Playboy Models

Vintage Playboy Models

The Magazine

Playboy Magazine is probably the world’s most well known men’s magazines. Started by Hugh Hefner in Chicago in 1953, on a budget of $8000, the magazine was an instant hit due to Hefner’s acquisition of photos of Marylin Monroe from the John Baumgarth Calendar Company. That first, unnumbered issue sold 53,991 copies at $.50 each in just a few weeks. Another coup for the magazine was the serialization of Sci-Fi author, Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 in the March, April and May 1954 issues.

Unable to pay full price for the story, Hefner and Bradbury agreed to the serialization of the novel. If the first worked out, Hefner would pay for the last two serials. The novel was instantly popular and launched Bradbury’s career. Playboy became known as a literary magazine with interesting content beyond the nude models it featured.

Playboy continued it’s literary tradition with notables such as Michael Crichton, Kurt Vonnegut, Nadine Gordimer, and John Irving. In addition to these story excerpt, from notable authors, the magazines other main feature became it’s interviews. This monthly article was highly respected, even among those who didn’t like the magazine otherwise. Those interviewed includes everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to President Jimmy Carter, to a joint interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

On top of all of that, many of Playboy’s photographers became stars in their own right due to their work in the magazine. This includes photographers such as Ken Marcus, Suze Randall, Pompeo Posar, and of course, Bunny Yeager.

The list of women who’s careers were launched by Playboy Magazine is impressive (Jenny McCarthy, Pamela Anderson to name a couple.) But even more so, the sheer number of already well respected celebrities who posed for Playboy, is beyond incredible. These include women such as Shannen Doherty, Farrah Fawcett, Denise Richards, Drew Barrymore, La Toya Jackson, Debbie Gibson, and many, many others.

To say that Playboy has been an influence on culture for decades is stating it lightly. The magazine is so popular that it has been published in every major country in the US, been the subject of censorship and pornography cases around the world, and even has a Braille edition that features the articles.

The Playmates

1950’s
1960’s
1970’s
1980s

Non-Playmate Models

These are ladies who posed in Playboy, but were not Playmates.
Barbie Benton – Playboy model and ex-girlfriend of Huge Hefner.
Marli Renfro – September 1960 Cover Model

Celebrity Models

None yet. This area will be for models and actresses who posed in Playboy, but didn’t traditionally pose nude.

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