BETTIE, THE JUNGLE PRINCESS by Dave Goode

Do you remember certain DC Comics of the Silver Age where the editors, writers, and artists would come up with a cover image and then create a story built around it? The adage you cant judge a book by it's cover was often true when applied to these comics. I got the distinct impression this was also the case for the 10 page lead story found in Bettie Page Comics No.1 from Dark Horse in 1996. You start with the cover illustration by the late, great Dave Stevens that itself looks like a homage to Frank Frazetta's cover to Thun'Da No.1 from the 1950s.

With a script by Jeff Gelb and Dave Steven the story is penciled by Bret Blevins with inks by Blevins, Mike Manley, and Dave Stevens. The story itself is a hilarious tribute to B-Movie jungle adventures. And features thinly disguised cyphers for Ed Wood Jr. and Johnny Weissmuller.

The whole thing was most likely inspired by a photo shoot with pin-up model turned pin - up photographer Bunny Yeager and model Bettie Page done at the Africa U.S.A theme park in Boca Raton, Florida in 1954. The sexy "jungle girl" outfit Bettie is wearing was in fact made by Miss Page herself.

I like to believe there is an alternate universe where a B-Movie producer like a Sam Katzman decided to make a jungle adventure flick starring Bettie Page. Maybe even co-starring Johnny Weissmuller. As Johnny Weissmuller and not Jungle Jim. And Steve Calvert as Bettie's faithful gorilla companion. Something that was missing from the photo shoot with Miss Yeager.

And don't forget the comic!

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Bettie Page...B-Movie Starlet by Dave Goode

Time for another excursion into that alternate universe that my mind sometimes populates. Where Johnny Weissmuller played Prince Namor in a Sub-Mariner movie and Esther Williams played Wonder Woman. Where Bernard Gorcey won an Academy Award portraying a burlesque club owner in a movie where George Reeves portrayed an investigative reporter minus glasses.And where Steve Holland played Steve Zodiac in a live-action Fireball XL-5 movie. This week's Goode Stuff blog looks at Bettie Page...B-Movie starlet.






Miss Bettie Mae Page of Tennessee went to Hume-Fogg High School where she was a member of the debate team and graduated salutatorian of her class. She would later graduate from George Peabody College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Eventually she made her way to New York where she worked as a secretary while she looked for work as an actress. She was discovered in 1950 by NYC Police Officer Jerry Tibbs ,an amateur photographer. It was Tibbs who suggested to Page to adapt her now iconic bang.

Bettie would find work for a number of "camera clubs" during the 50s. But it was her work for Irving Klaw that would earn her cult status. From 1952 to 1957 she would appear in dozens of 8mm and 16mm "specialty films" for Klaw. In 1953 she appeared in the grindhouse movie STRIPORAMA for Jerald Intrator. In 1954 she appeared in the Irving Klaw produced VARIETEASE. And in 1955 , the same year she was Playboy's Miss January she appeared in TEASERAMA also produced and directed by Klaw.

Reportedly Bettie had a screen-test with 20th Century Fox. But nothing ever came of it. It was rumored that her Tennessee accent cost her a shot at stardom. But while re-watching the Johnny Weissmuller Jungle Jim movie VOODOO TIGER I started imagining Bettie as eye-candy in a number of B-Movies. Imagine Bettie as one of the Vesuvian soldiers in QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE or as one of the daughters of the 40 Thieves in the Howard Hughes produced THE SON OF SINBAD.

But as long as we're playing "just imagine", imagine Bettie as Fox Comics Rulah,
Jungle Goddess, one of the many Sheena imitations found in comics. Or imagine Bettie as Fox's cult comic book heroine the Phantom Lady. That would have been a natural.