The Wonderful World Of Irving Klaw & Bettie Page

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

We spent the better part of the night last night with the Cult Epics Irving Klaw four disc set. I hadn't pulled this out in years and last night seemed like as good a night as any to revisit this stuff. I noticed last night, and didn't really notice prior, that Klaw used a lot of the same sets for most of his movies - maybe he's put a different throw rug over the couch or something but aside from that, a lot of them take place in what looks like the same room. There's also not a whole lot more to camerawork than just putting it on a tripod and letting the film fly - sometimes focus is an issue, sometimes the girls wander to close to the camera and their heads get cut off. There's definitely an amateur movie/home movie sort of vibe to a lot of the material though some are a bit more polished than others.

With that said, they've got a whole lot of cool, sexy, kinky charm. They seem pretty harmless by modern standards so it's interesting to think back on how controversial they were during Klaw's day. The man captured some great images though. When the movies play out you can very plainly see flash bulbs going off from behind the camera which, given the amount of photos he offered along with the 8mm movies, isn't surprising.

I'm glad Cult Epics has preserved this stuff and we all owe Klaw a huge debt for giving us those Bettie Page movies because they're just simply awesome.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Lots of Klaw clips on youtube.... lousy quality but hey.

Meow!

[Alison Jane Girl Boss Jane Find all posts View Profile Close Alison Jane]

Definitely fun.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Teaerama is pretty great, in a fairly awful sort of way. Lily St. Cyr and Bettie are great, that sort of goes without saying, but man are some of those comedy acts ever terrible. So terrible that they're not funny but so completely unfunny that they're sort of amusing if that makes any sense.

[Alison Jane Girl Boss Jane Find all posts View Profile Close Alison Jane]

I'm really glad I finally watched these. I put it off for a long time because I dig the imagery so much and didn't want to be disappointed by not liking the films. Thankfully, I enjoyed them quite a bit.

[Dom D Spoon! Find all posts View Profile Close Dom D]

I use the Klaw collection as part of video compilations that I cut together for a burlesque bar to project on it's walls between acts. Some of the bondage is really quite perverse and yet somehow no one ever gets offended. It somehow pulls off the trick of being very naughty while seeming like it's just a bit of old fashioned fun at the same time.

Watching these you can really see why Betty was the star of the day. She's the only one who performs to the camera. The other girls are all dancing as if there's an imaginary audience back there. Though as these were pretty cheap and cheerful productions and the girls were barely paid I guess the audience couldn't expect the girls to put in too much work.

[Randy G Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Randy G]

What's the quality of the Cult Epics set like?

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Some of the bondage is really quite perverse and yet somehow no one ever gets offended. It somehow pulls off the trick of being very naughty while seeming like it's just a bit of old fashioned fun at the same time.

I think that sums it up really well. I think a lot of the reason it doesn't seem to offend is that it's fairly playful even when it does delve into kink. The fact that Bettie's almost always got a sweet smile on her face probably goes a long way towards diffusing whatever offensive nature the material might have, it just makes it seem like they're having fun.

Randy, as far as the Cult Epics set goes, it looks decent enough for what it is. I can post some screen caps after work. They don't look amazing and probably never will but for old 8mm transfers you can't complain too much. I'm also fairly certain that the Cult Epics set is the most complete collection of Klaw films available.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I just wanted to post this picture is all.

[Todd Jordan Smut is good. Find all posts View Profile Close Todd Jordan]

No one will fault you for your decision to post that picture. Nice curtain.

[Randy G Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Randy G]

I'll have to get this, huge Bettie fan.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Just because it deserves to be posted.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Interesting, albeit sad, brief article here about what happened to Movie Star News, the company Irving Klaw started that handled all the Bettie Page photos.

"We learned in July that the venerable shop would be closing after 73 years of history in the city. By the end of that month the owner had packed up and sold Irving Klaw's entire Bettie Page collection to a Las Vegas collectibles company."

It was there for 73 years.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

[Jobla Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jobla]

I used to get mail-order catalogs from Movie Star News in the 1960's and 1970's (movie star stuff, not kinky stuff). I bought a few photos, and perhaps some movie pressbooks as well. I was much more interested in pressbooks than photos.