While it's never made clear who Page is talking to, and the situation that prompted her to tell her story so near the end of her life, she takes us through her awkward childhood, baldly stating the facts. Her mother wanted a boy. Her father molested her. Obsessed with movie magazines and starlets, she and her sisters would pose for one another in the back yard, perfecting their smiles and postures. Traditional modeling was closed to her because she was declared "too hippy" (some things never change). After moving to New York she was approached by amateur camera clubs and mail-order magazine companies to do racy pin-up work.
Page was a natural in this kind of material, and was a hit with the photographers as well as the men (and women) who bought it. Irving and Paula Klaw were important contacts: they ran mail-order magazines and helped engineer Page's rise to fame. Pin-up photographer Bunny Yaeger had a wonderful collaboration with Page, and helped get her the 1955 Playmate of the Month cover at Playboy.
Politicians looking to get elected took on pornography as a crusade, and the camera clubs and the Klaws found themselves under attack. There were FBI raids, and the Klaws were ordered to destroy their entire warehouse of photos. Paula Klaw, still with us today, says with a sly grin, "But I didn't destroy them all."
Les politiciens en campagne électorale utilisèrent la pornographie comme cheval d'attaque et les clubs de photographes ainsi que les Klaws se firent frapper de tous côtés. Il y eut des descentes par le FBI et les Klaws furent obligés de détruire toutes leurs photos. Toujours vivante, Paula Klaw affirme, avec un sourire en coin : "mais je ne les ai pas toutes détruites."
Les politiciens qui cherchent à se faire élire pris sur la pornographie comme une croisade, et les clubs de l'appareil photo et les Klaws se trouvent sous attaque. Il y avait des raids du FBI, et les Klaws ont été condamnés à détruire la totalité de leur entrepôt de photos. Paula Klaw, toujours avec nous aujourd'hui, dit avec un sourire narquois, «Mais je ne les ai pas tous détruire."