[kj] OT: Bettie Page's funeral

[Brendan Quinn]

The Beautiful People? 

DA-DADA-DA-DUNT, DA-DADA-DA-DUNT...

-----Original Message-----
From: gathering-bounces at misera.net [mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net] On
Behalf Of B. Oliver Sheppard
Sent: Thursday, 18 December 2008 10:36
To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)
Subject: [kj] OT: Bettie Page's funeral

She winds up in the same neighborhood as Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin.



<http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-bettie-page17-200
8dec17,0,1667172.story>http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/l
a-me-bettie-page17-2008dec17,0,1667172.story 

 From the Los Angeles Times


Bidding Bettie Page farewell

The pinup queen, who died Thursday at 85, was remembered at a private 
service conducted by the Rev. Robert Schuller.
By Louis Sahagun

December 17, 2008

Legendary pinup queen Bettie Page was remembered at a private memorial 
service Tuesday as a taboo-breaking model who later gave it all up to 
become a devout Christian -- only to reenter the public eye as a sexy 
trendsetter.

"So it is only fitting that her final resting place be here, not far 
from Marilyn Monroe's final resting place," said Mark Roesler, chairman 
of Indianapolis-based CMG Worldwide, which markets Page's image, during 
the rite held at the Pierce Bros. Westwood Village Memorial Park.

After the memorial service, Page's casket was taken from the memorial 
park's chapel to a shady grave site a few yards from Monroe's crypt.

Page, who died Thursday at 85, is most famous for the 20,000 photos 
taken of her by amateur photographers between 1949 and 1957.

Those often grainy images -- of a raven-haired beauty with thick black 
bangs, arching eyebrows, bright red lipstick and wearing nylon stockings 
with seams running down the backs, high heels and form-fitting skirts, 
polka-dot and leopard-print bikinis, negligees or nothing at all -- 
transformed Page into an enduring fashion icon.

Most recently she has become an Internet phenomenon. CMG said the 
www.bettiepage.com website receives 750,000 visits a day.

Among the mourners were artist Olivia de Berardinis, who portrayed Page 
in idealized representations of her curvy personas -- Substitute Teacher 
Bettie, Nurse Bettie, Maid Bettie -- and Playboy magazine founder Hugh 
Hefner.

Page was the then-fledgling Playboy's centerfold in 1955.

In the final years of her life, Hefner helped her with legal and 
financial issues. "She appreciated that until the day she died," Roesler 
said.

A eulogy and graveside prayer were conducted by televangelist Robert 
Schuller before about 70 relatives, friends and admirers, including 
several Bettie Page lookalikes.

"I think Bettie is looking out at you all and saying, 'Oh, thank you for 
coming,' " Schuller said. "And I think she's pointing at some of you and 
asking, 'Remember back when?' "

He could have been talking about several former pinup models, all in 
their 80s, who worked with Page in her prime. Among them was Tempest 
Storm, who appeared with Page in the 1955 film short "Teaserama."

"We had a lot of fun making that little movie," Storm recalled.

"For all her personal problems, Bettie was very sweet. She had a 
sensuous, but never vulgar, personality."

At 35, Page quit modeling and moved to Florida.

She spent much of the rest of her life studying the Bible and trying to 
cope with broken marriages and sometimes violent mood swings that 
resulted in her being institutionalized for a decade.

She was released in 1992 from Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino 
County to learn that she had unwittingly become a pop-culture heroine.

"I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer," Page explained in 
an interview years later.

"I wasn't trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time. I didn't 
think of myself as liberated, and I don't believe that I did anything 
important. I was just myself. I didn't know any other way to be, or any 
other way to live." 
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