The photos were originally taken at a “camera club,” a secretive type of photography gathering that took place in empty offices across New York City in the 1950s. Through this system, photographers could shoot women like Page in the buff, without running up against the laws that technically prevented such pictures from being published. Famous photographers like Weegee and Gordon Parks frequented the events.
“Nudity back then was very unusual,” photographer Dick Heinlein explained to The New York Post. He’s the one who snapped the never before seen camera club images that appear in the film, and somehow managed to avoid handing his film over to authorities once the venue was raided.
“Out of the woods, here comes this squad car!,” he recounted from the night. “They had their guns drawn on a bunch of photographers [ordering us], ‘Take the film out of your cameras!’”
Thankfully, Heinlein’s images survived as a relic of photography’s closed-door past. Watch the video above for a peek at “Bettie Page Reveals All,” directed by filmmaker Mark Mori and narrated by the mysterious Page herself. The film opens at the Village East Theater on November 22, 2013.
You can gaze upon some (non-nude) images that will appear in the film below and head to the gallery for a look at some more familiar (and very NSFW) Page photographs from the past.
used in the Dita von Teese video
Harold Lloyd/Getty Images
