Title: Bettie Page Queen of Hearts Author: Jim Silke Publisher: Dark Horse Books Publish Date: 1995 Pages: 85 Genres:: Erotic Art,Reviewer: SexHerald Staff

Rating:

Paying heavy homage to the original girl gone wild, artist/author Jim Silke’s stunning collection of photos and drawings reveals the iconic pin-up and nude figure model in her smoldering splendor. This glossy and engaging volume covers in detail Bettie's career and the many magazines and booklets she appeared in through most of the 1950s, predating the first issue of Playboy (where she was also featured) by several years.

Written in an academic yet breezy style, Jim Silke describes Bettie’s display of playful yet urgent womanly sexual desire when photographed as a much-needed slap in the face of the repressed and judgmental atmosphere of the 1950s that could brand a teenage girl a slut if she dared commit the grave transgression of wearing an ankle bracelet or visiting a bowling alley. Worshipfully, he confides how delightful her magnificently curvaceous form and beautiful face framed by shimmering licorice-black hair were to draw and how her form inspired comic books focused on her likeness years after she vanished from the industry in the early 1960s.

Often photographed in costume (a leopard skin bikini, garter belt and long black gloves, brandishing a whip) or in S&M poses (pinned down by another model in bra and panties, tied up and gagged by a handball facing the camera) she was the girl next door with a sweet smile and a wild side who embraced erotic role playing with relish costume and cavorted about in her underwear for the camera. She was unashamed of her sexuality, flaunted it, laughing in the face of admonitions to girls of the time that they not stay out too late in cars with boys lest they be socially ruined by a “reputation.” In print, Bettie was the girl mothers warned their daughters not to be and the one every red-blooded teenage boy prayed to find. Her reputation was not denied, but proudly hard-earned. "I don’t care if you have a rusty, splintered metal rod between your legs for a penis, I’ll still fuck you” was the glint in her eye. In the 1950s, Bettie didn’t just push the envelope, she straddled it.

The book also features a broad retrospective of the paperback cover illustration business and sketches of Bettie by the author, and features illustrations of Bettie by eminent paperback artists from the 1950s. In Jim’s eye, shooting to fame on the periphery of 1950s culture, in hindsight Bettie was the forefront of it, a whisper of things (and worshipful viewers) to come. I would say Bettie was the Columbus of centerfolds, but really she was the Viking vessel on a maiden voyage. Her sense of humor and fun infused every shot whether taken by an amateur or professional. Nothing dimmed her luminosity. Silke also pays homage to the artists who created 1950s paperback novels featuring sensuous women who delighted in their dark and evil side.

It's not a book you’ll regret having given time to.