Several of the some 30 pages of FBI documents made available from the vault. Bettie Page and her Ping Pong Paddles! You can squint through the fog of time, or read my summary of some pertinent material below.
"...also found were two Ping-Pong paddles, one of which had been covered with black bicycle type tape. One Cat-nine-tails was located, which was fashioned from taping with the same black tape, several thongs of rawhide to a riding crop. There were also found in the apartment a riding quirt women of some coarse fibrous material, and lengths of chain, lengths of rawhide, rope, and nine eye-hooks, some of which the detectives believed had been screwed into the wall."
"On 1/11/56, BETTIE PAGE who appears on some of the submitted material, advised agents of the NYO (New York Office) that she had never heard of that type of photography being made in Harlem. the flagellation and and bondage pictures that she has posed for, she stated, have all been made in photographic studios or photographers apartments."
JIM LINDERMAN is the author of CAMERA CLUB GIRLS: BETTIE PAGE, HER FRIENDS AND THE WORK OF RUDOLPH ROSSI
