BETTIE PAGE HAS DIED

Bettie Page, one of the most iconic and imitated models of all time, died yesterday in Los Angeles at the age of 85, after complications following a heart attack 8 days ago.  A famous nude, fetish and bondage model in the early 1950's when that sort of thing barely even existed in America, she was named Playmate of the Month for January 1955 (see her famous Santa-hat centerfold here), when Playboy was just two years old.  The LA Times says…

A cult figure, Page was most famous for the estimated 20,000 4-by-5-inch black-and-white glossy photographs taken by amateur shutterbugs from 1949 to 1957. The photos showed her in high heels and bikinis or negligees, bondage apparel — or nothing at all.Decades later, those images inspired biographies, comic books, fan clubs, websites, commercial products — Bettie Page playing cards, dress-up magnet sets, action figures, Zippo lighters, shot glasses — and, in 2005, a film about her life and times, "The Notorious Bettie Page."

And yeah I realize of course these pictures aren’t of Bettie Page. They're actually Megan Gale pretending to be Bettie Page.  To be honest, dusty old black and white low-quality pictures didn’t sound so great, and Bettie Page wasn’t really that good looking, so this is way better and you still get the idea.  And if you think it’s weird to put up pictures of someone else, ask yourself this: if you’re upset right now that you can't look at naked pictures of a 85-year-old dead lady, maybe just maybe you’re the weird one in this scenario.