Betty Brosmer embodied the traditional “hourglass figure,” a title fit for her picture in any fashion glossary.
Considered the best pin-up star of the 1950s, she was among the first supermodels.
Her presence blessed the pages of several esteemed publications like LIFE, Time, Fortune, and Look.
She also created history by being the first model in the business to hold the rights to many of her images and negatives—a revolutionary accomplishment in the field.
But among her remarkable career, one feature really made headlines: her shockingly small waist, which got her dubbed “The Girl with the Impossible Waist.”
Her waist measured in more like an artist’s creation than a biological fact, defying the expectations of plausible size.
Her absolutely small waist became the center of obsession and conjecture with measurements that subverted the entire idea of proportion.
Born August 2, 1935, in Pasadena, California, Betty Chloe Brosmer was a bit of a tomboy in youth.
Her parents pushed her to participate in athletics, and even before she was fifteen she had an interest in bodybuilding.
Betty began posing for Sears & Roebuck when she was 13 and attracted the attention of well-known photographers such Earl Moran and Alberto Vargas. She left New York to be a full-time model at barely fifteen.
Though it provided great prosperity, New York caused her to grow up quickly. “At 15, I looked like I was 25,” Betty says of those early days.
Her face soon permeated America on milk cartons, billboards, books, and many periodicals.
She left New York a few years ago and returned home to California. She balanced careers in modeling with psychology classes at UCLA.
She developed an all-ages exercise program for women with Joyce Vedral, which was first published in 1993 as Better and Better.
Working with renowned photographer Keith Bernard, famed for photographing icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, Betty produced.
Playboy even invited her to pose, but she turned off being naked. Betty realized her value right away. She paid everytime her pictures were used and owned them all.
Betty met magazine publisher and bodybuilder Joe Weider late in the 1950s. Captivated by Betty, Weider often highlighted her in his publications and finally wed her in 1961.
Betty developed strong enthusiasm about fitness at that point. Pushing for good looks for cover models, she penned essays on bodybuilding and health.
She coauthored two book-length fitness guides with her husband: The Weider Book of Bodybuilding for Women (1981) and The Weider Body Book (1984).
(Photo credit BettyBrosmer.com and BettyWeider.com / Flickr via sila rcamsila / Pinterest / Wikimedia Commons).
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