Memories of Playboy

[teddybear4play]

Hefner is a man of impeccable taste and genius: picking the likes of LeRoy Neiman, Shel Silverstein ("Where the Sidewalk Ends" and "Where the Wild Things Are" are just 2 of the kids books he wrote and that my kids loved) Tom Wolfe and Vargas to grace his pages with great art and great words. By using great artists and writers for his magazine, Hef brought to the average Joe, the chance to experience and learn from those minds. American society today, owes a huge debt to Hugh Hefner for more than just pretty centerfolds. I personally owe him, for the Vargas pinups had a great deal to do with my love of art and my love of creating it.

Anyone care to add?

You forgot Alex Haley.

With the explosion of erotica available through the Internet, Playboy is still the standard. Amazing.

TB4p

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

What I remember most from Playboy is the stories..Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, John Updike, Harlan Ellison...while the playmates have faded in my memory, the stories stayed with me.

 

[The Heretic]

Anyone care to add?

While Playboy and Penthouse still have the highest quality models and photography, Playboy has gone downhill (IMO) of late. More of their models now have fake breasts, tatoos and piercings (they usually pose with Playboy bunny jewelery in the piercings).

I want to see natural breasts (or at least breast that look natural, not like inflated balloons), natural skin with no art drawn on it or jewelery embedded in it.

 

[DannyBoyUK]

One of the first PLAYBOY issues I remember was (must have been mid 70s) where they brought back some of their centrefolds from the early 60s to see how they were getting on.

In particular I remember Dee De Lind. The photo of her in her 30s was even more gorgeous than the ones when she was a teen centrefold. She was standing, naked, on a boat with the wind in her hair....

...unfortunately she stressed how happily married she was!

THis thread can't help me wonder how she looks now - my god! she'll be approaching 60!

 

[The Heretic]

THis thread can't help me wonder how she looks now - my god! she'll be approaching 60!

Just yesterday I was looking at a pic on a newsgroup which was a scan of a Playboy model and her vital stats. She was born in 1932 so she would be 70 years old (if she were still alive).

One particular porn mag had an issue with a 53 year old grandmother who looked pretty damned good (she had an ass as pert as Pretty Lil' Stranger's! ). And no I don't think it was plastic surgery - some people just age better than others (if it wasn't for my balding head I would look to be in my thirties and people often don't believe I am almost 50).

 

[tigerjen]

I finally saw my very first issue of PLAYBOY from cover to
cover, when I went to a magazine industry job fair back
in November, in NYC........funny, because Playboy Enterprises
was the only one that asked me what kind of salary I was
looking for......I even told them I wrote erotica, and they
asked me for writing samples......which I didnt' have,
unfortunately. However, they took my a copy of my
resume and I got a freebie PLAYBOY mag just for stopping
by


tigerjen

 

[A Desert Rose]

Thank you all for mentioning many other authors whose words fill the pages of Playboy. It has been a career furthering vehicle for many writers and artists. In that regard, I still say that Hefner is owed a great deal.

The cover: It became a contest with my kids to see who could find the hidden bunny first. Of course, that was the only portion of the magazine they were allowed to view as kids. A few months ago my 22 year old daughter told me she thought it was time to write to Playboy and tell them the bunny has become simply too easy to find. ~smile~ When they got into high school, I would frequently encourage them to read some of the interviews.

I have been a subscriber to Playboy for 25 years... still am. I will agree it has changed and some think for the worse, but I can still find many interesting things to read there.

In the early days the pubic region was not shown in photography or in the artist's works. It became a major discussion when Vargas was asked to start portraying this in his paintings. (He resisted for some time because he felt it would be offensive to his wife.) But eventually things changed... just as today, we see more body peircings on models. That is the vogue, it seems with many and apparently a great deal of men like them on women, too.

The magazine is a true American success story in many ways and for many people.

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

Playboy has always followed, and sometimes set, the trends of beauty in America. Currently, many young women get piercings, tattoos, and fake breats, but the tide will turn, it almost always does.

 

[A Desert Rose]

Playboy has always followed, and sometimes set, the trends of beauty in America. Currently, many young women get piercings, tattoos, and fake breats, but the tide will turn, it almost always does.

I could not agree with you more. However, the impact on American society by this magazine, it is not restricted to what is a beautiful woman.

Thanks for your posts!

 

[Guest]

Is this thread for real? Hef is an excellent business man, but a pimp, nevertheless.

 

[Unclebill]

Re: Re: Interviews?

Originally posted by A Desert Rose
You poor boy. Back in the days when the centerfold had a belly button staple... I remember that well.

And I swear none had pubic hair either.

And when you're thinking of artists, let us not forget Gahan Wilson.

 

[Lust Engine]

Despite the oodles & oodles of gorgeous women that have graced the pages of Playboy, I was always infatuated with the genius in Little Annie Fanny. Harvey Kurtzman & Will Elder were great in making a commentary on the world. Not only was Annie a drop dead gorgeous gal (may Jessica Rabbit forgive me!), she was also innocently naive of it. The paintings were richly detailed and just full of all sorts of visual puns.

I'm so glad they're finally producing a leather bound collection of all of these great cartoons.

 

[RobDownSouth]

*grin...one technical note: The Vargas girl was in Esquire, not Playboy!

My own Playboy memory:
When I was growing up, my best friend's house was behind a regional news distribution warehouse. Every month, the news distributor would collect magazines that didnt sell the month before, rip the covers off and send them back to the publisher for credit, then throw the magazines out into a dumpster.

Sooooo, every month, as regular as clockwork, we'd go dumpster diving...Playboy and Penthouse being prime targets 1 and 2, respectively. It was years before I bought a magazine with a cover on it!

 

[A Desert Rose]

*grin...one technical note: The Vargas girl was in Esquire, not Playboy!

My own Playboy memory:
When I was growing up, my best friend's house was behind a regional news distribution warehouse. Every month, the news distributor would collect magazines that didnt sell the month before, rip the covers off and send them back to the publisher for credit, then throw the magazines out into a dumpster.

Sooooo, every month, as regular as clockwork, we'd go dumpster diving...Playboy and Penthouse being prime targets 1 and 2, respectively. It was years before I bought a magazine with a cover on it!

Yes, the Vargas girl started in Esquire. Vargas later moved to Playboy. I posted a page that gives a very good bio about him near the beginning of this thread if you would like to read it.

I love you memory, too by the way. It made me smile.

 

[A Desert Rose]

Despite the oodles & oodles of gorgeous women that have graced the pages of Playboy, I was always infatuated with the genius in Little Annie Fanny. Harvey Kurtzman & Will Elder were great in making a commentary on the world. Not only was Annie a drop dead gorgeous gal (may Jessica Rabbit forgive me!), she was also innocently naive of it. The paintings were richly detailed and just full of all sorts of visual puns.

I'm so glad they're finally producing a leather bound collection of all of these great cartoons.

LOL, I had forgotten about Annie! Thank you for mentioning her and the cartoonists.

 

[A Desert Rose]

Re: Re: Re: Interviews?

And I swear none had pubic hair either.

And when you're thinking of artists, let us not forget Gahan Wilson.

Well Bill, devilish is right to define Wilson. He is/was very strange in his outlook. And on most occassions, I never understood cartoons. LOL

 

[Unclebill]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Interviews?

Originally posted by A Desert Rose
Well Bill, devilish is right to define Wilson. He is/was very strange in his outlook. And on most occassions, I never understood cartoons. LOL

He certainly presented a macabre perspective in his cartoons, didn't he?

 

[Lust Engine]

LOL, I had forgotten about Annie! Thank you for mentioning her and the cartoonists.

It was by far some of the most lavish cartoons I had ever seen! And that coyishly naughty view of sexuality by someone who looks like Annie to me was just devilishly hilarious.

Her regular cast of supporting characters were also a great parody of what was going on in pop culture at the times too. I just went back & re-read some of theme and couldn't believe how they parralled society (as does Playboy to a certain degree).

While Playboy's never been on the extreme social & sexual cutting edge, it does slowly nudge pop culture America to realize that sex has never been about being dirty, filthy or perverse. If anything, I think it celebrates the female form.