bettie page blog

Rick Klaw is the talented author of Geek Confidential: Echoes from the 21st Century and grandson of Irving Klaw, the man responsible for every bondage-themed and a large portion of the "cheesecake"-themed photos of Bettie Page. Rick kindly consented to an interview, attempting to clear up some nagging questions about his grandfather's dealings with Bettie Page.

Thanks for the interview, Rick. Clearly, you have a love of books and comic books, especially "fantastic" fiction. You are a prolific writer and a person who has a real love and understanding of the cult of fandom... befriending the creators who cater to that fandom and the fans themselves.

Bettie Page exists in just such a space. Given the iconic photos and her decades of "mystery", Bettie is more of a fictional character than a person to most of her fans (unlike, say, Madonna, who's personality and politics, for better or worse, are inseparable from her art).

I agree. Bettie falls more in the iconic status of say Wyatt Earp, where the fiction has become reality and vice versa.

How has your own life, work and passions been shaped by experiencing the "cult" audience of Bettie Page?

The cult of Bettie enabled me to learn more about a part of my family history that I thought lost. I didn't learn about my grandfather's famous history until I was 21 and at the 1992 San Diego ComicCon. I remember the event clearly.

"Are you related to Irving Klaw?"

I stood dumbfounded. I knew the name but never expected to hear it at 21 while attending a comic book convention. Irving Klaw was my grandfather.

Irving died about 16 months before I was born. His death is the stuff of family legend.

The grey-haired man in front of me was Ray Zone. As a comic book and magazine publisher, Zone was single-handedly responsible for the 3-d boom of the late 80's.1

"He was my grandfather. Why?"

Zone proceeded to show me examples of my grandfather's work: Images of Bettie iin black leather and leopard print bathing suits bound in a variety of positions. Some of the pics had Bettie with a whip. In some she was spread in doorways or suspended from a ceiling, bound and gagged. A few even had other women, but none had any nudity at all.

So you could say the "cult of Bettie" changed my life but not in the way most expect. I became curious and over the years and learned as much as I could abut his life and work. It's enabled me to re-establish a relationship with my Uncle Arth. Turns out we have a lot more in common than Irving.

The current understanding is the "Little John" story... a New York lawyer/judge bought out all the women in bondage stills Irving could dig up from B-movie stills. The customer offered to underwrite a photo shoot with bondage themes, in exchange for a set of photos. MSN would own the negatives and the right to sell prints, so Irving and Paula did, through their mail order business. Is this true?

To the best of my knowledge. I have yet to uncover anything that contradicts that story.

Assuming this is true, was Bettie the original model for the original shoot, or was she brought in later?

Klaw's first bondage model was Lili Dawn. She was photographed in midtown studios by various freelance photographers. Eventually, Klaw rented the third floor over Movie Star News and turned it into a photography studio. Around this time, Irving bought new furniture for his home. The old furniture made its way into the bondage shoots.

If Irving's dealings with "Little John" was the birth of Movie Star News shooting their own photos, when did bikini/cheesecake pictures (which, presumably, Little John would not be interested in) enter the "original photos" mix?

Since Irving was already selling cheesecake photos, I'd presume this was a natural progression to shoot their own "good girl" pics. As to when they started shooting them, I have no idea.

When was the last photo session for MSN/Nutrix?

Irving/Paula continue to produce original pictures (but no bondage after the 1955 Kefauver Hearings) into the 1960s. Klaw would publish "adventure" books with the pics and Klaw-written descriptions/dialog under the Nutrix name. He even rented studio space in Florida from David Friedman in the early 1960s. (Irving loved Florida and at the time of his death was making plans to retire and move there.)

Review after review of THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE have reduced Paula and Irving to "nice, normal, unexceptional" people. I'd love to counter that with some context. In interviews I've seen Paula displays a sharp sense of humor. Can you tell us about Irving, Paula and Jack Kramer? What were their personalities like?

From most accounts, the personalities were right on. Remember, I was born some 16 months after Irving's death.

What was the relationship like between them (Irving, Paula and Jack) and Bettie? There are some photos of them socializing, but also quotes suggesting there was little interaction outside of a handful of Saturday shoots.

Irving was a family man (he had no interest in bondage beyond the moneymaking aspects and there are absolutely no reports of inappropriate behavior between him and the models), so beyond the occasional dinners, I doubt he socialized much with Bettie. I do know that Irving use to like to go out with my grandmother Natalie and they favored night clubs with transvestite performers. Starting the mid-60s, my maternal grandparents often accompanied the Klaws on their club visits.

There is a story about a Filipino merchant marine who originally tied the knots for the bondage photos, but that Paula quickly assumed those duties. Likewise, initially, Movie Star News paid photographers, but at some point Paula took over these duties as well. Is this accurate and is there any information you can add?

I can add nothing about knots, but Ira Kramer told me that his mother (Paula) took the pictures because Irving was allergic to the photographic fluids. When I asked Arth about it (who is some 20 years older than Ira), he said he had never heard that. So who knows?

I've read that Paula destroyed 80% of the photos, but, at great peril to herself, Irving and Jack, she kept some of the negatives hidden, including many of the Bettie negatives. Is there any more information you can provide on this matter?

Irving surely didn't know about the surviving negatives. He was a scrupulous man of his word and if said they were all destroyed, he believed so.

And a bit of a correction... the negative destruction had nothing to do with Kefauver.

In 1963, following the suggestion of his lawyer, Irving destroyed his photographs and movies in an effort to placate the courts on yet another obscenity charge. The effort initially failed and Irving was found guilty of conspiracy to send obscene material through the mail, but the verdict was eventually overturned on appeal. Paula saved thousands of those images.

Thanks for your time and insight, Rick!

Rick Klaw is the author of Geek Confidential: Echoes from the 21st Century
NOW AVAILABLE from MonkeyBrain, Inc.

To be alerted about all things Klaw, join the Geek Confidential mailing list.

Read more Rick Klaw at the Dark Forces Book Group blog and SF site.

For more on Rick's life as a professional geek and more insight on Irving Klaw, read his interview over at Enter the Octopus.

Looking for an authentic blast of righteous Rockabilly? Get ready for THE SHAKEOUT! San Diego-based BOP-N-STOMP RECORDS’ generous sampler gamely scratches the itch for no-nonsense, high-octane thump and twang. It’s hard to beat the original architects of the rockabilly sound… from Sun Studios slapback, the innovative fretwork, characterized by the fluid shifts from Merle Travis-inspired country fingerpicking to badass blues bends, or the then-shocking mix of black and white vocal styles. Demonized by the media, co-opted by Hollywood and eventually put out to pasture by the British Invasion, the initial burst of Rockabilly’s popularity was all too short. For those of us who’ve listened to Rockabilly for years, those classic tracks have worn grooves on our brain as deep as on any vinyl. Every subsequent revival, for good or ill, has added ingredients to the original primordial ooze of Rockabilly – either sonically or through the incorporation of outside influences, such as punk or metal.

The genius of THE SHAKEOUT! is the way these bands keep true to the spirit of the 50’s, giving the collection the vibe of a “lost” mixtape from some undiscovered vintage label. The offerings are as varied as an clutch of singles from Sun or Ace. Some are spirited testaments to the power of rockin’, while others take more of a stroll down a country lane. What remains consistent is the warmth of the recordings, the tasteful playing (interesting enough to keep your foot tapping, but not showy) and the spot-on songwriting, covering the basics of love gone wrong, love gone right, the freedom and power of rock and, of course, odes to cars.

THE SHAKEOUT! is the remedy for anyone hungry for fresh, “classic” Rockabilly!

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY brought a bold new title to the attention of the Bettie Page Blog. Gavin Hignight, a talented Los Angeles-based writer offered a taste of his debut 192 page graphic novel, MOTOR CITY. The story focuses on a gang of 50's toughs in an even tougher spot -- their city has been overrun with the supernatural undead!

Gavin was kind enough to share the secret origins of this rockin' project.

Although you've done journalism about fan communities and worked in the related field of animation, this is your first comic. What brought you to the medium?

I think I am lucky to be part of the generation of creators who get to be both fans and creators. It seemed for a long time, a fanboy couldn’t cross over. The people in the industry were dependent on fanboys (and their dollars) for the success of their projects but also separated themselves from the fan culture and the reality that they themselves were once that small kid sitting in a movie theater or in front of TV, dreaming. The fact that I am both a fan and a creator has been why I have been able to writer in different aspects of entertainment but still keep my finger on the pulse.

As for my journey into comics… I didn’t move out to Hollywood to become a comic creator by any means. Did I read comics? Yes. Was I fan of comics? Yes, but I didn’t push hard to get my ideas into that format. I experimented on a project with a friend right out of high school but it never went anywhere. Here in Hollywood, I spent many hours of my life writing and making short films that never went anywhere. I never had the resources to compete in that visual medium. But my writing was level with the competition. The nice thing about writing is that you don’t have to have money to do it. You have to craft your vision and you have to spend time on it, but it’s not like a film where you are depending on other people or a budget. So I focused on writing and that led me to work on the 2003 Fox Kids animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. While working on that show I thought about Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, and what their humble beginning was like and where they came from and I was very inspired. A black and white indie comic that was an example of their unique vision. Almost instantly I knew what was next for me. MOTOR CITY was a comic concept from the beginning. I can’t explain how it came to me, like many things I just get a small strand of a character, scene or concept in my mind and, with time, more and more pieces or strands pop up and get put together. So yeah, MOTOR CITY was always meant to be a comic, and it was always meant to be somewhere between an American superhero or horror comic and a Japanese manga. Motor City has always been a mash up of some of my favorite things, in content like hotrods, monsters and greaser culture, but also in a structure, like the style of the art, or the flow of the story.

It was a flex of my creative muscles for sure. I had to teach myself a comic panel script format. There is no standard for this, like a screenplay, etc. I just looked at some samples of the masters like Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis and adapted my own panel script style from there. And I have to say, writing comics has made me a much better writer when it comes to TV or Film. In a comic you have little space to convey what you need to with words, so you are often forced to get to the point with the dialog. Something my films lacked. I’m going back to my screenplays now and cutting the hell out of them. After writing a full graphic novel I realized I can say the same thing with one sentence that I did with a paragraph, and the one sentence is often more effective and real feeling.

How did you come to decide on a graphic novel/Original English Language Manga instead of a monthly?

MOTOR CITY was originally written and planned as a monthly. The original story arc was 12 chapters long (12 months, 12 issues a year, etc…) but we realized very quickly that, as independent publishers, we were throwing our money away with single “floppy” issues. Financially, it just made more sense to skip the single issues and go straight to the collection or graphic novel. It was more cost efficient for printing, which has a direct effect on the price of the final product. Would a consumer want to spend 3 bucks on 16 or 25 page book or twelve bucks on 192 page book which is a complete story arc and something they can add to their library?

The size of the book was influenced by manga for sure. As mentioned, we always wanted a book that was post-manga. Not an American attempt at Manga, or an American book with anime inspired art, but a hybrid.

How did you come to collaborate with the book's artist, Jettila Lewis?

Jetti-monster! A friend of mine is an art teacher at a high school, here in the LA area, and one day he mentioned to me that he had a student who was so damned talented, he wasn’t sure what he was gonna be able to teach her, and that she had a strong interest in manga and anime. I said, “Introduce me!”

As Jetti worked her way through high school, she drew a couple sample projects for me, and some art for a website I was working on, and we just kept in touch about stuff. We were like-minded about music and culture, etc… About the time I got the idea for MOTOR CITY and started writing the scripts, she was just out of high school and ready to commit to a more long term project. I showed her what I had and she was on board with the concept, so we teamed up.

What were the challenges to getting it published and how can people get a copy?

MOTOR CITY has always been my baby. I’ve always had a very distinct idea of how it should look, what the vibe should be, and how it should play out. I wanted complete control of it, so the only way to retain that control was to put the book out myself. I don’t have problems being a writer for hire. I actually enjoy working on other people’s projects, and I’ve learned tons from the people who told me how to write their way. But I needed to express myself and create a world and property that was mine. Another issue is rights. I wanted to retain ownership of Lexi and the 133rd. In case MOTOR CITY ever makes the leap to another medium, I wanted to make sure my voice was included with it.

It has been an insane challenge to put the book out but it’s been well worth it. I created Rebel Sidekick Studios to do so. And I’m glad to say MOTOR CITY is just the first book we will be putting out. If you would have told me even a few years ago, that I’d be moving into publishing I wouldn’t of believed it. We have two more MOTOR CITY books planned, a follow up and a side story -- and we’re looking at projects that are completely different from MOTOR CITY. Eventually we’re even looking at putting books out from other writers. But it is a challenge for me. I am in my element when I am creating, that is what makes me happy. I want to worry about robots and ninjas, does the story work, is the monster cool, would this character do this or that? Now I am also worrying about all the business aspects, marketing, distribution, payment, shipping, storage, etc… I don’t mind it, and I’m surprised to find I’m good at it, but I’d rather be writing about monsters…

The best way for your readers to get MOTOR CITY? Easy. They can find the book on Amazon.com, or they can buy it from the store on our official website. If they want to buy the book in a more old school manner they can check a their local area comic store our Distributor Haven Distribution is working hard to get it into comic stores and indie book stores.

Judging from your picture, it appears you're a greaser in real life. Could you explain what aspects of Retro/Kustom Kulture appeal to you?

This stuff is just in my blood. It just is. I’ve always identified with counter-culture. Whether it be the greasers of the 50s and 60s, the long hairs of the late 60s and 70s, the punks and wavers of the 70s 80s, everybody who was socially just on the outside, those are my people, and those are the people who’s stories I am interested in. I grew up in Denver and there is a strong rockabilly scene, that had some influence. And I was exposed to bands like Social Distortion, and singers like Tom Waits, and books by people like William S. Burroughs in my formative years. All of it left an imprint and set me on a course to find more.

I have lots of music, for the rockabilly genre lately I’ve been really into Blazing Hailey and Mr. Badwrench, but I should say that you could just as easily find me listening to Skinny Puppy or Death Cab for Cutie. Oh — speaking of music, how freaking awesome is Hazel Atkins…

As for tattoos, I do have some and of course I need even more! I have tattoos on my chest that were based off of Bruce Davidson's “Life with a Brooklyn Gang”, which I recommend to everyone to find -- great photos of a 1950s Brooklyn gang. I also have a pinup tattoo of Death, the comic from Neil Gaiman. And Jetti is drawing up a pinup for me from MOTOR CITY, which will soon be on the arm.

Why do you think the 50's hold such a fascination for you, and could you speculate as to why it is still seen as so vibrant and important to the rest of us in the retro community?

I’m not sure why the past has such a strong hold on me. Maybe I had good times then in a former life… I don’t really know. Maybe if I lived back then, I’d be fascinated with the 1920s… who knows… I am really interested in the late 50s leading into the 60s. That is actually when Motor City is set. So much turmoil, and change. Early 50s seems like a stereotype sometimes, but the late 50s and early 60s have so much conflicted energy and strangeness that interested me.

What influences found their way into the book? Certainly, I felt a little of THE WILD ONES and BLACKBOARD JUNGLE. Any truth to that, and any stuff I'm missing?

MOTOR CITY was influenced by movies like The Outsiders, and Rumblefish. There is a panel in MOTOR CITY that is taken right out of The Outsiders, a little tribute if you will. It was also important to me to write a comic that was scary-fun. Like the kind of stuff I dug as a teenager. I wrote it for the 14 year old in all of us. Shows or movies like Tales from the Darkside, Tales from the Crypt, Twilight Zone, that kind of scary. Not the torture-genre that people watch now in horror, I wanted a book that was more fun than that, The Monster Squad, Lost Boys, The Warriors, all of this informed MOTOR CITY.

The genre mash-up has been popular in comics (certainly when Marvel zombifies their entire universe...), but your work felt very unique, as it took this notion of a 50's style greaser street gang very seriously. The respect for the characters and the reverence for the 50's tone (not just the clothes, but in how the characters behaved felt like a period melodrama, like BLACKBOARD) grounded the story, making the monster stuff feel fresh. The "pretty boy" characters and mystical switchblade also seemed like a nod to manga, which isn't so far afield, since certainly both rockabilly and horror are very popular in Japan (and both are among those strange American exports that we keep re-importing from them!). How did you decide to veer away from the nod/wink serio-comic tone that is typical for these retro/horror mash-ups (Max Allan Collins' Johnny Dynamite comes to mind as an example)?

Thanks for taking notice that I took it seriously! That is so important to me it’s important to any film, comic, or story, and something I think that is forgotten way too often by people who are creating. I think things can be fun, and scary, and out of this world, but you have to respect the story, and the characters, and you have to have continuity in the world you create. I took the world of MOTOR CITY very seriously. Of course Lexi, the lead character, has different problems than you or me, fighting ghouls and monsters, but we need to be able to relate to him, he needs to be grounded on some level even if what he’s dealing with isn’t. And this stuff is my life (retro lifestyle, classic monster culture, etc.). I take it seriously, so I hope that is reflected in the book.

As for the Japanese and American rockabilly culture and this book? First of all, I have to say I love Japanese rockabilly culture. I love that they are carrying the culture on. Heck, I’ve met gearheads from Australia and Germany and England that are cool as hell, too! I love that it keeps going and has different faces all over the world. I hope to get MOTOR CITY in front of the Japanese rockabilly scene, as you can assume they are already accustomed to reading graphic novels or manga, and they will probably flip. But… alas… one continent at a time. The US today! Tomorrow the world!!

Comic fandom is a pretty insular world. What do you feel your book has to offer someone who has not picked up a piece of graphic fiction in a long damn time, if ever... especially if that person is down with the retro/kustom lifestyle?

When we started out with MOTOR CITY there was never a comic book hero that was a poor greaser. I like that we filled that gap. For people who are into rockabilly or classic monster culture, I feel like we’ve given them the book they’ve never seen or had the chance to enjoy. I am all about breaking stereotypes, I love creating something that makes people do a double-take or catches them off guard. I am surprised how many non-comic book kind of people have picked up this book and come back telling me how much they liked it and were surprised they liked it. But that is my job as a creator right? People get spoiled and or jaded by the super hero genre, these super human people in a normal world doing crazy things, MOTOR CITY is a book about normal characters doing their best in a world that is extraordinary. I like that. I like that the normal guys can be heroes too.

Certainly there's some pin-up girl iconography in the book. Was Bettie Page an inspiration in any way, shape or form?

I love Bettie Page! How could you not, right? There are the people who love Marilynn Monroe, and there are people who love Bettie Page. I’m one of the guys who likes that dark haired raven, always have been. I love her old clown dancing films, and the pin-ups and the photos -- she’s always done it for me.

We wanted to do something different for the chapter breaks in the book, and Jetti draws the hottest manga-influenced pin-ups, so we decided to include her pin-ups in the book that way. Not only influenced by Bettie Page, but also artists like Vargas. The pin-ups are also the female characters from the comic itself, one of the sexy vampire girls from volume one, and we also included Sam, who will be a major character in volume two, -- she gives Lexi all kinds of trouble. When designing Sam’s character, we looked at a combination of Bettie Page and Lana Lane from Smallville. Sam has become kind of the icon for MOTOR CITY and with good reason -- who doesn’t want to look at a sexy pin-up? Girls, guys, everybody can appreciate them!

Thanks for giving the Bettie Page Blog a sneak peek into the world of the 133rd!

Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us about the comic! We’ll be doing more and more events with Motor City, so everyone feel free to check out our website and add us to your friends on Myspace to stay in touch.

www.motorcitycomic.com
www.myspace.com/motorcitycomic

May 18th. Be there or be square.

Roller Derby Queens Love Bettie:

Most players doll up to resemble '50s pinup queen Bettie Page -- only with tattoos, fish-net stockings, hot pants and body piercings.

And the sexy pseudonyms abound: Betty Knock-her, Surely MacPain, Nauti-Sea-Cups and Filthy Scar-Lit are just some of the Broward Derby Grrls skate de plumes.

''The only thing that is fake are our names,'' said Brenda Bach, 43, a sign language interpreter from Plantation who hits the derby track as Sin D. Lap-Her.

''We play a real game of roller derby, not the staged fights of the 1970s, and when it is played real, it is rough enough,'' Bach said.

Read the rest of the Miami Herald article.

And El Paso Rockabillies, too!

Rockabilly's more than music. It's turning a wrench on an old chunk of Detroit steel, preferably Mopar, but definitely your own or your buddy's. It's rolling up a pack of Pall Malls in the sleeve of your too tight t-shirt. It's four inch folded cuffs on brand new blue jeans. It's wearing bangs, like Betty Page, and smacking bubble gum. It's the fifties, and Elvis, and Jerry Lee, and the sixties, before the Beatles and Timothy Leary. It's big blocks and hot rods and honest grease under your fingernails. It's leather jackets and tattoos. It's Grease, and West Side Story, and Rebel Without a Cause.

Read the rest!

He was the affable "Tennessee Plowboy" who brought elegance, sophistication and millions of fans to country music. Eddy Arnold, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, died around 4:40 a.m. today at NHC Place in Cool Springs at the age of 89.

Mr. Arnold's contributions to the history of American popular music are manifold, and integral. He sold more than 85 million records, with 37 singles charting on the pop charts and many more impacting the country charts. He ranks as Billboard magazine's single most popular country artist of all time. He was a star of stage and screen, and he was also a public face of Nashville music for decades.

Hits such as "Make The World Go Away," "I Want To Go With You," "Turn The World Around," "I Really Don't Want To Know" and "You Don't Know Me" charmed a nation and moved country toward the popular mainstream.

Read the rest at WBIR.COM



Online Videos by Veoh.com

Friend o' the Bettie Page Blog, Unknown Hinson, the king of country western troubadours, had a nice article in the DALLAS OBSERVER today.

Vampirism, hard time, booze and stress relief through random gunfire: Unknown Hinson is the most rock 'n' roll cat to ever dismiss the genre as something "a damn 15-year-old punk can do."

But thanks to his darkly funny, politically incorrect songs and blazing rockabilly riffs, Hinson is gaining popularity with the very rockers he despises.

READ THE REST!

Sample his music on his MySpace page!

Rockabilly, Country and a lot of fun with music – that is Tennessee Menace in a nutshell.

The four cowboys from Southern Germany interpret their own songs as well as select cover songs in a wide variety of styles: thumping and aching like an old train, with cool swing rhythms, and almost universally their speed rivals gun shots in the Old West.

Tennessee Menace met – more or less by chance – at a few jam sessions in spring 2006, and not even three months later they had their first concert together. In the following two years Tennessee Menace played 40 gigs at home and in several European countries. They were the support group for Restless, Frantic Flintstones, Meteors, and Rockabilly Mafia, to name but a few.

"...and never forget: every sin's alright!"... Tennessee Menace's words to live by!

Go to their page to listen to their randy track, "Shake the Bacon", which they say is inspired by Bettie's "stag reels".

Two irreducible truths inform Bettie’s enduring popularity as a “good bad girl”:

Bettie is a devout Christian.

Bettie sees encouraging the erotic imaginations of strangers through very provocative photos as absolutely consistent with her beliefs as a Christian.

Hugh Hefner dubbed her, “The girl next door with a little touch of kink.” Bettie never played at being a “bad” girl. She was happy to be a good girl who loved to pose.

In our current politically and ideologically polarized society, the idea of combining faith with sexuality in such a free, joyous way seems strangely more dangerous and more outlandish than it did in the 1950’s.

Just such thoughts came to the fore on a compelling website, ADULT CHRISTIANITY, the brainchild of MISS POPPY DIXON. The site is a politically charged, bitingly sarcastic and intellectually disciplined critique of (in Miss Dixon’s words) “socially conservative and politically aggressive Christianity”. Unlike left-wing screeds, Miss Dixon charges that contemporary, politicized Christianity is, first and foremost, a betrayal of the Christian message. Although she doesn’t pull punches, Miss Dixon clearly understands religion and takes it seriously. As such, when it comes to the Religious Right’s stances on sexuality, sexual identity, eroticism, feminism and reproductive rights, Miss Dixon is able to make her arguments in a way that is powerful and logically consistent with the Religious Right’s own belief system.

Here’s a link to Miss Poppy Dixon’s article on Bettie Page. It’s a good read!

Following up on this article, Miss Dixon was kind enough to elaborate on her thoughts about Bettie Page, Christianity and her own personal experiences with faith…

---

How did Adult Christianity begin?

In 1993 I was a student in the Conceptual Arts program at San Francisco State University. I used Hypercard, a precursor to the web, to create an art project based on my own non-linear relationship to Christianity. A couple of years later I reworked the project and put it online. At the time I felt that popular Christianity pandered to the smallest and meanest in Americans. Popular Christianity infantilized us. It depicted Jesus as little more than a harmless imaginary friend. Adult Christianity, in contrast, demonstrated a brainy, lusty, gin-soaked, risible model of faith.

What is your feeling about religion's role in your own life?

Religion played different roles during different periods of my life. I had a difficult childhood and religion made a big difference, both positive and negative. In the early 70s, as a young teenager, I was involved in Shiloh (Youth Revival Center) – a communal network of Jesus freaks.

It took me years and years, decades really, to undo the negative fear-based teachings I learned from Shiloh and the fundamentalist community churches I attended. As an adult my relationship to religion evolved through more benign forms.

Currently I would say that I am a practicing non-theist, though I dabble in antitheism. There is an amazing force of life that churns through the universe. I am part of it and always will be. But I, as this particular personality, will not survive. I do not believe in God as a being, with personality.

In America, there seems to be a fear of sexuality, especially from a female-empowered, feminist perspective. Americans at large -- male and female -- seem uncomfortable with women genuinely expressing or exploring their sexuality, yet America seems to have little problem exploiting male lust and women's desire to be beautiful in any number of ways... from burger ads to, perversely, diet ads. Why, in your considered opinion, will America accept a woman being crassly objectified to sell Doritos, but is outraged by legitimate erotic art?

There is an expectation, for everyone - male and female and those in between, to be the subject of their world, yet all the while we know we are the world’s object – we are dust, star stuff. We long to resolve this truth, either by being objectified ourselves, or by exploring that idea vicariously through seeing the other – women, children, gays, the poor - objectified. By seeing others objectified our role as subject is affirmed - I have the power to buy the Doritos that some other used her body to sell.

On the other hand, when the traditionally objectified woman acts in her own interest, it threatens the subjectivity of those in power. Bettie inadvertently made objects of those who consumed her. That’s where she ran afoul of the law. As long as she was a passive thinglet she was safe. But when she posed in bondage, explicitly spelling out the power roles, she stripped men bare. They, and their raw desires, were exposed.

U.S. Senators did not want impressionable American sons viewing power as dependent on consensus, or worse yet desire, but rather on absolute immutable truths trussed up tightly in gender, race, and class.

How familiar are you with Bettie Page?

I’ve read about her, seen her photographs, and watched her dance videos. I saw Mary Harron’s movie. It was beautifully executed, but the narrative fell flat.

I don’t think anyone really knows enough about Bettie to tell her story. It’s the same way with Jesus – he is this great erotic figure about whom very little is known. Because so little is known about Jesus or Bettie, they become perfect tablets on which to pen our own internal dramas.

If you were familiar with her photos prior to the movie, what were your feelings towards them?

I love the beach photos. The bondage photos are fine, but not my cup of tea - I’m all thumbs. I’m very fond of Bettie’s dance videos. I’m surprised no one has invented a Bettiesize aerobics class.

Have you seen Velvet Hammer Burlesque? It’s a Los Angeles performance group that overtly honors Bettie Page. I’ve seen them perform – they’re absolutely amazing. They’ve picked up where Bettie left off. They exude the same joy, the same energy.

It seems, as well as we can track such things, that Bettie has become more important as a sexual icon to women than as an object of desire for men... that is, Bettie's female fans (at least ardent ones) are increasingly female. What lessons do you think young women can draw from Bettie?

I suspect that Bettie Page had a lot to say. She suffered a lot of abuse over the course of her life. I don’t think that kind of suffering is something Bettie would want her fans to either experience or emulate. Young women need to be audacious, to tell their stories fearlessly and make sure that they are heard. When young women speak for themselves, I believe they’re speaking for a Bettie that few heard.

One of the reasons people are so attracted to Bettie as an icon is that she promotes a very healthy (and oddly un-American) view of sexuality: one that is not based on shame, guilt and secrecy; and a form of sexuality that doesn't view Christianity (in the "love thy neighbor" variety, not in the "world domination" variety) and erotic imagination as mutually exclusive. Why do you think this particular position is still one that provokes so much controversy?

Bettie Page confused the roles of subject and object through joy. She frustrated her own objectification by joyfully embracing it. That same joy made objects of the men who watched her. My sense is that men didn’t so much want her, as they wanted to be her. That was the real perversity.

I don't know that I found so much joy in Bettie's bondage shots - to me those are very technical, so I don't know that I'm the best person to comment on them. I’m speaking more of her photography modeling (for camera clubs) and the fellows who would photograph her. I think they longed for, what must have seemed to them, a freer and more joyful relationship to sexuality and the world - in that sense they'd rather "be" her - without, of course, acknowledging the downsides of being a woman (less pay, discrimination, etc.)

When I think of Bettie I think of Luke 7:36-50, a very saucy story of Jesus anointed by a fallen woman at a dinner party. The hosts of the party protested the woman’s status. Jesus replied,

“Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” Luke 7:47

Loving and sinning (transgressing) and forgiving are all tied together. The sourpusses at the dinner party had little love or forgiveness, because they could not (publicly) trangress.

Bettie Page loved much.

Do you feel her bondage shots are demeaning in any way or encourage male aggression?

Men don't really need bondage to take out their frustrations on women. I've never been so humiliated in my life than when I worked in the corporate world. That's where the truly sick **** plays out. The Senators want to believe (and for others to believe) that power is ordained through a mystical and holy hierarchy. Bondage and kink lay that fallacy bare. Power is not ordained - it's gained either through consensus or through force and fable - like slavery and the Bible.

The conflict between faith and. atheism appears to be heating up . Either you are for Darwin, "San Francisco values" and sexual empowerment, or you are for Jesus, guns and repression. What's your assessment of the culture wars today? Who's winning, who's losing, who's right, who's wrong?

A very successful marketing guru once said, “Being right is the booby prize.”

Let them, whoever they are, be right. Let the babies have their bottles.

Our job is to tell the truth, irrepressibly, joyfully, continually, and if our bone structure supports it, with short bangs.

What role can fans of Bettie Page play in making the world safe for empowered sexual expression without fear of censorship?

There’s always a need for more bad girls in the world (female and male) – girls that can tell the truth, transgress, love the people, and forgive themselves and others. Bad girls needed.

Bettie was born in Nashville, Tennessee on April 22^nd, 1923, the oldest girl in a family of six children... three girls and three boys.

The following is from Dave Stevens' interview with Bettie, available on CD:

“...I was almost born in a movie theater.  My mother had labor pains when the show was over at eleven o’clock, and my father had to rush her to the hospital.  And I think that’s the reason I’ve been such a movie fan and crazy about the movies all of my life, because I was almost born in a movie house!”

Wish Bettie Page a Happy Birthday!
Express birthday greetings in the COMMENT section of THIS POST. We will make sure she has a chance to read them.

Q:
Your pin-ups, besides being very pretty and very authentically retro, touch on some themes that are near and dear to the Bettie Page Blog: body image, DIY spirit and bringing the retro into the digital age.

You've drawn the distinction between your feelings between PLAYBOY models and the pin-up models you draw. What is it about your pin-ups that inspires you in ways that a PLAYBOY model does not?

A:
Well first off Thank you very much!!

Secondly, don't get me wrong. I LOVE Playboy. I still subscribe to it. I actually used to read it when I was far too young to be reading it *laughs* and I acquired a lot of my political views from Playboy. It's an intensely liberal magazine because it can be. That’s great!

The models are a pre-fabricated fantasy, something wholly unattainable. That's the point, they don't apologize for it. Like the ancient Greeks used to weave stories about the beauty of goddesses and nymphs, over-exaggerating the reality of their beauty to a point that if you saw her you might die of a heart attack or something. That’s an interesting concept but it’s a little too mystical and ethereal for my tastes.

I like real women who I see face-to-face. They turn me on and motivate me in ways that an idea or a photograph could never do. You can't talk to an idea. My friends are so incredibly beautiful! Yeah they are real women! They wear badly fitted bras and their hair is flat some days, and they still have partners who are falling all over them in love. Most women do really, it’s just that some of us don't notice it.

What I always try my hardest to do is take the image of my friend or model and keep it genuine. I imagine what she would look like in the best undergarments the 50's had to offer, because that’s what makes a pinup look really retro. That distinctive look of a burlesque corset or the "I've got a BestForm girdle on right now!" curve to her hip. I give her nice hair, makeup and a rockin’ outfit. I don't make my models thinner or different than they actually are usually because they look AMAZING when I just let them be who they are!

Women CAN and ARE this sexy and amazing looking all the time, all around you. My last pin-up called Carly Pin-Up, the model doesn't leave the house without makeup and a nice outfit, she looks like that everyday. My girlfriend Shayna, who is often my model, looks JUST like her pin-ups all the time. I guess that’s really my point. I just make the image of the woman what she actually looks like to everyone around her, especially people who love her.

Real women are amazing, and even though there was a feminine ideal back in the 40's and 50's, it was a remarkably attainable ideal for most women. You take your curves, stuff them into some BestForm undergarments and rock the sweater set. It didn't matter how thick you were as long as you left the house with some semblance of support garments and a smooth shape. Men didn't buy into the ideal that women needed to be stick thin and full of muscles. They wanted tits, a pair of bright red lips, and a good martini to come home to someday. I can respect that much more than the heroin chic image and the Athlete-gone-suburban-soccer mom ideal I have seen paraded in front of me my whole life by the movies and the god box.

Q:
Is there a lifestyle or an attitude that you are trying to communicate through your art?

A:
Yes absolutely. Be proud of yourself and who you are! Don't be afraid to dress up everyday and celebrate how sexy you are, just like you are, right now! Don't wait for a special occasion, throw away your sweat pants. Put on your favorite shirt that makes you look like a million bucks everyday. Live for today and don't let some skewed messed up body image get you down. It’s not a joke or some silly positive guru crap. It’s reality....YOU ARE HOT, OWN IT.

Q:
You seem very proud of your status as a "blue collar pin-up artist" and are open about your techniques. This reminds me of the punk "DIY" spirit, in which part of the motivation for being an artist is inspiring other artists.

A:
Oh yeah, absolutely. I'm not going to pretend to be all sophisticated in ways I am not. I would never be able to pull it off. *laughs* People like you would catch me! But seriously, I come from humble roots. My father is a Harley-riding truck driver and my mother is an ATV fanatic. She even has her own ATV flag company aditudegear. com, if you go there you will see that our websites look strikingly similar. That’s cause she made my website for me, it was so cool.

We are all DIY'ers. We grew up poor - that meant you never paid someone to do something that you could learn to do on your own. That’s just pure wastefulness. If you didn't know how, you get your ass to the library and find out!

That's why I am so open with my techniques and tools. I use literally less than a hundred bucks worth of tools and I make art like I do on my computer. Anyone can do this, it is accessible, and it’s easy to get. Art should never be something that is mysterious or hard to attain. It should be available for everyone. We should all take part in it and try our hardest to inspire others to do it also. It’s really good for your soul to make something you're proud of!

Q:
Do you see yourself as part of a tradition or a movement?

A:
This is a harder question. I would never imagine putting myself up there with the likes of the people who are IN the pin-up tradition. That's kind of laughable to me. Saying I am part of a movement kind of makes me obligated to actually have momentum. *laughs* Okay, I would say that I see myself as someone who will be something someday. I'm not sure what that will be, but I am hoping it will be good enough for people to talk about.

Q:
What do you find inspiring about retro images or lifestyle?

A:
I think I may have touched on this a bit earlier but I didn't explain it, so thank you for giving me the chance. I really like the idea that we can make ourselves up. I like the adornment, the perfectly coiffed hair, the make-up, the clothes. I think when we pay that much attention to the way we look we have so much more confidence and motivation.

I think that in this world and in this time, since women are no longer obligated to wear these clothes and to do these things to be socially acceptable, it is now so empowering to be beautiful in that way. I think it was true that the feminist movement had a point, you can't EXPECT us to do this for you, but we can and will do it for ourselves. We can do it for good reasons that benefit us and give us a tangible sense of beauty.

Q:
Is your interest in retro images confined to your art or do you express it in your life?

A:
Man, I would love to say that I have ballgowns and pencils skirts galore. *laughs* I do have old cars and a leather jacket, but I am 6' tall and I am NOT skinny. I have a problem finding regular jeans that fit me let alone clamdiggers or cuban heel stockings in my size. If someone knows a clothing company that does make spectacular clothes in my size...please clue me in!

Thanks to my father, I grew up working on old cars and going to the car shows where everybody dressed and sometimes lived retro even when it wasn't cool at all. I own a 1963 Nova Wagon that is still a project car and my mother will someday soon be giving me her 1967 Camaro. SUCH a hot car. I lusted after it my whole youth, and I still do, so it’s been a long time coming.

The retro lifestyle is something I kind of grew up with, sometimes because our stuff was THAT old and sometimes because it worked better than new stuff, or because it was more attractive and incredibly awesome. Retro things weren't "retro" to me most of the time, they were just cool older things. They kind of still are.

Q:
Where do you see pin-up going in the future?

A:
I think pin-up is going to make a huge resurgence. Traditional style pin-up will probably become part of mainstream society again, but it will be a bit bent. I draw gay male pin-ups, retro pin-ups, modern pin-ups. We all need a pin-up.

A pin-up is an image you can take out of a magazine, or a paper, and put up on your wall because that kind of person is the kind of person you want looking down on you when your laying in bed, if you know what I mean. I think all kinds of people are beautiful, so I draw all kinds of pin-ups. People have always pinned things up on their walls but I think more artists will start drawing these images because people love them.

As a culture we celebrate all kinds of people much more readily than we ever did before, so I think it will naturally evolve just like everything else does.

Q:
You work in a digital medium that Gil Elvgren would not comprehend, yet you are painting in that tradition. From what I understand, you have severe allergies to paint and chemicals. Beyond these considerations, what are the "pluses and minuses" of working digitally? How has it affected your technique?

A:
Gil Elvgren would probably call me cheater cause I can erase. I have the CTRL Z powers and he just had to swear a bunch and start over, or try to fix it as best he could. THAT is my plus. That is the big way it has affected my technique. I am not nearly as uptight about my art. *laughs*

My minus, the one that just about kills me, is that I can't touch my own work. I can't hold a brush and make art like I used to. I hate sounding even remotely pitiful really, but I am so severely allergic to the chemicals that I get tonsillitis if I breathe in the fumes from the oil paint solvents. It wasn't always like this but my grandmother developed these same allergies later in her life. They say that people like her and I are the world's canaries. That when we get sick you know the world is too toxic. But eh, this is my world.

I found a way to keep on making art and I do the best with it what I can. Just the same as any other curve ball life throws at you. I love my laptop and my little wacom tablet. I can take them anywhere and make art anytime. I can't do that with a canvas and a big lug of oil paints and chemicals.

Q:
I see that you take commissions for stickers and tattoo designs. Do you work from live models, from photo reference or do you draw from imagination?

A:
I almost always have some sort of photo reference, but sometimes not. I have a very firm grasp of the human anatomy so I can draw you just like you look if I know you well enough with no reference at all. That is where my traditional training comes out. I never went to school for any of this but I trained myself to do things without any help from any tool except your media and your medium and your own imagination.

I never use live models, only pictures. I can't stand to make people sit still like that. It seems kind of cruel. *laughs* I like using pictures because it saves me a lot of time. Plus all my friends get hot pictures and hot art so that’s fun!

We have a good time doing photo shoots on occasion. We get out the computer and the girls get dolled up and emulate the pin up poses of the professionals, especially Bettie- everyone loves looking like Bettie, and we go to town taking pictures. It’s a great time!

Q:
How did you discover Bettie Page?

A:
Bettie Page was one of the first truly iconic figures in my life. I was a poor lonely goth kid stuck in rural Southern Oregon. This was before internet was common in households, and I was so closed off from the world I was sure all the other goth kids lived in England. *Laughs* I would travel up to one of the bigger cities and go to this gift shop ran by a man who was twisted and hilarious. He stocked poster after poster of Bettie Page and I began slowly collecting them all. I was so poor and I almost never got up there, but I would stash money away in my German text book that I in fact NEVER opened otherwise, and when the opportunity arose, I would go with whatever friends were traveling. It soon became common knowledge that I LOVED BETTIE. Some of my closer friends would pick me up stickers and postcards if they saw them, or treat me to posters - once even a clock on my birthday!

We all know the girls now wear the Bettie bangs but back then, in that small town, no one did. I dyed my blonde hair black and pulled my thick hair down over my forehead and had the shiniest, most rockin' Bettie Do I could muster. I loved it! When I got my first job at 16 one of the first things I bought was a black Crownette open-bottom girdle from a catalog. I had never owned something so sexy or luxurious. I wore that damn thing everyday for two years straight. I wore dresses to work at my job as a cashier and my bosses thought I was so traditional and well kept, if only they knew I just wanted to wear stockings everyday!

Bettie Page was an icon of epic proportions in my youth. I looked at this woman who I thought was gone and only remembered in select subcultures, and I saw something undeniably sexy and so enticing I wanted to emulate it, own it, and flaunt it. She has been in my art over and over again. I probably used her as much as Olivia ever did to learn how to draw women, and how to perfect all the right curves. Every day I wished I was as talented and accomplished as Olivia, and I still hope to be someday. If I ever am you can be sure I will be paying tribute to Bettie just as much as she does. Bettie Page IS the world’s best and most famous Pin-Up.

Q:
Finally, any thoughts on Bettie Page as a retro icon?

A:
Oh man do I have thoughts, and most of them are NOT introspective or intelligent. She is sexy!

I think Bettie Page is one of the most accessible and attainable icons because she is a real woman. She was just out there making a living, and she did for a while by looking great for photographers. She was never a movie star, she never had oodles of money for cosmetics, or beauty products, or treatments, surgery, or doctors to augment her natural beauty. She showed up with what she had, she made herself some sexy outfits, and she got it done!

Bettie Page is the godmother of my art. She showed me that women are sexy just like they are, with no airbrushing and no bolt-on plastic parts. I think that even if you don't realize it right away, it's that very genuine nature to her work and image that attracts everyone. It's what inspires droves of women to want to look like her and be like how they interpret her.

Karina sells her pin-ups as decals through her web-based store. She also takes commissions for custom pin-ups.

Reach her at www.karinadale.com.

The inaugural post of this blog concerned pin-up artist extraordinare, Olivia De Berardinis' "California Cheesecake" gallery show. Here is a cool short documentary her company produced concerning the event.

A hat tip to Bernie Dexter, on who's MySpace page we discovered this video.

'Songs The Cramps Taught Us - Volume 1' CD.
The Sparkes - Hipsville 29 BC
Dwight Pullen - Sunglasses After Dark
Link Wray - Fatback
Sheriff & The Ravels - Shombolar
The Riptides - Machine Gun
Bo Diddley - Dancing Girl
The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird
Walter Brown - Jelly Roll Rock
The Sonics - Strychnine
The Rumblers - Boss
The Third Bardo - Five Years Ahead Of My Time
The Busters - Bust Out
The Phantom - Love Me
Jett Powers - Go Girl Go
Ronnie Cook - Goo Goo Muck
The Runabouts - The Strangeness In Me
The Groupies - Primitive
The Frantics - Werewolf
Elroy Dietzel - Rock-n-Bones
Dale Hawkins - Tornado
The Shells - Whiplash
Keith Courvale - Trapped Love
Freddie & The Hitch Hikers - Sinners
Charlie Feathers - I Can't Hardly Stand It
Andy Starr - Give Me A Woman
R Lewis - Get Off The Road
Hayden Thompson - Blues Blues Blues
Lee Dresser - Beat Out My Love
Andre Williams - Bacon Fat
Jack Scott - The Way I Walk
Elvis Presley - Do The Clam

'Songs The Cramps Taught Us - Volume 2' CD.
Hasil Adkins - She Said
Buddy Love - Heartbreak Hotel
Dean Carter - Jailhouse Rock
The Fender Four - Margaya
Johnny Burnette Trio - Tear It Up
Lightnin' Slim - It's Mighty Crazy
Glen Glenn - Everybody's Movin'
Carl Perkins - Her Love Rubbed Off On Me
Slim Harpo - Strange Love
Charlie Feathers - It's Just That Song
Randy Alvey - Green Fuz
Bill Allen - Please Give Me Something
Captain Beefheart - Hard Working Man
J J Jackson - Oo-Ma-Liddi
Three Aces & A Joker - Booze Party
The Spark Plugs - Chicken
Jimmy Stewart - Rock On The Moon
Sonny Burgess - Red Headed Woman
Kip Tyler - Jungle Hop
Don & The Galaxies - Sundown
Roy Orbison - Domino
The Readymen - Shortnin' Bread
The Novas - The Crusher
The Tune Rockers - The Green Mosquito
The Jesters - Peter Gunn
The Count Five - Psychotic Reaction
The Flames - The Bird
Red Crayola - Hurricane Fighter Plane
Kasenatz Katz Super Circus - Quick Joey Small Ricky Nelson - Lonesome Town
The Huntsmen - Fever
Jim Lowe - The Green Door

'Songs The Cramps Taught Us - Volume 3' CD.
Nat Couty - Woodpecker Rock
Macy Skipper - Bop Pills
The Blues Rockers - Calling All Cows
Mac Rebennack - Storm Warning
Larry Phillipson - Bitter Feelings
Terry Dunavan - Earthquake Boogie
The Sonics - He's Waiting
The Fanatics - I Will Not Be Lonely
The Instrumentals - Chop Suey Rock
Dell Raney - Can Your Hossie Do The Dog
The Shades - Strollin' After Dark
Jackie Lee Cochran - Georgia Lee Brown
Lonnie Allen - You'll Never Change Me
Jerry Warren - Rompin'
Kai-Ray - I Want Some Of That
Junior Thompson - How Come You Do Me?
The Rhythm Rockers - Madness
Warren Smith - Uranium Rock
Kit & The Outlaws - Don't Tread On Me
The Flower Children - Miniskirt Blues
The Standells - Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
Dave Day - Blue Moon Baby
Shorty Long - Devil With The Blue Dress On
Ronnie Dawson - Rockin' Bones
Mel Robbins - Save It
Jimmy Lloyd - I Got A Rocket In My Pocket
Charlie Feathers - One Hand Loose
The Fendermen - Mule Skinner Blues
Paul Revere & The Raiders - Hungry
The Embers - I Walked All Night
The Bostweeds - Faster Pussycat Kill Kill

Rick Klaw is a Renaissance man, who has experienced nearly every angle of the business of publishing. He has been a fiction and non-fiction author, a journalist, a book "buyer", a prodigious reviewer of books, comics and film, an editor and a publisher. Does he sleep?

Mr. Klaw also has a somewhat "infamous" last name. That's right, the same name as a Fantastic Four foe (as Rick often jokes). While that is true, here at the Bettie Page Blog, Rick's last name evokes his paternal grandfather, Movie Star News proprietor Irving Klaw.

Rick has kindly given the BPB permission to post his article about his grandfather:

As a child all I knew of my grandfather was that he was a pornographer, albeit a very tame one. My mother's exact words were, “They show worse things on Cinemax.”

I first learned more about him while attending the 1989 San Diego ComicCon when publisher/artist Ray Zone first told me of my family legacy. Initially my grandfather Irving Klaw ran a mail-order business that sold pin-ups of Hollywood stars. He later expanded into pictures and films of attractive women in bondage and other fetishistic poses. Klaw pioneered both the movie star image and adult entertainment industries. His best known model, Bettie Page, was one of the most photographed women of the 1950s, appearing on more magazine covers than anyone else in the decade.

Inspired by the success of Jerald Intrator's 1952 burlesque film Striporama, my grandfather produced and directed Varietease (1954), Teaserama (1955), and Buxom Beautease (1956). The films featured burlesque acts with stripteases, comedy acts, and musicians with famed beauties Page, Lili St. Cyr, and Tempest Storm.

Also during this period, Klaw produced thousands of feet of black and white film loops featuring striptease and fetish acts. These shorts featured only women, either by themselves or sometimes in pairs, in a variety of situations often involving bondage and spanking. The models-- most famously Page-- never appeared terrified and seemed to be enjoying themselves in a non-sexual, no-threatening way. As with his photos, these movies contained only the suggestion of nudity. My grandfather often required the models to wear two pairs of panties so no pubic hair could be seen. Not a pornographer, Klaw was all about the tease.

Thanks largely to his fetish business, Klaw testified before the 1955 United States Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. The subcommittee, one year before, had famously forced the comic book industry to adopt a code to stop the publication of "inappropriate" comic book material. Now they were investigating my grandfather. The New York City press plastered the sensationalistic episode throughout the city, where Klaw became known as the "Smut King."

My grandfather's legal problems persisted for nearly ten years. Federal authorities intercepted his mail and bugged his phones. As late as 1964, Klaw was brought before a federal court on charges of conspiracy to send obscene material through the mail.

With the shifting political and social climate, Irving returned to filmmaking in 1963, producing two "lost" films: Larry Wolk's Intimate Diary of an Artist's Model and Nature's Sweethearts, co-directing the latter. Unlike, his previous films, both pictures featured a lot of topless women.

The legal and cultural ramifications of his twenty year career ushered America from the sexually conservative 1950s to the sexually charged 1960s. His impact on the exploitation films of the 1960s was profound influencing everything from Barbarella to Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!. In his book Sinema, Douglas Brode argues that Klaw's pictures of Bettie Page and "friends" inspired lesbian chic-- the notion of women as "bisexually sensuous"-- in both film and television. Rachel Schteir in the excellent Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show (Oxford, 2005) asserts that "[Klaw's] movies did more to spread striptease across the country in this era [the 1950's] than any one burlesque short. [...] What they did was spread striptease, drag strips, and burlesque comedy to a provincial audience. In essence, they were giving these audiences what they might see in Miami, Las Vegas, or some other cosmopolitan city." The contemporary popularity of his movies inspired the current neo-burlesque revival in major American cities.

In late 1955, legendary exploitation filmmakers David Friedman and Dan Sonney acquired the rights to both Teaserama and Varietease for $5,000. Sonney owned burlesque theaters on Main Street in L.A. and earned back the initial investment within a year. During the 1980's, Something Weird Video introduced the movies to a new generation. Both Teaserama and Varietease are currently available on DVD.

At the time of his death in 1966-- sixteen months before I was born-- my grandfather lived in relative obscurity. Few imagined that nearly forty years later, his movies would be considered softcore classics and major precursors to the sixties "nudie-cuties" and the later hardcore porn films. Or that two features (The Notorious Bettie Page [2006] and Bettie Page: Dark Angel [2004]) would be made about Bettie Page with my grandfather as major character and that DVD compilations of Klaw's films are bestsellers. Klaw's work influenced a generation of filmmakers, photographers, and entertainers including Russ Meyer, John Waters, Madonna, Missy Suicide, and others. Ironically, without my grandfather there would have been no Cinemax.

---

Thanks for the great article, Rick! We look forward to hearing more from Rick Klaw in the near future.

In the meantime, consider reading two more of Rick's pieces which touched on his grandfather, both found in the Austin Chronicle:

Little Underground Worlds"

"The Notorious Irving Klaw"

Discover Rick Klaw's Writing:

RevolutionSF

Blackbird Press

Mojo Press

The graphic novel, Weird Business

Geeks With Books

Geek Confidential: Echoes from the 21st Century

Austin Chronicle

This is one of those columns I dread writing. Dave Stevens, one of our industry's brightest stars, died in March. Dave was a very special talent, but what's more important, he was a very special person. As an illustrator and writer, he created one of comics' great characters, The Rocketeer, a series that spawned a movie as well as renewed interest in '50s pinup queen Bettie Page. Dave was a private person who chose not to share his illness with the public, and, as a result, his death came as a shock to many. Sadly, this meant that he did not get a chance to see the degree to which he was loved by his friends and fans. Blessed with movie-star looks, Dave was a perfectionist in both his appearance and his work. Professionally, he refused to compromise his art, taking painstaking care in the creation of each painting or comics page. This was an approach that certainly cost him a fortune in potential fees and commissions, considerations which, to Dave, were secondary to the work itself.

Dave went to Madison High School here in Portland. It was during this time that I first stumbled into him at a local comics shop, Old Weird Herald's. He had been commissioned to re-create a Bernie Wrightson Swamp Thing cover. Though based on an existing work, that one painting made it clear that Dave was going to be a major talent. As the years passed, I was lucky enough to become one of his publishers, as well as one of his friends. All of us who knew him will miss him dearly. Our only consolation is that he will live on in the work he left behind.

Goodbye, Dave. You are truly one of the greats.

Mike Richardson
Publisher
Dark Horse Comics

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY put the spotlight on a new law in Indiana that could have a chilling effect on literary expression of erotica or sensuality of any kind.

If you're reading this blog, chances are you have an appreciation for "cheesecake", at the very least, and are able to understand that a book with some photos of Bettie (or paintings by Olivia, Jim Silke, etc.), don't belong ghettoized in "adult" bookstores. Well, in Indiana, to buy LET THEM EAT CHEESECAKE: THE ART OF OLIVIA at a Barnes and Noble, the bookstore will need to register with the state government!

Alison Morris, blogger on PW, explains:

One of the big topics in the bookselling world recently has been the news that the state of Indiana has put a new law on the books that will require any businesses that sell "sexually explicit material" to register with the state government. To quote from PW's article on this subject, "'Sexually explicit material' is defined as any product that is 'harmful to minors' under existing law. There is a $250 registration fee. Failure to register is a misdemeanor."

Indiana booksellers...are concerned that the state's vague definitions of "sexually explicit material" could get them into trouble for selling books on health and human sexuality, many titles considered classic literature, and who-knows-how-many young adult novels.

...How many art books can you think of that DON'T contain nudity? Or, to play the opposite end of the age spectrum, how many potty training books avoid images of naked toddlers?

...The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has condemed the law on grounds that it is a violation of Indiana booksellers' (and customers') First Amendment rights and therefore unconstitutional. They are considering filing a legal challenge to the law.

MORE...

The Bettie Page Blog would appreciate a "scene report" from Indiana. We'll help raise hell any way we can.

Lea Heranadez is an acclaimed comic creator with a long, distinguished career. Besides tackling every aspect of the business, including pioneering work in the emerging technology of web comics, she is the creator of "Texas Steampunk" graphic novels Cathedral Child, Clockwork Angels and Ironclad Petal, the author of Manga Secrets and the creator of the groundbreaking American manga, Rumble Girls. Lea was also a friend of Dave Stevens. In seeking to honor his family's wishes for donations to be sent to The Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Foundation, she has discovered a way to use her talents to possibly help save others.

If you email Lea a receipt for a donation to The Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Foundation, in the amout of $10 or more, she will draw you in as an "extra" in her new work, Rumble Girls RLO.

Unfamiliar with Rumble Girls? Here's a review of the first collection, Rumble Girls: Silky Warrior Tansie:

"Lea Hernandez has mixed a prep school soap opera with fighting girl manga and forward-looking science fiction to skewer popular culture and media manipulation. There are more ideas here than most comics, and they're incorporated into the story, even tossed away. Other concept-driven books make a big deal out of their 'mad ideas', trotting them out and asking us to admire their display. This one uses them to build a world to support the story."
-www.comicsworthreading.com

Finally, here are Lea's rememberences of Dave Stevens:

Part One

Part Two