Locator: 47988PLAYBOY.
Note: some formatting is yet to be completed. In a long note like this there will be typographical and content errors.
Note: this was taken from one of my journals elsewhere -- I did not date it but it must have been written in the early 2000's. I may be able to find the date if I go looking for it. We were probably living in San Antonio at the time, around 2006, just before I retired from the USAF.
Note: my best journaling was done between 2000 and 2007. This was originally done during that period. I recall the Second-Hand Discount bookstore between our rental on Diamond Canyon and near downtown San Antonio. I can vividly recall all the reading I did poolside at the pool when we moved from that home to an apartment complex closer to downtown San Antonio. I was still making military trips to northern England.
The Journal
Hugh Hefner connected with his customer from the very beginning:
letters to the editor were prominently placed, and treated with respect.
The letters he published all suggested his readers were literate and
sophisticated. Hefner frequently and regularly commented on the letters,
speaking directly to the writer; his comments were direct and
informative without being condescending. The letters were always
arranged in the same order; comments on the pictorials were last;
comments about the magazine in general were placed first. From the very
second issue I found the letters to the editor to be one of the best
features of the magazine.
In the March, 1956, issue, a reader suggested a Playboy calendar; the editor said it was under serious consideration.
From
the very beginning, Playboy had compelling articles. In its fourth
issue, the March, 1954, issue, for example, there was an article about recent
laboratory data linking cancer with cigarette smoking.
I was
born in 1951. The first issue of Playboy was published at the end of
1953 and was undated; the second issue was dated January 1954. I was two
years, five months old.
In 1969 I was eighteen years old. From
that date on, until about 1985, I read and subscribed to Playboy on an
irregular basis. I recall I always looking forward to each issue, but
seldom had time to read it as much as I might have liked. I was
extremely busy with college, graduate school studies, then work (24/7),
raising a family and being deployed with the military. During those
years I did not enjoy fiction to any great extent and Playboy was filled
with fiction. As with the The New Yorker, I enjoyed the cartoons more
than anything else.
Upon retirement in 2007, I began a very
aggressive reading program, trying to catch up on all the reading I did
not do all those years. I am very proud of my reading program, and
continue to enjoy [my reading program] immensely. I started with the age of Romanticism
and the 18th and 19th century English writers, mostly women,
particularly the Brontës and George Eliot. I probably devoted a year to
Virginia Woolf. I have enjoyed Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Plath, Ernest
Hemingway, Henry James, and Henry Miller / Anaïs Nin. I feel comfortable
with William Shakespeare with the help of Harold Bloom. I cannot say I
enjoy James Joyce but I continue to type Ulysses as one way to make sure
I read it completely. I did the same for Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway
and Waves, typing out both novels completely.
Recently I have
become fascinated with Graham Greene. I have read Norman Sherry’s
three-volume biography of Greene, and have read several of Greene’s
novels, including The Heart of the Matter and The Third Man. I also read
much of Joseph Conrad, the author who inspired Greene.
Now that
I am reading again, it is interesting to read the book reviews in
Playboy, something that I certainly did not read when the issues
initially came out. I just picked up a digital copy of all Playboy
issues from the 1950’s. Playboy Cover-to-Cover, the 50s, was published
in 2007. It has a list price of $100, but can be found in brand new
condition (in shrink wrap) for less than $40. The digital archive
includes ever page of every issue of Playboy published in the 1950s. It
is a treasure trove of Americana.
Playboy introduced “Playboy
After Hours” in its November, 1954, issue. In that feature, the editor
reviews theater, film, dining/drink, books, and music. I am going to
have a field day reading the book reviews.
I mentioned that I am
currently enjoying Graham Greene. It was very satisfying then to read a
theater review in the April, 1957, digital issue of Playboy of Graham
Greene’s “new” play, The Potting Shed. The review states that the play
is a “psychological detective story,” along the lines of Graham’s
Ministry of Fear and Confidential Host.
In that same issue,
Playboy reviews Alistair MacLean’s second book, The Guns of Navarone.
The reviewer says that Navarone is “perhaps the most continuously
exciting adventure story we’ve ever read.” The movie by the same name,
and, of course, based on this book, came out in 1961. That is the first
action-adventure moving I remember seeing. My parents paid the admission
for me and about six other boys who attended my tenth (or was it my
eleventh) birthday party – growing up in rural North Dakota, we didn’t
always get movies as soon as they were released.
Playboy magazine:
The 50’s:
- No politics
- Lots of smoke; not much fire in final analysis
- Big names – not sure if writing lived up to expectations
- Stable of in-house writers
- Stayed true to Playboy advice: lifestyle, fashion, women, food, wine
- Connected to the reader through letters to the editor
September 1, 1954: first article on jazz. (need to confirm that it was the first)
Volume 1, Number 1
- Undated.
- Playboy: Entertainment for Men – byline on the cover.
- Very small issue, only a few pages; pictures fairly poor quality (one wonders what the competition was offering).
- Long article about the unfairness of alimony. This was in 1953.
- Full page cartoons; professional art; classy; sophisticated.
- “Tales from the Decameron" which soon became a standard, “Ribald Classics.”
- “Playboy’s Party Jokes” in the very first issue. Obviously Hef had given a lot of thought to the layout of this magazine.
- Vip’s article: “Vip on Sex.”
- Marilyn Monroe! What timing! – for both Playboy and Marilyn.
- “Sweetheart of the Month.” Since color photo; one photograph
- using famous/respected author as lure for good writers. But also the kind of literature his sophisticated “playboy” might be interested in.
- Jazz section in very first issue: the Dorsey Brothers.
- Fiction by Ambrose Bierce, famous American journalist, satirist, died in 1914.
- Sports article: football; preceded annual pigskin review.
- Modern living: desk designs by Herman Miller for the modern office.
- Lifestyle: California sun and swimming pool, a pictorial.
- Previews of next issue, including snaps of women, cartoon, fiction.
- Very small edition, but hit on all cylinders.
- No advertising.
January 1954
- photos by André de Dienes; discovered Norma Jean Dougherty (Marilyn Monroe) in 1945;
- a Romanian photographer; his life forever changed with those photos;
- traveled with her for years after 1945
- Letters
to the Editor: again, Hef spoke directly to those who wrote, responding
to their letters in print; from the beginning men were asking about
subscriptions.
- sports: boxing.
- fiction: again by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
- “Miss January.” – not yet a centerfold; a single full-page color photograph; seems
- more a painting than a photograph;
- a stock photo bought from a firm in Melrose Park, IL.
- Sidebar: referred to as “Playboy’s playmate of the month.”
- fiction by famous contemporary author: John Collier, an admirer of James Joyce.
- cocktail recipe. No story or background. Just the recipe. “American Beauty”: a brandy cocktail.
- features Bob Hope selecting beautiful (fully clad, swimsuit) women for pictorial;
- Hef was separating his magazine from other “girlie” magazines by
- including “respectable” celebrities. He had already done this with fiction;
- now he was doing this with pictorials – and again, this was only his second issue.
- [A letter to his parents about this time suggests he was thinking of their reaction to his new magazine.]
- pictorials are now two to three pages.
- cartoons continue to be full-page drawings; more art than cartoonish.
- again, no advertising.
February 1954
- still 50 cents.
- fiction: Erskine Caldwell;
- most famous works, Tobacco Road and God’s Little Acre;
- contemporary author; died 1987
- cartoon and poetry (doggerel): became a frequent feature.
- fashion: the Brooks Brothers look.
- fiction: again by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
- probably planned from the beginning to provide some “bulk” and / or “gravitas” to the magazine,
- to jumpstart the magazine in case he had trouble filling out the pages.
- Vip’s article: “Vip on Likker.”
- “Playboy’s Playmate of the Month”: style and font almost identical to one used today;
- however,
Miss February now stretches across two pages (in the digital version I
see no staples or crease in the middle; no verbage, no name, no
photography credit.
- one full color cartoon spread across two pages
- lifestyle: Paris nudes.
- sports: boxing.
- still no advertising.
March 1954
- Long letter to the editor from a Korean veteran returning to the states; military made up a significant readership; later Hef would devote much ink to veterans’ causes
- Another letter to the editor notes that Marlene Dietrich, 53 years
old, opened at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas for three
weeks, “$30,000 per.”
- Fiction: first of three-part Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury; impressive!
- Fiction by Ernest Caldwell again.
- Article on cigarette smoking and cancer! This was 1954!
- Miss March: two-page; no staples; stock photo from same firm as Miss
January, which suggests Miss February was also from same
firm.
- Cocktail: “Angel’s Tit” – one of the most popular
pre-prohibition after-dinner drinks. 2/3 maraschino liqueur,
1/3 heavy cream, topped with a maraschino cherry.
- A five-page black-and-white pictorial; similar to pictorials of the future.
- Still no advertising.
April 1954
- Article: Willilam Bradford Huie; very famous journalist; serious work; important American journalist
- Jazz: history of past 15 years; second article by Julien Dedman
- Miss April: see “Miss March” – same comments
- Thomas Mario: food and drink editor; oysters.
May 1954
- I believe this was the first issue with Playbill; it evolved over time
- Humor by Max Shulman: contemporary humorist; died 1988; best known for
- creating Dobie Gillis
- Sports: short one-page article on baseball (umpires)
- Two-page spread of the playboy penthouse: “Playboy’s Progress”
-
Miss May: see “Miss March” – same comments, except no photo credit
provided; probably from same firm in Melrose, IL.
- Still no advertising! This is issue 6.
- In Playbill, Ray Bradbury noted that a woman, oblivious to her male friend, was listening to a transistor radio with earphones – this is 1954 and Ray
- Bradbury (in Fahrenheit 451) is already predicting the age of the iPod!
June 1954
- As usual: almost every issue, so far, there is a letter from a serviceman (military)
- Fiction by W. Somerset Maugham
- June 1954: first personality chosen: Orson Welles
-
By this time, he was very, very famous. Again, added
respectability to the magazine. Readers could honestly say
they bought Playboy as much for the articles as for the
pictorials. Again, there were plenty of “skin” magazines
available; Hefner found a niche. These articles are generally
only one to three pages in length; can be read quickly. By Ray
Russell.
- Miss June: see “Miss May” – identical comments.
- This time it is “Vip on Women”
- Pictorial by André de Dienes
- The art of Heinrich Kley.
- Still no advertising.
July 1954
- English starlet Simone Silva in two-page pictorial. One of the first,
if not the first, pictorials with a Hollywood connection.
- Sports: baseball
- Fiction by William Hope Hodgson; English author, died 1918.
- Outdoor grilling!
- Miss July: see “Miss May” – identical comments; no photo credit.
- “Ribald’s Classics” – first time; name change from “The Decameron.”
- Still no advertising.
- Grainy photo on inside back cover suggests pubic hair, but skimpy covering.
August 1954
- More fiction by Ray Bradbury.
- “Playbill”: becoming more prominent; full page of print; small thumbnail graphics.
- Probably one of the best responses to a letter to the editor regarding the magazine;
- Hefner says this is the first negative letter he has received since beginning publishing
- Along with letters from those in the military, now letters from college students
- Hefner mentions that the “Playboy Annual” will print the best of
Playboy for the year, later in 1954.
- He is already
re-packaging his library!
- Jazz in New Orleans.
- Feature on Frank Lloyd Wright, by Ray Russell.
- Sports: warm weather recreation.
- More fiction by Ray Bradbury.
- Puzzle: nine word-puzzles; logic. To get parties started. Again, a magazine for a sophisticated audience.
- Miss August: -- see “Miss May” – identical comments; no photo credit;
the playmate photos are becoming monotonous, predictable;
simple pin-up one might see in a garage or in an athlete’s
locker. Needs to evolve. Getting stale.
- Heinrich Kley art.
- Still no advertising.
- Thomas Mario on a “tall gin drink.”
September 1954 (Issue 1/10)
- Playbill: now with thumbnail headshots of contributors, including
Beaumont, Neiman (artist), Crosby, Bob Hope, Rose, and
Wilson.
- Charles Beaumont: contemporary American writer, died 1967; wrote classics for Twilight Zone
- Jazz: Louis Armstrong and be-bop
- Sports: Bob Hope on golf.
- Tournament bridge by William Rosen; again respectability. It is
getting difficult to not want to buy the magazine; it is
that interesting (even without the pictures).
- Miss September: see comments regarding “Miss August”
- Outstanding article on the chafing dish by the food and drink editor;
this alone is worth the price of the magazine, still 50
cents, and no advertising.
- Personality: Gina Lollobrigida; author not named; Ray Russell?
October 1954 (Issue 1/11)
- This issue called “Playboy’s College Issue”
- Fiction by W. Somerset Maugham, again.
- A nice little “drink quiz” to help get a party of two (or more) started.
- Sports: football.
- Miss October: same as “Miss August”; boring. Anonymous faces.
- Cartoons by Julien Dedman.
- Clever article by the food and drink editor on “reading the feminine mind while she reads the menu.”
- The first pictorial involving film: “Nudity and Foreign Film.”
- Still 50 cents and no advertising.
November 1954 (Issue 1/12)
- Playbill now a full page of print with thumbnail headshots.
- Personality: David Garroway, by Rolf Malcolm.
- Sports: boxing.
- Miss November: same as “Miss August”; boring.
- Fiction by Erskine Caldwell. Full page art accompanies story.
- Five-page black-and-white pictorial: Paris around the world.
- Thanksgiving turkey: preparation and serving, including cutting.
- No outside advertising but “best of Playboy available.
December 1954 (issue 1/13 or 2/1)
- Anniversary Issue.
- Limericks.
- Style: the chair.
- Humor by Max Shulman.
- Review of sports, 1954.
- Miss December: finally!
- Six-page black-and-white pictorial on
photographing the December playmate.
- Ends with the standard
two-page, non-stapled color pin-up.
- Very “artsy.” Almost
looks like a painting, more than a photo.
- “Ribald Classics” and “Playboy Jokes” still same features as all past months.
- Two-page pictorial in Las Vegas.
- One was an old Marlene Dietrich photo published earlier (see March 1954) and a newcomer,
Terry Moore.
- Only two pages, and Marlene’s picture had been
used just a few months before. Good marketing for the cover,
but a disappointment for the reader.
- Still 50 cents and no outside advertising. Best of Playboy available.
January 1955 (Issue 2/02)
- Wow: fiction by Ray Bradbury, John Steinbeck, and Erskine Caldwell.
- Bob Perlongo on jazz: Baker and Mulligan; Dave Brubeck.
- Thomas Mario, food and drink editor: the punch bowl.
- Pictorial from the Artists Equity Masquerade Ball, five pages.
- For some reason, “Bettie Page, January 1955” is typed at the top of the “Playboy’s Party Jokes” page.
-
Miss January: see “Miss August” – except this time, the model is
identified on the page before as Bettie Page.” Was this stock
photo?
- Personality: Eartha Kitt wth several photos.
- Fashion: proper male attire.
- Still no advertising.
February 1955 (Issue 2/03)
- Fiction by Ivan Gold, contemporary writer, born 1932. Illustrated by Leroy Neiman.
- Art by Heinrich Kley.
- Unsatisfying pictorial: Turkish dancer.
- Fiction: John W. Jakes, contemporary writer, born 1932.
- Thomas Mario on the hamburger; these are full one to two page articles on food and drink. These articles probably accounted for much of American culinary tastes.
- Personality: Satchmo (jazz) by Charles Beaumont
- Miss February: see “Miss August.” However, based on other sources, this is an in-house photo.
- Sports: boxing, 1955.
- Pictorial: 5-page black-and-white television (KABC-TV) personality. Tame.
-
Wow! The first advertising. Looks like a Playboy full-page color
cartoon. Female lowering hope chest to male, eloping;
“Certainly we’re taking it … they’re Springmaid sheets and I
have a full chest too.” – The Springs Cotton Mills. Very,
very well done. Sets new standard for advertising in men’s
magazine. It’s on the back cover.
March 1955
April 1955 (Issue 2/04)
- Playbill: Wodehouse, Beaumont.
- Business class on airlines.
- Thomas Mario on crab.
-
Miss April: wow – this may be the first one that really met Hugh’s
specs – a very naturally appearing woman on a sofa, with a
man’s pipe in the lower right-hand corner. First photo that
looks like a photo and not a painting or a pin-up per se.
This is very, very good. No accompanying print. No name. No photo credit. This is the best to date, and interestingly, it is very
tame.
- Nudity and advertising. Another great marketing promo but unsatisfying.
- Cocktail quiz to get a party going.
-
First time for “classic” advertising: this time – a one-column
black-and-white ad for Petite Paris Lingerie, Sanford,
Florida.
- Back cover advertisement for Admiral FM-AM Radio-Phonograph system.
May 1955 (Issue 2/05)
- I note the playmate’s name is in Playbill. May have to go back to earlier issues to see if other playmates named in Playbill.
- Fiction: Irwin Shaw, contemporary writer, died 1984.
- Personality: Steve Allen
- Thomas Mario: sophisticated cheese – Roquefort and ricotta.
- Miss May: a Vargas-like photograph. No credit. No additional commentary.
- Bunny Yeager: introduced as Playboy photographer; 7-page pictorial; a classic.
- Party games for adults only.
-
We now have a bit more standard advertising. Unfortunately it is
mainstream advertising; I think Hefner should have
maintained a certain standard (see Cotton Springs above);
advertising could have been a feature just as his letters to
the editor became. Hefner missed on edgy ads.
- Skotch Cooler and Grill on the back cover: more along Playboy’s standards
June 1955 (Issue 2/06)
- Hef apologizes to readers (letter to the editor) about inability to keep up with
- subscriptions; subscriptions growing so fast, Playboy fell behind getting them mailed
- Fiction: John Collier, contemporary English author, died 1980
- Jazz: All-Star Jazz Band
- Thomas Mario, food and drink editor: coffee
- Guy de Maupassant: a ribald classic. Classy author.
- Miss June: Russ Meyer’s wife; the first pictorial for a playmate, as well as copy
- Pictorial: some photos in color; a first, I believe
- One ad inside the magazine for Artists Schools
July 1955 (Issue 2/07)
- In letters, Hef identifies the last six Playmates in order: Miss December, Terry Ryan; Miss January, Bettie Page; Miss February, Jayne Mansfield; Miss April, Marilyn Waltz; Miss May, Marguerite Empey; Miss June, Eve Meyers
- Fiction: Michael Arlen – Armenian essayist; contemporary, died 1956; on cover of Time magazine in 1927
- Thomas Mario: rum
- Miss July! Wow! Janet Pilgrim! Playboy employee; manages
subscriptions.
- Pictorial as well as copy.
- Clearly the best
so far. Hef and Janet are listening to their readers.
- Personality: Tom Lehrer
- Fashion: with Neiman art, classy
- Ribald classic: Balzac; two successive months – famous authors
- Pictorial: 4-page with some color
- Minimal advertising inside
- Picnic cooler advertisement on back cover
August 1955 (Issue 2/08)
- Fiction by Charles Beaumont with illustrations by LeRoy Neiman; Neiman is becoming the in-house illustrator for Playboy
- Jazz: wow! Article by Dave Brubeck! Again, respectability. It is hard NOT to subscribe to Playboy if you want to keep up with jazz, contemporary fiction. The contemporary fiction may be as good as anything in The New Yorker
- More fiction by P. G. Wodehouse.
- Thomas Mario: onions.
- Ribald classic: again, by Guy de Maupassant
- Playboy’s Party Jokes: introduces the current scantily clad female sketch
- Miss August: no pictorial; no copy; simply one two-page spread, but this one with the classic pipe on the floor
- Quiz: identify the stemware for the drink
- Pictorial: 3-page black-and-white in the pool; good, not great
- Minimal advertising inside (one column, black-and-white)
- Inside back cover announces bigger, more colorful, more fiction-filled issue next month
September 1955 (Issue 2/09)
- Playbill tells us that Janet Pilgrim was not the first Playboy employ to model in some respect for the magazine; nice history of Playboy
- Fiction by W. Somerset Maugham, contemporary, died 1965
- Jazz: collecting. The thought strikes me: I wonder if many of those my age enjoyjazz because of their introduction to it through Playboy?
- Pictorial: color; cartoon covers of dime novels
- The perfect martini: a parody
- Miss September: two-page black-and-white; some copy; two-page color spread
- Demographics of the Playboy reader; two page; some statistics
- 50% married
- #1 hobby: photography (20%)
- #2 hobby: reading (16%)
- Age 20 – 34: 90% -- great for advertisers
- Occupation: 25% students; 20% business; 17% professionals
- Smoke: 81%; of those, 83% smoke cigarettes
- Personality: Sammy Davis
- Thomas Mario: Italian dishes
- Pictorial: New York circus – boring
- Ribald classic: new translation of one from Casanova
- Advertising: two columns, black-and-white; none on back cover; one has to wonder what the lack of advertising is all about [later: Hugh Hefner explains it in the Amazon documentary]
October 1955 (Issue 2/10)
- College issue; makes sense -- #1 demographis – college students (25%)
- Pictorial: 3-page black-and-white; “stripper” to college function; very tame
- Again, LeRoy Neiman illustrates for fashion article
- Thomas Mario: the cocktail hour
- Jazz: Willy “King” Jefferson
- Miss October: 5-page pictorial; still two-page Playmate photo
- Ribald classic: Guy de Maupassant
- Foreign car quiz to get a party going.
- Pictorial with color: Anita Ekberg; going Hollywood – finally. No nudity, lingerie only.
- Advertising; same as before; minimal; black-and-white only; parts of two pages
November 1955 (Issue 2/11)
- New this issue:
- A bit of black-and-white advertising in first few pages
- Introduces “Playboy After Hours”
- “Playboy After Hours” reviews dining/drinking; theater; records, film, and books.
- This is interesting; a letter to the editor in one of the first issues suggested book reviews; again, Hef is listening to his readers
- Personality: Jonathan Winters, a new comic
- Thomas Mario: cooking with beer
- Several page article on Gina Lollabrigida with only a few pictures; in good taste
- Jazz: an interview with some all-stars
- Miss November: four-page pictorial; same two-page spread; little copy
- Pictorial: 4-page black-and-white; west coast strippers, El Rancho; tame
- Ribald classic: translation of Straparola
- Last few pages with some black-and-white column advertising
December 1955 (Issue 2/12)
- Second anniversary issue
- Cover features Janet Pilgrim, Playboy employee, previous Playmate
- “Playboy After Hours”: no longer includes drinking / dining
- Jazz: Mabel Mercer
- Fiction by Ray Bradbury;
- Thomas Mario: gourmet gifts for Christmas
- Miss December: Janet Pilgrim again with a very tame pictorial leading up to the
- 2-page spread; she really is quite pretty; she looks like a very classy and a
- very bright woman
- Pictorial: 5-page black-and-white / color
- Ribald classic: Guy de Maupassant
- Advertising: a bit more black-and-white inside; back cover: Springmaid Sheets
January 1956 (Issue 3/01)
- Holiday Issue: 9 pages of playmates
- “Playboy After Hours”: longer; drinking / dining back in
- Fiction by Erskine Caldwell
- Ribald classic: Voltaire’s Candide
- Thomas Mario: for the hangover
- Miss January: just the 2-page color spread; no introduction; no copy
- Pictorial: the first 2-dozen playmates; in color Jean Moorehead, Margaret Scott; Arline Hunter, Jayne Mansfield, Madeline Castle; Neva Gilbert, Marguerite Empey, Janet Pilgrim (2), Diane Hunter, Marilyn Waltz, Pat Lawler, Margie Harrison, Marilyn Monroe, Terry Ryan, Joanne Arnold, Eve Meyer, Bettie
Page, Anne Fleming, Jackie Rainbow, Barbara Cameron
- Minimal black-and-white advertising on the last few pages; no back cover ad
February 1956 (Issue 3/02)
- Sports: boxing 1956; 3rd annual ring review
- Thomas Mario: steak for two
- Miss February: 4-page including the usual 2-page spread
- Jazz: Stan Kenton
- Mixed drinks quiz to start a party
- Personality: Jayne Mansfield with color photos
- Advertising: minimal black-and-white
March 1956 (Issue 3/03)
- The letters to the editor really are quite good
- Playboy After Hours continues to get better; book section long; now includes television
- More fiction by Ray Bradbury
- Ribald classic: another one from Voltaire’s Candide
- Leroy Neiman continues to illustrate for fashion article
-
Miss March: introduces new style – the three-page foldout; very nice
standing; only one page lead-in with some copy; same
2-page spread; now with 2-more pages (black-and-white)
following
- Thomas Mario: curry, Indian
- Golf quiz to get a party going
- Pictorial with Eve Meyer; tame
April 1956 (Issue 3/04)
- Jazz: Benny Goodman
- Miss April: the new style; one page black-and-white either side of the 2-page
- spread; standing
- Thomas Mario: wine
- Two-page black-and-white pictorial
- Fiction by Roald Dahl
- Ribald classic: Guy de Maupassant
May 1956 (Issue 3/05)
- Personality: Victor Borge
- Thomas Mario: brandy, the liquid apple
- Travel: last month, Brazil; this month, Portugal
- Miss May: same style as last month
- Playboy’s Party Jokes now on back page of Playmate of the Month pictorial
- Ribald classic: Chinese tale
- Fashion: hats like Sinatra’s
- Pictorial: Meg Myes
- “Females By Cole” – standard feature continues; I forgot to note when he started
- I haven’t seen Vip in a long time
June 1956 (Issue 306)
- Cover: “Now printing over 1,000,000 copies”
- Fiction by Roald Dahl
- Thomas Mario: The Bachelor Dinner
- Miss June: same format
- Horowitz on chess
- Ribald Classic: Guy de Maupassant
- Advertising: same format; no back cover ads. No color ads.
July 1956 (Issue 3/07)
- Fiction by Alice Denham, contemporary model, writer and scholar; b. 1933; also
- Miss July
- After Hours: book review, My Friend, Henry Miller, by Alfred Perlès
- Newport Jazz Festival
- Travel: Scandinavia
- Thomas Mario: salad
- Miss July: same format; note – this Playmate has a story published in this journal
- Ribald classic: Anton Chekhov
- Pictorial: now, in color
August 1956 (Issue 3/08)
- Evelyn Waugh on the death of painting
- Thomas Mario: shish kebab
- Anita Eckberg: Playboy publishes photos they just published a few months
- earlier; puts them in article on sculptor sculpting Anita Ekberg; makes
- good use of recycling photos
- Ribald classic: Joseph Addison, 18th century English writer
- Miss August: same format
- Party game: champagne – size of bottles
- Travel: Greece
- Introduces cartoons by Silverstein
- Pictorial on Chicago bohemian party – boring
- Advertising: same format.
September 1956 (Issue 3/09)
- Playbill: now two pages; Kiley, Hemingway, and Floyd Gibbons
- Personality: Hemingway by Jed Kiley
- Pictorial: color, Folies-Bergere, Paris
- Ribald classic: Arabic
- Miss September: same format; last several Playmates have been completely
- covered with props (flowers, drapes, arms, etc)
- Travel: Haiti
- Thomas Mario: Ham
- Classic: Playboy’s penthouse apartment
- Sports: boxing by John Lardner; Floyd Patterson prepares for championship
- Advertising: significantly more ads; starting to look like other magazines
October 1956 (Issue 3/10)
- Table of Contents page now has color thumbnail, much like current issues
- Article on sex in cinema; precursor to annual pictorial on same
- Thomas Mario: vodka
-
Miss October: second time with Janet Pilgrim; third time featured in a
pictorial; this time an Ivy League weekend, Dartmouth
- Travel: Italian Riviera
- Riblad classic: Masuccio Salernitano
- Hemingway, by Jed Kiley; continued from last issue
- Shepherd Mead has been a regular for some time; satirist
-
Second look at Playboy Penthouse; continued from last month; by doing
it this way, Hef keeps the articles short, probably the way
the readers prefer
- Annual jazz poll – Playboy’s first jazz poll
- Pictorial: black-and-white; bath/soap; tame
November 1956 (Issue 3/11)
- Pipe tobacco pouch ad
- Marlboro: first cigarette ad
- Pictorial: Chicago Key Club
- Jazz: Nat “King” Cole
- Thomas Mario: holiday meal
- Miss November: same format; huge bosom; larger than ever; again completely covered
- Africa: African safari
- Quiz for a party; fairly involved quiz
- First issue with real catalogue of gifts; color pictures
- Ribald classic: from Herodotus
- Hemingway, by Jed Kiley; continued from last issue
- Back to full color ad on back cover
December 1956 (Issue 3/12)
- 3rd anniversary issue
- Marlboro appears to be regular advertiser
- Regulars: Shepherd Mead, Charles Beaumont
- Fiction by Shel Silverstein
- Update on jazz poll: first annual; ballots coming in at a rate of 1,000 / day
- Pictorial on Broadway theater; tame
- Thomas Mario: holiday cheer, hot cider
- Miss December: photography by Bunny Yeager
- Ribald Classic: Guy de Maupassant
- Another catalogue of gifts, color photos
- Hemingway, by Jed Kiley; continued from last issue
- Lots of ads
- Winston cigarettes on back cover
January 1957 (Issue 4/01)
- Holiday issue
- How interesting: Marlboro not in this issue
- 5-page playmate portfolio
- New Year’s Resolutions: John Crosby, H. Allen Smith, George Jessel, Fred Astaire, Phil Silvers, Jimmy Durate
- Shepherd Market prostitution in London; example of good writing; interesting; Google it today
- Fiction by Ray Bradbury with illustration by Picasso
- Thomas Mario: the sandwich
- Jazz: Charlie Parker, the “bird”
- Miss January: same format, but pose back to classic pin-up style
- Travel: Mexico
- Review of the last dozen playmates: Marian Stafford, Marion Scott, Gloria Walker, Lisa Winters, Betty Blue, Lynn Turner, Jonnie Nicely, Elsa Sorensen, Rusty Fisher, Janet Pilgram (actually shows a bit more in this one)
- Winston on the back cover
February 1957 (Issue 4/02)
- The “New” Jayne Mansfield on the cover
- Inside front cover: Budweiser
- Full page b/w Hiram Walker whiskey ad
- B/w Marlboro ad
- Jazz: results of first jazz poll
- Miss February: same format, but a bit more color in the lead-in and closure
- Thomas Mario: colonial recipes
- Article by Pamela Moore, who wrote a book on sex (1956) while still a teen-ager (18); “Are American men ashamed of sex?”
- Party quiz
- Pictorial: color, Jayne Mansfield, tame; it’s amazing how much mileage Hef got out of these photos
- Winston back cover
March 1957 (Issue 4/03)
- Budweiser, color, inside front cover
- Hiram Walker whiskey, Marlboro
- Sports: Boxing, fourth annual ring review
- Pictorial: color; closer to current pictorials
- Miss March: same format; natural pose
- Thomas Mario: stew
- Hemingway, by Jed Kiley; continued
- The Vargas girl introduced with an article
- Ribald classic: Juan Ruiz
- Zsa Zsa Gabor: one page; lots of promotion, but nothing is there; over-rated
- Winston, color back color
April 1957 (Issue 4/04)
- Still 50 cents
- Paris Belts, color, inside front cover
- Thomas Mario: shrimp
- Miss April: same format
- Ribald classic: Guy de Maupassant
- Pictorial: Sex on Lexington Avenue, NY
- Hemingway, by Jed Kiley; continued
May 1957 (Issue 4/05)
- Same advertisers
- Miss May: same format; nice
- Ribald classic; Somadeva
June 1957 (Issue 4/06)
- Same advertisers
- Photo of Hef
- Lisa Winters wins poll for prettiest Playmate for 1956; Hef reuses photos
- Thomas Mario: morning menus
- Quiz to start a party
- Miss June: same format
- Personality: Mort Sahl
- Ribald classic: Anatole France
- Pictorial: the back; dress cut down in the back down to the buttocks
July 1957 (Issue 4/07)
- Thomas Mario: summer coolers
- Quiz to start a party; jazz
- Miss July: same format; one of the better ones
- Silverstein again; almost every month
- Pictorial: much like current pictorials; yacht party;
- Ribald classic: Jules Barley d’Aurevilly
- Cartoons seem to never change in excellent quality
August 1957 (Issue 4/08)
- Thomas Mario: corn on the cob
- Miss August: a first – the entire pictorial in color; first use of phrase, “Girl Next
- Door”: photography by Peter Gowland
- Hemingway, by Jed Kiley; continued
- Personality: Lionel Wiggin -- #1 US male model
- Ribald classic: 18th century English writer, Joseph Addison
- Pictorial: all color; Playboy penthouse
September 1957 (Issue 4/09)
- Opinion by John Steinbeck
- Miss September: back to b/w lead-in and closure; 2-page spread nice
- Ribald Classic: Giovanni da Prato
- Annual college “pigskin” review
- Hemingway, by Jed Kiley; continued
October 1957 (Issue 4/10)
- No changes for quite some
- Same format; same stable of writers
- Playboy After Hours: now looks like current issues; didn’t know when it changed
- Add Pabst as an advertiser, color
- Writer notices that women’s magazines have much sex in them also
- Silverstein in London
- Miss October: same format – one page b/w lead-in; some copy; 2-page color; one
- page color closure; Playboy’s Party Jokes, and then a full-page cartoon
- Jazz: 1958 poll
- Ribald classic: German 14th century
- Latin pictorial
- Janet Pilgrim featured in ads selling Playboy subscriptions (at least 3 ads)
November 1957 (Issue 4/11)
- Lots of Playboy gifts; great marketing; great trademark
- Thomas Mario: holiday smorgasbord
- Jazz: Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington
- Playboy’s Christmas gift catalog throughout the issue; not just one section like
- before
- Miss November: same format; pubic hair on the margin
- Ribald classic: Juan Timoneda
- Pictorial: Sophia Loren vs Jayne Mansfield
December 1957 (Issue 4/12)
- Fourth Anniversary Issue
- Thomas Mario: desserts
- Miss December: same format; one of the worse centerfolds
- The first interview: wow! Mike Wallace interviews Hugh Hefner!
- Playboy’s Christmas gift catalog throughout the issue; not just one section like
- before
January 1958 (Issue 5/01)
- 5-page playmate portfolio
- Playboy bar gifts: write Janet Pilgrim
- Janet Pilgrim: as much exposure as Hef; I wonder what their relationship was?
- Silverstein: Paris
- Miss January: same format; nice centerfold
- Playmate review: Linda Vargas, Jacquelyn Prescott, Carrie Radison, Sally Todd, Dawn
Richard, Jean Jani, Marlene Callahan, Gloria Winchor,
Colleen Farrington, Dolores Donlon, June Blair, Sandra
Edwards
- Fiction by Jack Kerouac
- Ribald classic: medieval France
- Renault, color ad, back cover
February 1958 (Issue 5/02)
- Comments on the new nihilism, the Beat Generation
- Thomas Mario: omelet
- Jazz: Winners of the 1958 poll
- Miss February: same format; very nice centerfold
- Travel: Himalayan
- Pictorial: Jayne Mansfield – more smoke than fire, as usual
- Ribald classic: from the Kryptodia
March 1958 (Issue 5/03)
- Japanese singer / sexpot
- Sports: boxing 1958
- “On the Scene” – is this the first time this feature appears?
- Thomas Mario: roast beef (looks like a English cutlery)
- Miss March: same format; three photos and that’s it
- Pictorial: Brigitte Bardot
- Gahan Wilson – first time?
- Ribald classic: Medieval France
- Garrard turntable advertisement: I remember having a Garrard turntable
April 1958 (Issue 5/04)
- Thomas Mario: sauces
- Fiction by John Steinbeck
- Miss April: same format
- Article on painter Leroy Neiman
- Pictorial in Vegas: great pictures; just not enough
- Ribald classic: Pierre Sylvain Maréchal
May 1958 (Issue 5/05)
- Thomas Mario: happy as a clam
- Miss May: same format; very nice centerfold
June 1958 (Issue 5/06)
- Thomas Mario: smoothies with the blender
- Silverstein: Italy
- Miss June: added photos as part of article, “How to Photograph Your Own
- Playmate”
- Party quiz
- San Francisco
July 1958 (Issue 5/07)
- I just noticed: the front cover has the month (July), but not the year
- Pictorial: jacket art; nudes on record jackets
- Centerfold: one b/w lead-in; then the centerfold and nothing more; not much
- Entertainment: Shelley Berman
- Ribald classic: west Africa
August 1958 (Issue 5/08)
- Thomas Mario: lobster
- On the Scene continues
- Jules Pfeiffer
- Centerfold: same format
September 1958 (Issue 5/09)
- Playboy’s College Playmate
- Fashion: the undergrad
- Playmate: college sophomore; same format; a bit more color on the lead-in
- “The Womanization of Amerrica” by Philip Wylie
- This was in 1958; in 2000 we were talking about the “feminization” of
- America
- Annual pigskin review
- Pictorial: finally a bit like current pictorials; buxom British beauty; and very
- Buxom
- Ribald classic: ancient Ireland
- Jules Pfeiffer
October 1958 (Issue 5/10)
- The Stereo Scene: a new feature?
- Pictorial: “Pros” in Paris: very sophisticated, elegant-looking women
- Wine, but no byline
- Miss October: more color in the supporting photos
- Pictorial: Showgirls in Las Vegas; looks current
- Jazz: 3rd poll
- Missing: no articles on politics up to this point
November 1958 (Issue 5/11)
- Thomas Mario: wild game for the holidays
- Pictorial: Brigitte Bardot: previously printed elsewhere
- Miss November: same format
- Silverstein: Switzerland
- Playboy catalogue through the issue; not in just one place
- Personality: Frank Sinatra
- Pictorial: Skiing; boring
- Jules Pfeiffer, again
December 1958 (Issue 5/12)
- Fifth Anniversary Issue
- Top 5 centerfold models for past 5 years (re-cycle photos)
- Barbara Cameron, Elizabeth Ann Roberts (not quite 18 when the photos
- appeared), Jayne Mansfield (most famous), Lisa Winters (most popular),
- Janet Pilgrim (July 1955, December 1955, and October 1956; only girl so
- far as a Playmate 3 times)
- Thomas Mario: liqueur
- Playboy catalog throughout the issue
- Centerfold: July covergirl returns as December centerfold; same format
- Ribald classic: La Fontaine
- Advertiser, back cover: Paris Belts
January 1959 (Issue 6/01)
- Pictorial: party games; tame, silly
- Thomas Mario: New Orleans Mardi Gras creole
- Pfeiffer, Beaumont, Wodehouse, Gahan – they are all here
- Miss January: same format
- Fiction: Ben Hecht, the “Shakespeare of Hollywood,” contemporary, d. 1964
- Playmate review, past year: Lari Laine, Linné Nanette Ahlstrand, Zahra Norbo, Mara Carday, Pat Sheehan, Myrna Weber, Joan Staley, Judy Lee Tomerlin (2nd staffer to be a centerfold; followed Janet Pilgrim), Elizabeth Ann Roberts, Cheryl Kubert, Natalie Hope, Felicia Atkins, and Joyce Nizzari.
- Ribald classic: Bonaventure Desperriers
February 1959 (Issue 6/02)
Appears to be first issue where pictorials are all color
Jazz: 1959 All-Stars
Personality: Lenny Bruce
Travel: San Marino
Miss February: same format, but all color for the first time
Pictorial: first color
Ribald classic: Emile Blain
Playboy International Datebook: a regular feature for some time now
March 1959 (Issue 6/03)
- Silverstein in Spain
- Travel: Andorra
- Miss March: same format
- Pictorial in color
- Ribald Classic: from Jacques Redelsperger
April 1959 (Issue 6/04)
- Slide rule and compass on cover
- Still 50 cents
- “On the Scene”
- Miss April: standard format; very nice centerfold
- Playboy’s weekend hideaway
- Ribald classic: Marguerite, Queen of Navarre
- Pictorial: Hollywood starlet
- Silverstein: Spain
- It looks like they did not photocopy the cover. “C4” is actually page 90.
May 1959 (Issue 6/05)
- Weird World of Gahan Wilson (several cartoons)
- Miss May: same format; nice centerfold
- Pictorial: Playboy’s House Party – getting a bit more risqué
- Jules Pfeiffer: first time?
- Ribald classic: Jacques Redelsperger
June 1959 (Issue 6/06)
- Vespa scooter (and a big hit for Vespa in 2008 with high gas prices)
- The Origins of the Beat Generation by Jack Kerouac
- Miss June: standard format; very nice centerfold
- Thomas Mario: beer and skittles
- Jules Pfeiffer again, now a regular
- Pictorial: Oriental sex in Las Vegas
- Ribald Classic: 14th century Germany
- Article on the Mann Act: transporting a woman with immoral intent
July 1959 (Issue 6/07)
- Jazz: Playboy sponsors first Playboy Jazz Festival, August 7 – 9, 1959
- Personality: Oscar Levant
- Thomas Mario: grilling
- Coffeehouses for the Beat generation
- Miss July: back to b/w supporting photos; same format; very nice
- Pictorial: swimming pool, again
- Yachting
- Ribald classic: Theophila Braga
August 1959 (Issue 6/08)
- Silverstein among the Arabs
- Miss August: all color, same format
- Pictorial: Chicago; tame
- Thomas Mario: salads (again)
- Pictorial: Hollywood buxom
- Ribald classic: Andreopulus
September 1959 (Issue 6/09)
- Annual pigskin review
- Bunny Yeager’s beauties: recycled from earlier issues (Bunny Yeager: famous female Playboy photographer)
- Lots of advertising in first several pages; more like modern issues
- Jazz: Lester Young
- Thomas Mario: cooking with whiskey
- Obit for Jack Cole: sudden and untimely death; among the most distinctive American cartoonists; part of Playboy early in its first year of publication, and quickly was established as the artist most closely identified with the magazine. While he lived, he was featured in Playboy (after the fifth issue) with at least one full-page Cole cartoon.
- Miss September: all color; same format
- Pipes and pipe tobaccos
- Ribald classic: Sheihk-Zalah
- October 1959 (Issue 6/10)
- Annual jazz poll
- Silverstein on safari in Africa
- Kitchenless kitchen
- Miss October: b/w supporting photos; same format
- Advice for the investor (first article I’ve seen on investing)
- Ribald classic: J. F. Demachy
November 1959 (Issue 6/11)
- Pictorial: Hollywood goes Europe
- Miss November: same format; supporting photos b/w
- Psychology of sleep; beds; bedmates
- Thomas Mario: soup
- Ribald classic: medieval Spain
December 1959 (Issue 6/12)
- Sixth Anniversary Issue
- A new novelette by Jack Kerouac
- Nice article / spread with Neiman paintings
- Thomas Mario: Christmas casserole
- Miss December: same format; some b/w
- Fiction by Roald Dahl
- Playboy Christmas catalogue all together in one place
- Bridge bidding
- Pictorial: French sexy starlets competing with Brigitte Bardot
- Ribald classic: Chavalier de Nérciat
