bettie page blog

If you are in the Los Angeles area, you are in for a treat... the Bettie Page event of the year! World of Wonder (the good people who lived, then wrote, then made a documentary about, then made a feature about PARTY MONSTER, and lately brought you both a show about lumberjacks and RU PAUL'S DRAG RACE) has a "Storefront Gallery" located at 6650 Hollywood Blvd., in Hollywood -- that's two blocks east of Hollywood and Highland.

World of Wonder Storefront Gallery is super-excited to welcome Lenora Claire as guest curator for the month of May, as she presents her massive Bettie Page tribute, featuring the iconic paintings of the artist Olivia (as well as some extra special guests!) It's time to dust off those old corsets and fuck-me pumps, and start Vaseline-ing the patent leather, because it's going to be a spanking good time!

One of the main draws is the participation of the always amazing Olivia De Berardinis -- who remains not only the unparalleled modern master (mistress? oddly appropriate) of the pin-up, but also an incredibly wonderful person.

Other treats include contributions from Bunny Yeager, photography from Austin Young -- who's Perez Hilton-as-Bettie Page photo may prove that it DOES take more than black bangs to pull off Bettie's look! Luckily, his work with the ever-cool Margaret Cho helps crowd out Perez's visage... clearing the way to appreciate the mind-bending treat of seeing the show's curator, as herself, spank herself, as Bettie Page! Jim Silke has always found artistic inspiration in Bettie Page, and his contributions are sure to be stunning. The show will no doubt have a sense of humor and fun that would've tickled Bettie.

The show opens with a party on Saturday, May 2nd, 8:00 PM - 12:00 AM. There will be a $5 admission for the opening, but the gallery is free to peruse after that.

If you don't make it, the party is being filmed by Academy Award-nominated/Emmy winning documentarian Mark Mori for inclusion in his incredible theatrical documentary, BETTIE PAGE REVEALS ALL -- so, you can live vicariously through him!


World of Wonder
More from World of Wonder
Olivia De Berardinis
Margaret Cho
shoutout to like-minded Motor City Blog
The feature documentary BETTIE PAGE REVEALS ALL

Paula Diamond is a tattoo artist, body piercer and manager of The Dragon's Breath, in
Bedford, Texas. Check out her work at her MySpace page.

This piece is adapted from an illustration by the late, sorely missed Dave Stevens:


HE adapted the above illustration from this photo, below. Dave Stevens also color tinted the photo, and, as a result of his amazing work, it has become of of the truly iconic photos of Bettie Page:

Caught up with fetish and burlesque star Natalie Minx, who was kind enough to remark on Bettie Page's influence as Bettie's birthday nears...

Bettie is a HUGE influence, but more on the fetish side than the pin-up side. She is the first REAL fetish model and because of her, women like myself are able to share our love for kink in a much more accepted fashion.

We couldn't agree more! Yes, Bettie's look has become "cute"... and many of the girls today who adopt it pull it off with aplomb... but the US Government didn't find her use of ball gags, leather, whips or rope "cute"... they threatened to throw folks like Irving Klaw and Paula Kramer (who took many of those pictures) in jail for the rest of their lives! Irving, in Bettie's opinion, died from the constant harassment.

Well, the government got their wish. Depictions of bondage don't have to go through the sacrosanct US MAIL anymore... you can see Bettie Page's legacy in bondage modeling right now by clicking over to...

www.minxinmayhem.com. A word to the wise... although not hardcore, this is GRAPHIC MATERIAL, not suitable for anyone under 18.

More Natalie Minx can be found at...
www.natalieminx.com ...although this site is not being updated anymore.