The Radiance of Bettie Page, 1923 - 2008
Susie Bright interviews screenwriter/director Mary Harron
I was first introduced to the radiance of Bettie Page in 1983, by the editors of a gay leathermen's magazine, Drummer.
John Rowberry lent me a VHS bondage tape of Bettie modeling from the 1950's which was so cute—there's no better word to describe it— I played it continuously during Thanksgiving dinner that year. It was like a knitting video, the way the two women demonstrated practical knots as if they were modeling a catalog sweater. “Found art,” from a surrealist’s perspective. Bettie was a serious gay femme icon, like Judy Garland, before she was retro hipster-history.
In my case, it was the beginning of a devoted affair. I walked the streets of Manhattan, looking up her old photo studio, and places where she once lived. My friend Joe Westmoreland guided me. We stood there, soaking it in. Like so many, I wondered who the “real” Bettie Page was.
Paula was Page’s mentor, the woman behind the camera, in the Klaw Studio movie biz. Her husband Irving is more well credited— but those in know, know Paula was the director.
Miss Page came a long way in American limelight from the time her pictures were the subject of a full federal obscenity investigation, intent on saving juveniles from the depravity of smut. She became a Christian missionary and no one thought they would ever hear from her again.
But Bettie's story was different from the average Suicide Girl. She pioneered fetish photography during an era when such imagery existed strictly outside the realms of camp or fashion.
The closet was shut so tight no filament of sex-positivity could be imagined. The damnation Bettie faced, when the law decided to make an example of her, must have been entirely without context for her to comprehend.
This history became the focus of director/writer Mary Harron's film, The Notorious Bettie Page.
Mary was the director of my episode, “The Rainbow of her Reasons,’ on Six Feet Under’s last season.
After working with Mary, I marveled, "Wow, a feminist is making the Bettie Page biopic— I can't believe it."
I asked Mary to talk to me more about her adventures with Bettie, and she was kind to give her time.
