Legend: Bettie Page

Bettie Page: Featured Legend of Red Hots Burlesque

Welcome to Monday, friends! Red Hots is celebrating one of our favorite gorgeous legends.

BETTIE PAGE
b. April 22, 1923

This month we celebrate her 90th birthday, so let’s give a wink and wiggle to one of burlesque’s and pin up’s most iconic ladies Bettie Page! Instantly recognizable with her jet black hair and trademarked bangs that have been emulated by burlesque performers far and wide, Page was discovered on the beach at Coney Island and quickly entered the world of the camera clubs. There she began modeling and developed a years-long career in the ’50s as the first popular fetish model, when most only enjoyed a few months of fame. Page also danced a little for videos, her style of dancing just as endearing as her cheesecake smile. Her image was the inspiration for the lady love interest in “The Rocketeer” comic books. In the ’60s she found religion and left behind her Queen of the Pin Up image, seeking a domestic life. Unfortunately her years out of the spotlight were fraught with mental health struggles and eventually poverty. Before her death, Page did begin to get royalties again from the sales of her image, which had found a renewed interest in the ’80s. Page passed away in 2008.