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Bettie Page: An Icon in Her Own Right

In PLAYBOY magazine, Bettie Page was Miss January, 1955. Earlier, the first, ever, Playmate was Marilyn Monroe. These two incredibly gifted, but troubled ladies, never met. Surprisingly, Hugh Hefner never met Bettie Page until 1993. He never, ever met Marilyn Monroe, and yet they are interred in adjacent crypts at a tiny, exclusive Westwood cemetery. Nearby, maybe 90 feet away, is the final resting place of Bettie Page as well. Another irony is that while Hugh Hefner never met Monroe, his brother did. Keith Hefner wanted to be an actor, and did scenes with Marilyn Monroe in New York when both were enrolled at the Actor’s Studio under the guidance of legendary artistic director Lee Strasberg. Bettie Page was never fortunate enough to receive acting lessons from the likes of Lee Strasberg. She was an icon in her own way, but many wonder, if Bettie Page had only met the right people, at the right time, for the right kind of guidance in an acting career, would movie fans today from all over the world remember her with the same fondness they have for Marilyn Monroe?