Tori Rodriguez - Bettie Page

Tori: My deepest gratitude to all who have allowed me the incredible honor of getting to know Bettie and telling her story: Ron Brem, Goldie Jane, El Uno, Mark Mori, and Coleen OShea. And infinite love and thanks to Mom, Dad, family and friends, and all the Bettie Babes. Much love to all!

Ron: Many thanks to my friends and familyespecially my mom, Goldiefor saving all of these treasures over the years. And a very special thank you to Tori Rodriguez for help above and beyond in making this book possible.

Tori and Ron would like to thank Mark Roesler and Bill Uglow of CMG Worldwide for their gracious support of this project, and all the wonderful Bettie fans worldwide!

THE LOST YEARS

An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Blvd., Ste. 200
Lanham, MD 20706
www.rowman.com

Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Copyright 2018 Tori Rodriguez and Ronald Charles Brem

All photos from Ronald Brems personal collection

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Rodriguez, Tori, author. | Page, Bettie, author. | Brem, Ron, author.

Title: Bettie Page, the lost years : an intimate look at the queen of pinups, through her private letters & never-published photos / Tori Rodriguez with Ron Brem.

Description: Guilford, Connecticut : Lyons Press, [2018]

Identifiers: LCCN 2018018412 (print) | LCCN 2018018848 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493034512 (e-book) | ISBN 9781493034505 (hardback : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Page, Bettie. | Models (Persons)United StatesBiography. | Page, BettieCorrespondence. | Divorced womenCaliforniaLos AngelesBiography. | Single womenCaliforniaLos AngelesSocial life and customs20th century.

Classification: LCC HD6073.M772 (ebook) | LCC HD6073.M772 U5337 2018 (print) | DDC 746.9/2092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018018412

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Toris Dedication:

This is ultimately a story about family, dedicated with endless love
and appreciation to the one Im so blessed to call mine.

Rons Dedication:

This book has been a true labor of love. It is dedicated to my mom,
Goldie, and of course to the one and only Bettie Page. To the entire
world she is an icon, but to me she will always be Aunt Bettie!

I am Tempest Storm, the Queen of Burlesque and the last of the major stars from that glorious era when burlesque captivated audiences more than half a century ago. I am twenty-two and a half years old, having been born in Eastman, Georgia, on February 29, 1928oh yes, that makes me a leap year baby, and like Bettie Page, we will be forever young.

Bettie and I have been linked over all these years after costarring in the 1955 Irving Klaw film Teaserama . Bettie was cast as my maid in the film, complete with apron. What a doll she was with that beautiful jet-black hair and those iconic U-shaped bangs. She had a perfect figure, a gorgeous smile, and a demeanor that was innocent yet sensual. We were supposed to get angry with each other during the film, and I pulled her hair in one scene. Looking back, it was really a very silly film, but somehow it became a cult classic that is still popular today.

We spent a couple of days on the set and laughed a lot, shared some meals, and talked about simple things that two young girls would chat about. Looking back, I only wish we had spent more time together and maintained contact. She was very busy becoming the most famous pinup girl in the world, and I was hitting the height of my career on stage. I became the only dancer ever to strip on the stage of Carnegie Hallthat was a highlight! And my social life was quite busy too: I dated Elvis for a year and a half and had a highly publicized romance with John F. Kennedy when he was a Massachusetts senator.

Bettie had the rare ability to express herself in so many intriguing ways once the camera was turned on. For me it is much the sameI am rather quiet and mostly a loner, but when I got on stage and the lights hit, something magical took over.

When I met my manager Harvey Robbins about a decade ago at a Bettie Page Burlesque and Doo-Wop Cruise, he insisted that I reach out to Bettie, but she was shielded by folks and I couldnt get through. I learned that she had experienced problems and was kind of isolated, and she didnt want to be seen in public after she aged. I wrote a letter and gave it to Olivia de Berardinis, the artist whose paintings of Bettie are world-renowned. She did have access to Bettie and said she read my letter to her.

Bettie passed away soon after that, in December 2008. On the day of the funeral, it actually snowed on the way to Los Angeles from Las Vegas. Hugh Hefner was in the front row with three Bunnies, and he seemed very moved. His head was down, and he hardly spoke. It was a very sad day. In my mind, I still saw Bettie smiling on set all those years ago. During the eulogy, someone read that she never quite understood all the fanfare she had received. I can understand that. Many people come up to me to this day and tell me how I have inspired them and touched their lives. Im honored, of course, but I was only a dancer, and Bettie wasand always will bethe ultimate pinup queen.

Tempest Storm

When the documentary Bettie Page Reveals All was released in 2013, it would have been easy to assume we would never again hear directly from the adored icon who passed away in 2008. After all, the film is narrated by the Queen of Pinups herself, and she spills on lots of subjects that she had previously kept privateeven in her 1996 authorized biographythough she does maintain her decades-long, no-photos rule in the movie. She was embarrassed about the weight she had gained and loathed the effects of agingshe said it made her sad to see her own celebrity idols when they were older, and wanted people to remember her as she looked in her pinup prime in the 1950s.

And there are certainly plenty of photos of Bettie from those days; in fact, she is believed to be the most photographed model of all time, with more published photos than Marilyn Monroe and Cindy Crawford combined. In addition to her own body of work, Betties influence shows up all over the place in pop culture as the inspiration for entertainers, artists, fashion designers, and hordes of women worldwide who idolize her.

Her enduring popularity has made her a mainstay on the Forbes magazine list of the worlds top-earning deceased celebrities, an ongoing topic of intrigue for fans, and a muse for top stars like Madonna, Beyonc, Katy Perry, and P!nk. But while Bettie Page the icon is firmly established, much mystery remains regarding the actual woman.