Bettie Page...Our Dark Angel

Bettie Page was not just a 1950's model who did pin-up work that was (for the time) risqué, and who left the spotlight to move away from that life. She lives on in reimagined art, through the fashion of young women of the rockabilly and burlesque persuasion. She wasn't the biggest name of her day, but it's clear she is now The Queen Of Pinups.
She suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and suffering from illness, passed on December 10th.
I became aware of her through local shops that sold music, merch, and other paraphernalia. Seeing the images, I figured she was a horror queen. I'm almost certain that she would've fit just fine with the B-Movie cheese of Ed Wood or other schlocky '50's popcorn Drive-In fare. That's how a lot of the art had reimagined her, as a B-Movie queen. And of course there were those pulp comic books that put her in fantastic adventures. But even though she never starred in a classic (or even B-Movie) horror or sci-fi film, she is revered by the horror community as an icon.
Perhaps it was because she walked the line of sweet and sinister. Good and bad. She was heaven and hell...rolled into one. Who can resist?
She was more than just a 1950's fetish/bondage model. She was representative, much like horror in the 1950's, of those outcasts and oddities. She was not appropriate for her time but considering she's less outrageous than even MAINSTREAM starlets, much less the REAL naughty girls, she can be seen these days as a symbol of female empowerment. For a diverse set of people, she is as intriguing and fascinating as ever. And for us horror fans, a unique icon.