I've seen artwork and pictures of her on social media networks, but I really didn't know much about the person until I chanced this documentary on Amazon Prime Video. I did not know how famous she really was in her day. The documentary has tons of photo and video clips from back in the day as well as interviews of people she worked with. She narrated most of the documentary herself, but unfortunately it's all a voiceovers so we don't see Bettie Page in 2008 before her death.

This is a pretty good documentary to get a sense of the model behind the photography. How accurate it really is will be anyone's guess. But this is probably the way she wanted to be remembered by herself and her friends. It's worth a watch.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that for the longest time, I thought the character of Bettie Page was fictional. Granted, I had seen pin-up pictures of her, but almost always the context seemed to be of someone impersonating the former glamor queen. This story even alludes to that fact at one point, as Bettie's life and career seemed outsize to the actual person, reaching a crescendo that found her face and figure on display in magazines and posters throughout the entire world. The film itself takes an interesting approach, we never see the real Bettie Page, though her voice is heard throughout the picture, having been recorded in a series of interviews while she was alive. She's quite frank about growing up with a father who was a sex fiend who molested her, and a mother who didn't want girls, only to be 'blessed' with four girls and a boy during that relationship. Bettie took to modeling and posing quite naturally, never really feeling self conscious about her body and having an instinct for presenting herself in the most entertaining ways. You could tell that she enjoyed her career and that she didn't regret her occupation of choice, although once she decided to call it quits, it was pretty much final. She disappeared from public life entirely at the age of thirty four, had relationships, married, had three kids, went to Bible school, and eventually suffered a mental breakdown. She was even institutionalized for ten years at the Patton State mental hospital in California after attacking a landlady, but persevered to live a long life until her death at the age of eighty five in 2008. Suffice it to say that if you're a Bettie Page fan, this documentary is better than any pin-up magazine, as you'll get unrestricted access to Bettie Page from every conceivable angle, with and without clothes on. And she does them all with a smile and the greatest attitude you'll ever experience.