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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, 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 it immensely. I started with the age of Romanticism and the 18th and 19th century English writers, mostly woman, 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.
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From there, I summarized the contents of every issue of Playboy for the first six years. Maybe some day I will complete that project. For example:
Volume 1, Number 1
Undated.
Playboy: Entertainment for Men – byline on the cover.
Very small issue, only 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.
Fiction by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (copyright issue; if so, probably inexpensive;
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.
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.
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