She would write me back saying ‘This was not one of mine’ she thought I was sending her images of paintings based on photos she had taken. “This was before computers,” says Keefe, “so I would mail her photographs of some of my Bettie paintings to show her what I was up to. On other end of the line was none other than Paula Klaw-it was the first of about 30 phone calls between the two. The company was still in business, so Keefe gave them a call. Then, in 1990, Keefe came across a reference to Movie Star News, where Bettie had worked as a secretary in the 1950s, and where Paula Klaw had taken the notorious bondage photos of her. For more than 30 years, no one had seen or heard from Bettie Page. Speculation ran from suicide to her abduction by aliens. Among other things, he discovered that there was a mystery surrounding the sudden disappearance of Page in the late 1950s. He also scoured articles and books to learn more about pin-ups and their history. Throughout the rest of the ’80s, Chuck continued to paint images of Page. Ira told me, ‘You don’t have anything signed by my mother I don’t have any Bettie Pages signed by my mother.’ Bettie Page became a big thing, and I started to wonder, ‘Who is this girl, anyhow?’” “Then, out of the blue, in the early 1980s, comic-book artist Dave Stevens based the Rocketeer’s girlfriend on Bettie. “I did a few small paintings of her,” he says. This print is one of many that was hand colored by artist and collector Chuck Keefe.Īs a painter, Keefe was looking for a subject- vintage photographs of Page seemed perfect. Part of Page's appeal was her girl-next-door look. “I think I paid maybe 20 bucks for them.” Naturally, many of those magazines featured images of Bettie Page. “Someone was selling his property out of a dingy, moldy old room behind a roofing company,” Keefe recalls. Keefe’s interest in Bettie Page began in the late 1970s, when he purchased about 300 vintage pin-up magazines from the estate of a recently deceased Hells Angel, who had lived near his art studio in Southern California. The way Paula photographed and directed her made Bettie the icon she is now.” It’s this ‘dark side’ of her career that has made Bettie Page historically significant. She wouldn’t have become the multi-million dollar business she is today. In the late 1980s, Klaw slowly started to print and sell Page photos again.Ĭhuck’s photos were special because they were signed by Paula, so Bettie was happy to also sign those.Īccording to Bettie Page photograph collector Chuck Keefe, “If Bettie Page had only done normal pin-up poses, we would not be talking about her. She destroyed three-quarters of them-the worst of the worst-to satisfy the feds, but she hid the rest. Klaw and his sister were eventually compelled by a court to destroy their inventory of all Bettie Page negatives to avoid being prosecuted for sending pornography through the mail.Īt the time of the court order, Paula had 6,000 negatives of Bettie. Little wonder, then, that along with comic books and other forms of printed material, the Klaw’s Bettie Page photos became a target of the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in the mid-1950s. Though mostly tame by 21st century standards, many of the Page images would be considered very disturbing even today. Bettie Page (left) with her photographer Paula Klaw, circa mid-1950s.
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