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The Kefauver Committee

Bettie Page Interview

Estes Kefauver

This is a copy of transcript of the Kefauver Committee's interview of Bettie Page. It was created during the Kefauver Committee's pornography witch hunt period in the mid 1950s. The person who interviewd Bettie was a highly biased individual as seen in the snippet below.

"Subject also worked for Irving Klaw, 212 East 14th St., New York City. Klaw calls himself the pin-up king. He specializes in lingerie shots, high-heel fetish shots, bondage shots, wrestling poses and leather-fetish shots. Klaw told her that he does a lot of special-order shots, i.e., he caters to perverts who give him orders to make certain types of shots peculiar to their perversion."

It's no wonder Bettie freaked out about the whole thing and eventually left the pinup world in the dust!

Bettie Page

Miss Bettie Mae Page, aged 32, 65 West 46th Street, New York City, Telephone: circle 6-9827, was interviewed by me on May 23, 1955. The interview commenced at 10:30 A. M. and was concluded at 1 P. M. Subject is a white, female, and is in apparent good health. She has never used narcotics, does not drink or smoke. Subject is a free-lance photographer's model. She attended high school in Nashville, Tennessee, and was graduated from the George Peabody College for teachers, Nashville Tenn., with a Bachelor of Arts degree in June 1944.

Her mother, Miss Edna Darby, still resides in Nashville, Tenn. Her mother was twice-married and twice-divorced. Subject has three brothers and two sisters. In February 1943, she marries William Neal in Gallatin, Tennessee. They were divorced in November 1947 in Nashville with the subject receiving divorce for "physical cruelty".

Throughout the interview, subject was sullen, and sometimes sharp-tongued. Her answers tended to be evasive and she alternated her sullenness with periods wherein she became quite voluble. During... Members.