitude, her eyes,
the steam that rises from them.

That's the most important thing to me.

She makes it accessible that
anybody can be having this fun,

you're not going to go to hell for it.

( spank slaps skin )

When AIDS came out as the huge plague,

and anybody who had sex could get it
and die this horrible death,

I think that people
really identify with Bettie as fantasy

instead of the actual sex act,

so it was just a matter of survival.

I could see that Bettie
was getting more popular

in so many other directions.

And Dave Stevens'
the Rocketeer happened.

I came across a full page photograph

of her standing in water

in a little bikini that she made

and just was knocked out, totally.

I remember thinking,
this has got to be the most attractive,

she just exuded health

and joy and everything else
that's like so appealing.

Dave's foundation
certainly led to the Betty Pages.

At the time, nobody
had reprinted a picture of Bettie Page

in two or three decades.

The first issue of the Betty Pages
sold out in two weeks.

But word filtered back immediately.

Can you do a reprint of this?

It sold out instantly
on the newsstands, I had no idea.

And when I say newsstands,
I mean comic book stores,

that was my only
distribution outlet at the time.

But there was an audience waiting.

Thank you, Dave Stevens.

The readers
already knew who she was.

Olivia: Then Bettie
really became bigger

in the fashion world:

Gaultier, Muggler,

the S&M world, through Madonna.

♪ You held me down
and tried to make me break ♪

♪ Express yourself,
don't repress yourself♪

♪ Did I say something true? ♪

♪ Oops, I didn't know
I couldn't talk about sex. ♪

Olivia: You just
couldn't get around her,

she was a force to be reckoned with.

She just became part of the culture.

Bob Shultz and I started this club,

the "Bettie Scouts"--
tongue and cheek title,

kind of line Boy Scouts of America,
but Bettie Scouts of America--

'cause we spent a lot of time
going around the country

scouting for Bettie Page.

And when we started it,

we did not know
if Bettie was still alive.

My gut feeling was
she had probably passed away,

'cause I couldn't understand
how somebody could be under the radar

that many years, when people
were actively looking for her.

I got a call from a reporter

in Nashville, Tennessee
named Thomas Goldsmith.

I would give him credit
with finding Bettie Page.

And he said,
"Do you know where Bettie's at?"

And I said,
"No, I'm just like all the rest

in the people in the country
trying to figure out

what happened to Bettie Page. "

He said, "Bettie Page is alive.

And I'm gonna give you a big clue.

She has a living brother in Nashville."

Within minutes, I called Jack Page.

I said, "If I write a letter to Bettie,

would you forward it to her?"

And I wrote the letter,
I believe it was, April--

April, May, 1992.

I didn't hear anything
'til December of 1992.

And I could remember that,

that was one of
the most excited days of my life.

I went to the mailbox
and here's a letter,

and it says in the corner,
"Bettie Page. "

She used to write everything
in this turquoise ink.

Very identifiable ink.

It's like her trademark.

And she was so flattered
to have a fan club,

she couldn't believe that people

had any interest in her
after all these years.

For about a year,
we did this little relay of letters.

And then finally in August of 1999,

my wife and I drove out to California

and met Bettie face to face.

We spent a lot of time
talking about the Bible,

because she loved the Bible.

And I enjoy reading the Bible too,
so we just had a good old time.

And then to think, you know,

here I'm just a guy
collecting old magazines

and kind of becomes infatuated
with this pinup girl from the '50s,

and to think that this could materialize

to the point that I get to meet her,
her family, her sisters, her brothers.

Mark: Now, did your family know
that you were a pinup model?

Bettie: They never said
a word to me about it,

never commented about it
and nether did my mother.

One time, I was looking in her closet
when she was gone to work,

and I found a whole big stack

of Robert Harrison's pinup magazines,

with my pictures marked

and the pages turned down in it.

Never said a word to me,
one way or another about it,

never even mentioned it
and I didn't either.

Theakson: She was living way out
in the fringes of Los Angeles,

you went any further,
there was no more humanity.

And she explained
that she'd had some difficulties

and that she was
on Social Security.

Mark: Now, when you walked away
from the modeling career,

you never really
looked back at it, did you?

Bettie: I didn't want to be bothered.

I'd rather be incognito,
like I am nowadays.

( Bettie chuckles )

After I left New York,
I went back to Florida,

and I just wanted to enjoy
the sunshine and do something else.

I started up
with my old boyfriend Armond Walterson

that I had dated in 1954

when I was in Florida
posing for Bunny Yeager.

He was going with Margaret.

As soon as I called him up

he dropped Margaret
like a hot potato

and started dating me.

Every Saturday night,
we'd go to the drive in

and we would sit
in the car and make love.

We didn't watch
the movies half the time.

( Bettie chuckles )

When I met him,
he didn't even know how to kiss.

I taught him everything he knew.

He learned fast though.

Two months after the wedding,

I realized that I made a mistake.

All we had in common was movies,

sex, and hamburgers.

If ever I've been stupid
about anything in my life

it's where men
are concerned about marriage.

Here's what broke it all up.

This was the beginning
of New Year's 1958.

We got into a big argument

because he wanted to go
and get drunk with his buddies,

and I wanted to go dancing
like I'd been in the habit of doing

on New Year's Eve,

so he left at about 20 minutes to 12.

And I went walking out White Street.

And I saw a little church over there,

and heard music, singing.

It had a white neon cross
over the top of it.

And I just had to go,
like somebody had me by the hand,

I had to cross the street
and go in there, I'm telling you.

I knew it was the Lord, nobody would
ever convince me it wasn't him.

I stood back there
and cried about all my sins.

I thought God disapproved
of me doing nudes, you know.

I didn't think anything
about the fetish and the bondage

for Irving, but I had to do that.

But I thought maybe He looked down
on me for posing in the nude.

That's what I was telling
the pastor, and he said,

"Have you ever done anything
as bad as the apostle Paul?"

I said, "What did he do?"

I didn't know the Bible.

He said, "Well, he had
the Christians murdered.

Have you ever done
anything that bad?"

I said, "No, of course not. "

He said, "Well, God forgave him

and made him
the greatest missionary of all time.

He can certainly forgive you for posing
in the nude, don't you think?"

And I received
the Lord Jesus as my savior

and I turned my life over to the Lord,

and went to Bible schools
for three years.

They were very strict, you know.

I always loved dancing.

I couldn't even go dancing,
couldn't even go to the movies.

The only movie
I was allowed to attend

during those three years
was The Ten Commandments.

I wanted to be a missionary.

I thought God
wanted me to be a missionary.

But you know, when I graduated
and I went to a mission board,

they would not take me
because I had been divorced.

To some Christians,
especially the fundamentalists,

being divorced is worse
than having committed murder!

They got me to believe
that I would be out of the will of God

if I didn't go back
and lead my first husband

to the Lord and marry him again.

Well, I led him to the Lord
and he prayed with me to receive Jesus

and I thought he was sincere

and I married him again.

One month I was in his house.

The man would
not even have sex with me.

And I see him, I said,
"What's the matter, Billy?"

He said, "Well, you're filthy.
You've still got a venereal disease. "

I said, "Where did you ever hear
anything like that?"

He said, "Everybody knows it. "

I said, "Everybody's a liar, I've never
had a venereal disease in my life. "

Well, do you know,
he grabbed me by the throat,

I mean, he was choking me.

I was finally able to get his hands off
enough to scream out loud,

"Billy, if you kill me,
God will never forgive you!"

He let go, and he got up
and went in his room.

The man almost choked me to death.

But that was the worst thing
that ever happened to me.

I almost lost my life over it.

I had the thing annulled right away,

since it was never
consummated sexually.

After I spent a year and a half

working on
a masters degree at Peabody,

I just lacked four credits now,
getting the masters,

and I just got tired of studying.

So I left Nashville.

I went back to Miami
and I started going dancing again.

And one night
I saw this handsome fella.

She didn't look like a model
of any kind, you know.

She's just a healthy looking young lady.

Well, not so young,
she was in her forties,

but just looked like a nice person.

So I went out on the floor
and asked her to dance,

and she says, "Certainly,
I'd love to dance with you."

So we danced and we danced,
we danced all night.

She was the most unpretentious person

that I have ever met.

I called her the next day
and we were inseparable.

Bettie: He was divorced.

He says, "I have two boys and a girl. "

I said, "Two boys and a girl,
that's what I always wanted. "

Well, I couldn't have children,
I tried for years.

But I was attracted
to Harry from the word "go".

I just wanted to be with him
and to make love to him.

Harry: I didn't know a thing about her.

We went out on this pier,

and I was looking through the post cards

and I saw this post card
and I looked at that post card,

and I looked over at her
and I looked at the card again.

It was Bettie.

Bettie: It says, "Wow! We alligators
have such fun in Florida. "

( Bettie chuckles )

Harry: She told me
that she modeled a lot.

And she told me
she never posed nude.

( Harry laughs )

It didn't make any difference to me.

The people on the beach,

their heads would turn and follow us,

not me of course, but they would
follow us walking along the beach.

Bettie: We got married
on Valentine's Day 1967

with his three children
as witnesses to the wedding.

Harry: I had a nice new home for Bettie

and the children,
everything was set up perfect, you know.

And then we had
an addition put on the house

with a cement roof on top,

and then I had a three foot wall
around the top of it,

she'd sunbathe in the nude
up there sometimes.

Bettie: He was a hard worker.

Harry was a good provider, a good lover,

now, he was one of the best lovers
I ever had in my life.

And he was very considerate of me,

always thinking
of my pleasure before his own.

I'm not anymore,
but I was a very good lover,

and she was a very good lover.

We enjoyed thrilling each other.

Oh, by the way,
that leopard skin robe, you know.

She still had that.

And in the morning she'd put it on,
and in the evening she'd put it on.

It just turned me wild when I saw her
walking around with that thing on.

( Mark laughing )

Bettie: Well, the children were
just as sweet and nice to me

during the months
that I dated Harry.

But soon as I moved into the house,
everything changed.

His ex-wife,

she was so jealous of me
with the children,

and she called me up at 4:00
in the morning and cussed me out.

It was getting on my nerves,
I wasn't getting any sleep,

and I was very unhappy.

So I stuck it out for five years.

I started losing my love for Harry

when he wouldn't make
those children mind me

or do anything I asked them to do.

Harry: She wanted to start
going to church again.

And the whole family
went to church together.

We went Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday evening.

I mean, it got to be like sort of
a fanatic thing, you know.

I could see it in her eyes.

We'd go to church
and she'd blast out singing,

not boisterous or anything
but real loud voice singing.

Tears came down her cheeks,

and she'd get real emotional.

She was so obsessed
with things of the Lord.

Why should I stop her if...

...if she wanted to go and serve God,

or the Lord, or be a missionary.

Bettie: I got divorced
on January 17, 1972,

then I went to Bible Town,

which is 70 miles up
near Boca Raton, Florida.

While I was up there,
I started imagining

that I was hearing somebody
talking to me on my tape recorder,

and I thought I was really listening

to God and the angels and the devil.

I lost a lot of weight then,
I wasn't eating

because they were
keeping me awake talking all night.

It had built up in my mind
so much that my mind snapped.

Harry: She had caused
some kind of a disturbance.

The police called me

and asked me
if I could come up and pick her up.

I put her out there in my,
I think it was my bedroom,

and I slept
on the couch at the time.

I thought I owed it to her.

What would happen
if I kicked her out?

And the state of Florida
in no way is good to mental illness.

And I tried to get her going in places

and they wouldn't bother with her.

She had lost it,
there's no doubt about it.

Bettie called us into the living room,

me and my son Larry and Brad,

called us over
by this picture of Jesus Christ,

with a knife in her hand.

She said, "If you take
your eyes off him,

I'm going to cut your guts out. "

Whoa, you know, here I was.

I could read Bettie pretty good

and I felt safe that
she wasn't going to do it right then.

I said, "Bettie,
I've got to go to the bathroom,

I've got to relieve myself real bad."

So I went back into the bedroom,

picked up the phone,

called the Hialeah Police.

I let the cop in the front door.

Bettie went peacefully,

with a blank look on her face.

Bettie: I ended up having
a nervous breakdown and hearing voices,

and had to go
to the hospital because of it.

They took me
to Jackson Memorial Hospital.

They have on the fifth floor
a psychiatric ward.

I was just there two months.

They gave me this horrible thorazine.

I felt like I had sparks
and things going in my head,

and you feel like
you're going to die right after,

for an hour or two
after you take the thorazine.

But it knocked the voices
right out of me though.

Harry: She was completely
medicated all the time.

Mark: Now, when she was
getting treatment,

do you know if they gave her
any shock treatment?

Harry: I think she had two.

Jimmy, one time he came up to the house
after Bettie was with me awhile.

He said, "I'm gonna take Bettie
back to California with me,

we're gonna get a place,
we're gonna live together,

we're gonna get a house or something."

California, it's a very liberal state,

and their mental facilities
are the best in the world.

Bettie: Jimmy and I were close
when we were growing up.

I didn't have any money hardly.

I had just enough
to get to California at the time.

Jimmy was supposed
to meet her in California,

didn't show up.

That's why she got in trouble.

Richard W. Bann: She was trying to get
rent receipts from her landlord.

She was hearing voices,

I guess telling her to do
some pretty awful things.

And she thought
it was the devil speaking to her.

And she did tell me,

"I had a knife
and I was upset with my landlady,

and I wrestled her
to the ground and I straddled her,

and I told her that I was
going to cut her up."

The lady did not die.

The lady got cut
pretty severally on her hand.

Bleeding, blood everywhere.

Obvious that the lady needed stitches.

She was stabbed like 20 or 30 times.

She pleaded insanity to this charge
of "attempt to commit murder"

and this assault
so they then put her away for ten years.

Bettie: You talked
to the psychiatrist, I think it was,

three times a week for half an hour.

And you went to groups,
mostly group therapy as they call it.

You just talked about why

or what caused you
to have your breakdown,

and I was put on something
called Novane and Artane.

She had never hinted
about any of the trouble with the law,

any of the mental
institution years, any of that.

Bettie: I didn't think it was something
anybody would want to hear about.

And it was not anybody's business.

A lot of people still look down on you
if you've had a nervous breakdown.

They still thinking like they did
a hundred years ago about it.

Bann: Bettie's the one
that paid the price,

spending 9 or 10 years at Patton State

in a horrible, horrible situation.

I learned that she was
paranoid schizophrenic.

That's an enormous cross to bare.

And whereas she had her parents

to thank for her amazing good looks,

it was a mixed blessing

because her parents
were also responsible

for this genetic predisposition

towards paranoid schizophrenia,

plus her mother didn't want her,

and her father molested her.

Those are heavy burdens to deal with.

She was probably
one of the most strong willed people

anyone's ever going to meet.

And she'd admit
that she had fallen down

but she was going to renew,

with great enthusiasm and optimism

that this time she would get it right.

I told her that anytime
there's anything she needs,

that there are thousands of people

who would just do anything for her
if they had the chance.

The one who really did
the most for her was Dave Stevens,

to the point of
she would call him to go out

and bring her food
or take her to the doctor.

Stevens: I took her into Tower Records

and I steered her around
to the book section,

and there on an end cap
of an aisle of books

was a display
of nothing but Bettie Page books,

and she just stood there
in amazement.

She gets so tickled
when she sees some new book

with her picture on it
or some... whatever product it is,

even if she's
not getting any money for it.

Bann: Dave knew that Bettie
had been Miss January 1955,

and he knew that Hef
had never met Bettie Page

and suggested that they meet.

Bettie: And he invited me
to dinner at his home,

the most beautiful home
I've ever been in in my life.

Looks like a big castle
up in Beverly Hills.

So usually at the Playboy Mansion,

everyone has cameras,
everything is being recorded.

But on this night,
because of Bettie being so private,

so discreet, no cameras.

Bettie: I liked Mr. Hefner.

He was a very nice,
down to earth fella.

And he greeted us,
Dave Stevens and I,

in his pajamas,
now, a smoking jacket

and his purple, satin pajamas.

And Hef had arranged for a loan
of a 35mm print of "The Rocketeer",

which was Dave Stevens'
creation, from Disney.

And Bettie had never seen the film.

She wanted to see this film
that was an homage

to her, inspired by her.

♪ You're a sweet little headache ♪

♪ But you are lots of fun ♪

♪ I've a good mind to spank you... ♪

There was an unauthorized film

made in 2005 called
"The Notorious Bettie Page".

This is quite an elegant knot,

because the more the subject pulls
the tighter the knot becomes.

She didn't like the word
"Notorious" in the title.

And do you approve?

I believe in Jesus.

Well, of course you do, my dear.

Of course you do.

Bann: But all of a sudden,
here's what you heard

from the back
of the screening room.

"Lies, lies, lies!

L-I-E-S, lies!

Why don't you tell the truth?"

( woman gasps )

Hefner: When she resurfaced
here in California,

she was not being
properly represented by anybody,

and a lot of people were exploiting her
and taking advantage of her.

And I was able to put her in the hands
of more appropriate business people,

legal people,

so that she had
the right kind of representation

and somebody to look after her
and take care of her.

And we've been very close ever since.

And I had a call
from Mr. Hefner, who asked me

if I would help out a friend of his

and try to see
that anything that was done

with Bettie's name and likeness

ultimately had her approval on it

and of course she would receive
some type of compensation for it.

Bettie: I made more money
in very recent years

than I ever made during the seven years
I was modeling back in the '50s.

Bettie was able to enjoy life more

because of what she could do
in the later part of her life.

( people chattering )

I think she had an incredible charm.

She had an incredible aura,
or how you say it, charisma.

And I think a lot of models
learned from her.

There's nothing
intimidating about Bettie.

Women can appreciate her,
men can appreciate her.

Most of them, you don't
really remember the the person,

but her, you know, you say,
"Oh yeah, that's Bettie Page. "

She's also has had
the keen sense of timing

to know exactly when
not to appear, which is hard.

Man #1 : Go ahead, Bettie.

Bettie: Hello every one of you.

- ( crowd oohs )
- Hi, Bettie.

Bettie: Thank you very much.

Gee, sounds like a big mob.

Man #1 : It is a big mob.

Man #2: Bettie, you have thrown the
coolest opening in SoHo that I've seen.

Bettie: I hope you like my book,
I'm very pleased with it.

Woman: And we're just all super fans
of yours, and we all wanted to say

congratulations,
and three cheers to Bettie Page.

( cheering and applause )

When I realized it was really big

is when I got the first Bettie Scouts
of America fan letter from China.

I mean, it's literally
all over the world.

New Zealand, Australia, all over Europe.

She's very very popular in Japan.

Very popular in England,

France and Germany.

Chantal Thomass: Always I had been
inspired by Bettie Page,

and then the pinups
from the '50s and Bettie is the one,

the most extreme and most special one.

Chantal Thomass (in French):
Bettie Page was way ahead of her time...

She influenced
[Theiry Mugler, Gauliter].

I mean, she did it with humor,

and I'll always work
on my design in lingerie with humor.

I mean, it has to be sexy,

but it must have
a small part of humor.

Bettie Page can be
an example for women

to be beautiful, fun, sexy,
and why not, intelligent.

Lisa, we got
another postcard from your father.

Wish you were her.

How many of these things
is he going to send me?

Beyonce:
♪ Why don't you love me? ♪

♪ Tell me baby why don't you love me ♪

♪ When I make me
so damn easy to love. ♪

Brewster:
You know, when I started seeing girls,

teenage, twenty, young girls,

with Bettie tattoos,
I could not believe it.

♪ And why don't you need me? ♪

Brewster:
They're looking at her as a role model,

as this symbol of joyous sexual freedom.

♪ Tell me, baby,
why don't you love me ♪

♪ When I make me so damn easy to love? ♪

Bann: It's a tribute to her.

These heartbreaking good looks,

the riveting appeal of her personality,

still to this day
inspires the kind of response

that you get from artists,

fashion designers,

and the fandom,
which we know is incredible.

The Bettie Page they love is very real.

In other words, I think that
she had this kind of amoral attitude

towards sexuality and nudity,
and even, you know, the bondage things.

She did not disgrace those
who looked more sternly

upon portraits of sexuality.

I think she handled
her phases of life with dignity.

The suggestion back then
that sex was simply a natural,

normal part of life
was very revolutionary,

and helped to change
the values of our time.

I think that in that context
Bettie Page is truly iconic.

If you think the images
are wonderful, you have no idea.

She's a wonderful human being.

Bettie: I never thought of myself
as anything special or important.

I was just doing my job
and enjoyed ever bit of it.

( Bettie laughs )

And I'm so thankful
that you like my pictures

and that you care as much
as you do about me,

and I wish you all the best,
every one of you.

( "21 st Century Bettie Page"
by Jack Rabbit Slim playing )

♪ Well I've seen her face,
in a magazine ♪

♪ She was looking real cute ♪

♪ Yea, without her jeans ♪

♪ She was staring back at me ♪

♪ With those cunning bad eyes ♪

♪ I got so turned on,
it was hard to disguise ♪

♪ The 21 st Century Bettie Page ♪

♪ The 21 st Century
Bettie Page ♪

♪ Well she's got a different look,
it's from another page ♪

♪ She's a 21 st Century Bettie Page ♪

♪ Well, I found her name
from a mixed flat mate... ♪

I am a huge fan, I love her.

We are the daughters of Bettie Page.

There's a little Bettie in all of us.

Everyone has a dark side to them

and she just showed
her dark side the best way possible.

Wild, strong, liberated,
yet extremely sexy woman.

- Bettie: Hello?
- Bettie?

Yes?

It's been so many years.
This is Paula Klaw, how are you?

Very good.
Gee, you sound like a young girl.

I like my privacy these days,
I don't even give out interviews at all.

Yeah, I know. Good for you.

So what's your biggest seller now?

Bettie Page.

You're kidding, I don't believe you.

Do believe me.
Everybody wants your pictures, Bettie.

I know, I can't get over the popularity.

Well, I'm sure you must have
been doing something right.

( Bettie laughs )

I don't know,
it amazes me, I'm telling you.

I don't understand it at all.

Well, what a delight to talk to you
after so many years.

( Bettie laughs )
Okay.

- Okay.
- All right.

Okay, sweetheart,
it was a delight talking to you.

Same here, Paula.

Okay, love you, sweetheart.

You too.

And I think of you fondly
and Irving too.

Thank you, darling.

- Bye bye.
- Bye bye.

I didn't hardly recognize her voice,

it's even so much deeper.

I guess in the years your voice changes,

'cause she's got
like a hoarseness to her voice.

But the same Bettie.

Love her, she sounds so great.

( "Oh Betty" by Olivia Olson playing )

♪ Oh Betty ♪

♪ Sweet and fun
and kind of saucy ♪

♪ You can be a little bossy ♪

♪ But I don't care ♪

♪ Just wink at me in your underwear ♪

♪ Oh Betty ♪

♪ The world is not quite ready ♪

♪ For you and your satin teddy ♪

♪ But you're a star ♪

♪ And I will take you
just the way you are ♪

♪ Betty, in color or black and white ♪

♪ On a bear skin rug ♪

♪ Or dressed up tight ♪

♪ Betty, with a smile so sweet ♪

♪ It just melts my heart ♪

♪ Maybe some day we'll meet ♪

♪ Maybe
some day we'll meet ♪

♪ Betty, can you stay the night? ♪

♪ Don't have to ask your mother ♪

♪ If it will be all right ♪

♪ Betty, please say you might ♪

♪ Betty, please say you might. ♪