One of the original erotic models Bettie Page, who was known as the “Queen of Pinups” died on Thursday. Her seductive photographs and posters both excited and outraged the American public decades ago in the 1950s, and she emerged as a pivotal figure of the sexual revolution. In her heyday she was one of the world’s most photographed women.
Although the photographs seem tame by present day standards, they weren’t back then, and American senators started an investigatation into claims that they were pornographic and Bettie Page was subpoenaed to appear before a senate committee investigating obscenity.
By 1958, at the peak of her fame, Bettie Page vanished from public view and became a born-again Christian. She wanted to serve as a missionary but was rejected because she was divorced. She struggled with personal problems, three divorces and in 1992 she left a California mental hospital having been diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic.
She was 85 years old, and leaves behind a legacy that will not be forgotten.
Click above photos to enlarge, and click here to watch a photoslide video with Bettie “in her own words”