1952 Bettie Page Signed Irving Klaw Model Release Form Movie Star News
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:38979139 | Modified Item: No |
| Time Period Manufactured: 1940-59 | Country/Region of Manufacture: United States |
ITEM: This is a signed and dated model release form between fetish and pin-up impresario Irving Klaw and perhaps his most famous model and subject, Bettie Page. Dated March 15, 1952, this release form shows that Bettie Page was paid $50 for her services and is signed by her at the bottom along with her West 46th Street address in New York City.
Irving Klaw was the self-named "Pin-Up King" and influential American merchant of sexploitation, fetish, and Hollywood glamour pin-up photog...raphs and films amassed at the NYC landmark Movie Star News.
In 2012, Irving's nephew Ira Kramer sold the entirety of the inventory at Movie Star News and this document comes from that archive collection.
Measures 8.5" x 11"
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
More about Irving Klaw:
Irving Klaw was a true pioneer in the world of bondage fetish photography whose pictures and movies of the legendary Bettie Page played a principal role in establishing Page as a major pin-up icon. Klaw was born on November 9, 1910, in Brooklyn, New York City. After working four unsuccessful years as a furrier, Irving and his sister Paula opened a secondhand bookstore in Manhattan in the late 1930s. Klaw began selling movie-star stills and lobby photo cards in his store after he noticed that teenagers were tearing out photos in his movie magazines. He eventually stopped selling books altogether and moved the store from the basement to a street-level store front. He renamed the place Movie Star News and dubbed himself the Pin-Up King. Irving also began a highly lucrative international mail order business that specialized in selling cheesecake photos of movie stars. In the late 1940s, Klaw started taking bondage fetish pictures of beautiful women. His first bondage fetish model was Lili Dawn. Moreover, Klaw and his sister Paula also took photos of such famous burlesque dancers as Lili St. Cyr, Tempest Storm, Baby Lake, and Blaze Starr. Irving rented the third floor over Movie Star News and turned it into a shooting studio. Klaw's photos of Bettie Page proved to be especially popular and successful. In the mid 1950s, Irving directed the burlesque features Varietease (1954), Teaserama (1955), and Buxom Beautease (1956). In addition, he made many 8mm and 16 mm black-and-white adult film loops; a fair share of these shorts featured Bettie Page. In 1955, Klaw was brought before the Senate Subcommittee on Obscene and Pornographic Materials. He also had his phones bugged, and his mail was often intercepted by the FBI. In 1963, Irving produced the films Intimate Diary of Artists' Models (1963) and Nature's Sweethearts (1963) (he also co-directed the latter movie). However, Klaw, nonetheless, still eventually quit the business and burned up to 80% of his negatives due to heavy social pressure and constant persecution by the government. Irving Klaw died at age 55 due to complications from untreated appendicitis on September 3, 1966. He was survived by his sons Arthur and Jeffrey. His nephew Ira Kramer now runs Movie Star News in New York City.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: woodyanders
More about Bettie Page:
Bettie Page's life was filled with cult myth, mystery and sadness. Her image captured the imagination of a generation with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality, during an era of strong sexual repression. She was the quintessential pin-up, tacked up on walls in military barracks and garages; five decades later, some feminists still hail her as a pioneer of women's liberation. It has been estimated that over 20, 000 photographs of Bettie were taken, and new generations of fans still buy copies by the thousands. Born in Nashville, Tennessee to a part-Cherokee mother, she grew up in a family so poor "we were lucky to get an orange in our Christmas stockings." The family included three boys and three girls, and Page later said her father molested most of the girls. He eventually stole a police car for a cross-country trip, was caught and sent to prison, and for a time Bettie resided in an orphanage. Her parents divorced when she was 10 years old.
In her teens, Bettie acted in high school plays and was a straight-A student. She graduated from the Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville on a Daughters of the American Revolution scholarship in 1944, and went on to study drama in New York City. Her notorious career began one day in October 1950, while on a break from her job as a secretary in a New York office. On a walk along the beach at Coney Island, an amateur photographer admired the 27-year-old's curvaceous body and asked her to pose. Nudity didn't bother her, she said, likening it to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Her modeling career took off, and she was the centerfold in the January 1955 issue of then-fledgling Playboy magazine.
In 1951, Bettie fell under the influence of Irving Klaw, a photographer. He cut her hair into the dark bangs that became her trademark, and posed her in spiked heels and little else. She also appeared as a performer in over 50 burlesque films. Her photos and films were publicly denounced by civic and religious leaders as "perversion", and Klaw was later arrested for "conspiracy to distribute obscene material" through the United States mail. Bettie was called to testify in a private session. Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, her home state, even launched a congressional investigation against her. Believing that her days as a pin-up were over, Bettie retreated from public view, later saying she was hounded by federal agents. Her early marriage to her high school sweetheart had ended in divorce; she moved to Florida in 1957 and married a much younger man, but that marriage also failed, as did a third, and she suffered a nervous breakdown.
In 1959, she was lying on a sea wall in Key West when she saw a church with a white neon cross on top. She walked inside and became a born-again Christian. After attending Bible school, she wanted to serve as a missionary but was turned down. Instead, she worked full-time for evangelist Billy Graham's ministry. However, a move to Southern California in 1979 brought her more troubles. She was arrested after an altercation with her landlady. Doctors diagnosed her as suffering from acute schizophrenia, and she spent 20 months in Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino and she was subsequently placed under state supervision for eight years.
Her mysterious disappearance from the public eye only fueled the public's fascination. In fact, for two decades no one was sure where she was or even if she was still alive. She resurfaced in the 1990s after being tracked down for a documentary. She occasionally granted interviews and sold autographs, but refused to allow her picture to be taken in her old age. In a 1993 telephone interview, she told a reporter that she was "penniless and infamous." She later hired a law firm to help her recoup some of the profits being made with her likeness. She spent her final years residing in Los Angeles with her brother.
After a three-week battle with pneumonia, Bettie Page suffered a deadly heart attack at age 85 on December 11, 2008.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: A. Nonymous
Irving Klaw was the self-named "Pin-Up King" and influential American merchant of sexploitation, fetish, and Hollywood glamour pin-up photog...raphs and films amassed at the NYC landmark Movie Star News.
In 2012, Irving's nephew Ira Kramer sold the entirety of the inventory at Movie Star News and this document comes from that archive collection.
Measures 8.5" x 11"
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
More about Irving Klaw:
Irving Klaw was a true pioneer in the world of bondage fetish photography whose pictures and movies of the legendary Bettie Page played a principal role in establishing Page as a major pin-up icon. Klaw was born on November 9, 1910, in Brooklyn, New York City. After working four unsuccessful years as a furrier, Irving and his sister Paula opened a secondhand bookstore in Manhattan in the late 1930s. Klaw began selling movie-star stills and lobby photo cards in his store after he noticed that teenagers were tearing out photos in his movie magazines. He eventually stopped selling books altogether and moved the store from the basement to a street-level store front. He renamed the place Movie Star News and dubbed himself the Pin-Up King. Irving also began a highly lucrative international mail order business that specialized in selling cheesecake photos of movie stars. In the late 1940s, Klaw started taking bondage fetish pictures of beautiful women. His first bondage fetish model was Lili Dawn. Moreover, Klaw and his sister Paula also took photos of such famous burlesque dancers as Lili St. Cyr, Tempest Storm, Baby Lake, and Blaze Starr. Irving rented the third floor over Movie Star News and turned it into a shooting studio. Klaw's photos of Bettie Page proved to be especially popular and successful. In the mid 1950s, Irving directed the burlesque features Varietease (1954), Teaserama (1955), and Buxom Beautease (1956). In addition, he made many 8mm and 16 mm black-and-white adult film loops; a fair share of these shorts featured Bettie Page. In 1955, Klaw was brought before the Senate Subcommittee on Obscene and Pornographic Materials. He also had his phones bugged, and his mail was often intercepted by the FBI. In 1963, Irving produced the films Intimate Diary of Artists' Models (1963) and Nature's Sweethearts (1963) (he also co-directed the latter movie). However, Klaw, nonetheless, still eventually quit the business and burned up to 80% of his negatives due to heavy social pressure and constant persecution by the government. Irving Klaw died at age 55 due to complications from untreated appendicitis on September 3, 1966. He was survived by his sons Arthur and Jeffrey. His nephew Ira Kramer now runs Movie Star News in New York City.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: woodyanders
More about Bettie Page:
Bettie Page's life was filled with cult myth, mystery and sadness. Her image captured the imagination of a generation with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality, during an era of strong sexual repression. She was the quintessential pin-up, tacked up on walls in military barracks and garages; five decades later, some feminists still hail her as a pioneer of women's liberation. It has been estimated that over 20, 000 photographs of Bettie were taken, and new generations of fans still buy copies by the thousands. Born in Nashville, Tennessee to a part-Cherokee mother, she grew up in a family so poor "we were lucky to get an orange in our Christmas stockings." The family included three boys and three girls, and Page later said her father molested most of the girls. He eventually stole a police car for a cross-country trip, was caught and sent to prison, and for a time Bettie resided in an orphanage. Her parents divorced when she was 10 years old.
In her teens, Bettie acted in high school plays and was a straight-A student. She graduated from the Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville on a Daughters of the American Revolution scholarship in 1944, and went on to study drama in New York City. Her notorious career began one day in October 1950, while on a break from her job as a secretary in a New York office. On a walk along the beach at Coney Island, an amateur photographer admired the 27-year-old's curvaceous body and asked her to pose. Nudity didn't bother her, she said, likening it to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Her modeling career took off, and she was the centerfold in the January 1955 issue of then-fledgling Playboy magazine.
In 1951, Bettie fell under the influence of Irving Klaw, a photographer. He cut her hair into the dark bangs that became her trademark, and posed her in spiked heels and little else. She also appeared as a performer in over 50 burlesque films. Her photos and films were publicly denounced by civic and religious leaders as "perversion", and Klaw was later arrested for "conspiracy to distribute obscene material" through the United States mail. Bettie was called to testify in a private session. Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, her home state, even launched a congressional investigation against her. Believing that her days as a pin-up were over, Bettie retreated from public view, later saying she was hounded by federal agents. Her early marriage to her high school sweetheart had ended in divorce; she moved to Florida in 1957 and married a much younger man, but that marriage also failed, as did a third, and she suffered a nervous breakdown.
In 1959, she was lying on a sea wall in Key West when she saw a church with a white neon cross on top. She walked inside and became a born-again Christian. After attending Bible school, she wanted to serve as a missionary but was turned down. Instead, she worked full-time for evangelist Billy Graham's ministry. However, a move to Southern California in 1979 brought her more troubles. She was arrested after an altercation with her landlady. Doctors diagnosed her as suffering from acute schizophrenia, and she spent 20 months in Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino and she was subsequently placed under state supervision for eight years.
Her mysterious disappearance from the public eye only fueled the public's fascination. In fact, for two decades no one was sure where she was or even if she was still alive. She resurfaced in the 1990s after being tracked down for a documentary. She occasionally granted interviews and sold autographs, but refused to allow her picture to be taken in her old age. In a 1993 telephone interview, she told a reporter that she was "penniless and infamous." She later hired a law firm to help her recoup some of the profits being made with her likeness. She spent her final years residing in Los Angeles with her brother.
After a three-week battle with pneumonia, Bettie Page suffered a deadly heart attack at age 85 on December 11, 2008.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: A. Nonymous
