Monday, May 26, 2014

To Absent Friends - Bunny Yeager

I have often stated that news obituaries can be the most fascinating part of the newspaper, and today was no exception with the Post-Gazette's page one obit notice for pin-up photographer, Bunny Yeager.

Yeager died at the age of 85 this week. Turns out that she was born in Wilkensburg, hence the page one note in the PG.  At age 17, her family moved to Florida, where she took to modeling and, later, photography.

As a photographer, she specialized in doing female pin-up shots that featured the famous, or, depending on your point of view, the infamous Bettie Page.  She had a knack for making female models feel comfortable and, shall we say, less inhibited when posing for her.  As a result of this, she was one of Hugh Hefner's "go to" photographers during the early years of Playboy Magazine, and she was responsible for many of the centerfold shots during those days.

But it was teaming up with Bettie Page that made them both famous.  Here is Yeager setting up one of the more famous Page photos.


And here is one of the results of that session....


There are many other, as I said earlier, less inhibited pictures of Miss Page from this session, and you can find them easily enough by going to Google Images.  I am choosing to keep The Grandstander  family friendly. 

She went on to a full career as a photographer of importance.  In 2010, an exhibit of her photos was mounted at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and she was responsible for the famous photos of Ursula Andress taken during the filming of the James Bond movie, "Dr. No".  


You can learn more about her at www.bunnyyeager.net

As I said, obituaries make fascination reading.

RIP Bunny Yeager.

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