we hear today of the death at age 85 of former pinnup model BETTIE PAGE. Bettie was a star of underground naughty photos that dwelled in the dreams of many a young man coming of age in the 1950s and 60s.



In an age of breast enhancements, tip & tuck surgeries and photoshop touching up, when you look at Bettie you are seeing the real thing, all natural. Her countenance was at once shy, wholesome, vulnerable, yet wanton and powerful. Her special power is that even in the most exploitative photos, she always looks very much in charge and enjoying herself.

She was never that successful a legitimate actress, no John Waters around then. She underwent a strong religious conversion in middle age and renounced her naughtier past. But her reputation was restored by cartoon Dave Stevens in his Rocketeer series. Coincidentally Dave died himself earlier this year after a long battle with leukemia.



Bettie shrewdly refused all attempts to photo her today. Like Marlena Dietrich, she wanted to maintain the mystique of her former youthful beauty. The Queen of retro kitsch imagery.

Adieu Bettie! Your legend will live on.


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Question: An Australian astronomer has estimated that Jesus may have been born in June.
So, was Jesus really born on Christmas..?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does Michael Phelps have in common with Johnny Weissmuller ( Tarzan) and Buster Crabbe ( Flash Gordon) ?
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History for 12/12/2008
Birthdays: Frank Sinatra, Roman Emperor Alexander Severus, Edvard Munch, Gustav Flaubert, Auguste Rodin, Cherokee Confederate General Stand Watie, John Jay, Edward G. Robinson- real name Emmanuel Goldenberg, Field Marshal Karl Von Rundstedt-the Black Knight of Germany, former NY Mayor Ed Koch, Zack Mosley –the cartoonist who drew “Smilin' Jack", Connie Francis, Dionne Warwick, Cathy Rigby, Tracy Austin, Tom Wilkinson is 60, Bill Nighy is 69, Jennifer Connelly is 38

1653- Puritan General Oliver Cromwell, having executed King Charles I, declares himself Lord Protector of England and rules as dictator. He had all the symbols of monarchy including the crown jewels destroyed. Including the ancient Iron Crown of Alfred the Great. This is why England's crown jewels date from the 1660’s, after Cromwell. Scotland's crown jewels were smuggled out of Edinburgh Castle ahead of Cromwell's troops in a berry basket.

1793-WASHINGTON THE SLAVEMASTER- The most concrete evidence we have that George Washington was morally disturbed about owning slaves. This day George Washington wrote a friend in England about his plan to carve up his Mt. Vernon estate into small lots and rent them out to immigrant English tenant farmers, so he could liberate his slaves. He asked his British correspondent to keep his plan a secret and destroy this note after reading it. He never went ahead with his plan but after he and Martha were both dead, Washington’s will freed all 137 of his slaves and sent each off with a cash pension. Compare that to Thomas Jefferson, who freed 6 out of 300 when he died and James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, who freed none.

1897-The Katzemjammer Kids comic strip by Rudolph Dirks appears. The adventures of Hans & Fritz was so popular a rival Hearst newpaper started an imitation called the Captain and the Kids, leading to the first artistic plagiarism lawsuit. Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas had a problem whenever they bought the American newspapers for their Paris salon, because Picasso and Fernand Oliver would fight over who got to read the comics first.

1899- George Grant of Boston invented the Golf Tee.

1901-First transatlantic wireless signal received by Guglielmo Marconi. This finally ended the frustrating hoopla over laying transatlantic telegraph cables and have them break down almost constantly since the 1850s. The pioneers of radio broadcasting like Armstrong, Lee Deforrest and David Sarnoff got their start working for the Marconi Wireless Company.

1922-Nickolai Lenin suffered the first of a series of strokes that left him too sick to work. He ruled Soviet Russia for one more year as a figurehead while his true state of health was concealed from the public. Top Communist officials like Trotsky and Stalin now fought for power. When Lenin died in Jan.1924 doctors examining his brain said the blood clots were as solid as small stones. The only words he could mumble from his paralyzed mouth was “That’s it. That’s it.”

1925- The world’s first Motel opened. Arthur Heinman opened the Milestone Motel in San Luis Obispo California.

1941- In the emergency after Pearl Harbor the U.S. Army ordered all peacetime airliners and pilots commandeered into military service. Federal customs authorities in the port of New York also seized the worlds largest luxury ocean liner, The French S.S Normandie, for “protective custody”. Remember at this time France was an occupied part of the Third Reich.

1952- The first Screen Actors Guild Strike. President Walter Pidgeon -Dr. Morbius in Forbidden Planet- had the movie stars hit the bricks to win television and commercial residuals.


The final deals were settled by then SAG president Ronald Reagan in 1960. Ronnie compromised with the studio heads (who later backed his bid for the governorship of California) that only residuals for films after 1955 would be paid. The studios made it known to the membership that if you didn’t vote for Reagan you can forget about your residuals. So the deal was struck. Actors who made their big hits in the 30's and 40s like Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, The Little Rascals and Mickey Rooney were left out. Mickey Rooney, who's Andy Hardy movies were the box office champs of the mid-1940's put it mildly: "Reagan screwed me !!"

1980- The song “Whip It” by Devo won a gold record.

1991-Actor Richard Gere married supermodel Cindy Crawford.

2000- THE SUPREME COURT PICKED THE PRESIDENT. In the tightest presidential election since 1877, The Supreme Court ruled on the case Bush Vs Gore. The High Court decided George W. Bush won over Vice President Al Gore. They stated that although there may have been irregularities in the vote counting in the decisive state of Florida, it was too late and pointless to continue the recount, so they were suspending all further appeals. Al Gore and the Democrats quickly caved in and squelched attempts by African-American congressmen to point out vote discrimination. In 1960 the difference between Nixon and Kennedy was around 100,000 votes in a population of 150 million people- in 2000 Bush’s lead was down to a mere 140 votes in one Florida county, out of a population of 350 million.
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Yesterday’s Question: What does Michael Phelps have in common with Johnny Weissmuller ( Tarzan) and Buster Crabbe ( Flash Gordon) ?

Answer: They are all Gold Medal winning Olympic swimmers.