Pin-up queen Bettie Page has died at the age of 85…and boy, is it hard to think of Bettie Page as being any older than about 26. One time when Dave Stevens was over here, he asked my advice on something he was helping her with…and before I knew it, I was on the phone with Ms. Page, explaining my recommendation to her. You know how you get a mental image of people you're talking to that way? I couldn't help but imagine Bettie at the age she was in all those magazine photos…and probably talking to me from somewhere on a beach.
Dave asked me if I wanted to go meet her in person. I thought for a second and said, "No, I don't think so." He chuckled and said, "I know what you mean."
Dave was, of course, the brilliant artist whose depictions of her — in The Rocketeer and elsewhere — reminded so many men that they'd had a crush on this woman. He birthed a resurgence of interest in her. Thousands of women posed undraped for magazines in that era. Bettie was one of the few that anyone remembered and knew by name.
When he first began drawing her, he couldn't have imagined he would someday meet the woman, let alone become her friend and occasional caretaker. He didn't even know if she was alive…or if she was, whether she would ever identify herself. But they became close…and Dave, who like so many had once lusted after this woman, couldn't believe he was now driving her to deposit her Social Security checks.
Her story has been told in many forms and Dave told me that a lot of what was depicted was even true. I think most of what's in this obit is correct but you never know with someone who was the subject of so many fantasies.