Despite her girl-next-door looks, she had a withering stare -
And while most of her spanking photo adventures were on the receiving end, she was just as capable of wielding a hairbrush as wincing under one -
I've often wondered whether these Irving Klaw spanking shots were entirely posed, or if the ladies actually did spank each other..... since they were never barebottom, it's hard to say. Anyone out there have any insight on that?
Bettie was the shit! Aside from being gorgeous, she was sexy as hell. I would question referring to her as the original, iconic image of female dominance though. Most of her images were of her being tied up in various ways or being spanked. She did do some "domme" images but not that many. Her other famous nude poses had her in a variety of situations which emphasized her body and her innocent, yet knowlegeable look (most the Bunny Yeager pics) but she was rarely anything other than very appealing eye candy. In her autobiography, she herself admitted that she was rather uninterested in sex and really didn't enjoy it and she was rather passive in her career as a fetish model. She had been molested as a girl and had kind of a sad life really. Her legacy as one of the hottest, sexiest models ever is secure however. She could have made a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window. RIP Bettie...
ReplyDeleteTrue enough - she did do far more 'sub' shots than she did domme ones - but it was her dominant images that strike home. I'm not very knowledgeable about Bettie - but you have to wonder if the fetish and pinup photography allowed something of an outlet for the woman inside that was smothered by traumatic childhood experiences and their long term effects.
ReplyDeleteThere is some surviving stag film footage of Paula Klaw giving Betty what appear to be pretty authentic spankings. They were just hand spankings but Paula didn't look like she was pulling her punches any.
ReplyDeleteApparently, Bettie had a good relationship with the Klaws and trusted them and they made money together, although, likely Bettie wasn't exactly overpaid as a model. She might have had some residual guilt or something from her girlhood and really wanted Paula (or maybe Irving) to spank her. Or maybe it was Paula and she offered Bettie extra money for it. Her main motivation for modeling seems to have been to make money and there's little information to indicate that she enjoyed it much. She later had legal problems and spent time in jail (or prison) and later spent years in mental institutions. It's likely she didn't enjoy her life that much, sad to say. I hope she found some enjoyment in her fetish work, or at least in her later life.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, the photos were posed under the direction of Irving Klaw or his sister Paula. (The live-action movies that Anonymous referred to were of course different as you had to have some spanking action since they weren't just still frames). I can tell you that the reason Klaw branched out into bondage and spanking was because some of his customers wrote to him an requested that kind of material. The bondage shots were genuine in that Paula really did tie up Bettie and the other models. There is no evidence I'm aware of that either Irving or Paula was into spanking. Klaw seems to have paid his models decently, since Bettie was doing o.k. financially the years she worked for him.
ReplyDeleteI have seen some of Robert E. Harrison's girlie publications from the late 40's, and they have some F/F spanking much like the Klaw material - perhaps that's where the Klaws got their inspiration, if that's the word. Harrison even had some M/F stuff. As for F/M, which would be of some interest to readers here, there was certainly some during the 50's but not a great deal - Humorama ran about 210 M/F cartoons and only 9 F/M - and I have only seen one in a Harrison mag, a really weird scene with a female model in lingerie spanking a male puppet!
Thanks for the info, Ed! There certainly was a sad lack of F/M material back then. I'm guessing it was a taboo society was not quite ready to embrace, or perhaps even recognize as an aspect of human sexuality.
DeleteIn that respect, while I do tend to romanticize the era, I'm glad I wasn't around then.
great pictures, and interesting discussion.
ReplyDeletebottoms up
Red
You learn something new everyday. Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteI'am A Betty Paige Fan !!
ReplyDelete