49 Inspiring Vintage Photos of Extraordinary Women

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The Queen of Pinups, Bettie Page (1950s)

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Bettie Page is a hot combination of the best gals from Archie Comics, with her trim and shapely figure, Veronica Lodge’s jet-black hair, and Betty Cooper’s signature bangs. Born Betty Mae Page in Nashville, Tennessee and the second of six children, she grew up helping take care of her younger siblings after her father was convicted of car theft and her parents divorced. She moved to New York, found work as a pin-up model, and posed for dozens of photographers in the 1950s. Bettie became one the first Playmates of the Month for Playboy magazine when she was featured as Miss January in 1955, and the magazine’s founder Hugh Hefner praised her and stated she was an iconic figure in pop culture, with a tremendous impact on society with her sexuality and taste in fashion.

Bettie Page also posed for American photographer and merchant of fetish toys and sexploitation Irving Klaw. She was the subject of many mail-order photographs with BDSM themes, possibly making her the first famous bondage model. Dark hair, blue eyes, trademark bangs, beautiful, alluring, and working closely with an influential businessman who has a thing for bondage—we may just have stumbled across the inspiration for Fifty Shades of Grey’s Anastasia Steele.