Bettie Page playing cards
Bettie Page pin-up playing cards with photographs taken by Bunny Yaeger.
Bettie Mae Page (1923 – 2008) was an American model who gained notoriety in the 1950s for her pinup photos. She was often referred to as the “Queen of Pinups”, “The Queen of Curves” and “The Dark Angel”. In 1951, Bettie’s image appeared in men’s magazines such as Wink, Titter, Eyeful and Beauty Parade, and in 1955 she won the title “Miss Pinup Girl of the World”. She continued to model until 1957.
The aces and court cards of this pack, produced by Dark Horse Deluxe in 2004, feature pinup photographs of Bettie Page taken by Bunny Yaeger (1929-2014), herself a model who turned pinup photographer, and who helped to jump-start Page’s career. Each suit has a different pastel colour background: spades – blue; hearts – red; clubs- yellow; diamonds – green. The pip cards are standard and have the same colour background as the courts. Two different jokers complete the pack. See the box►
Above: Bettie Page playing cards with photographs taken by Bunny Yaeger, produced by Dark Horse Deluxe, United States, 2004. Printed in China. © Bettie Page, © 2004 Bunny Yaeger.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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