I am not going to lie to you. At least I am man enough to admit it!
For almost 20 years from the late 80s to the early part of this century I read Playboy magazine on a monthly basis and kept the current and back issues in mint plastic bags with each decade labeled in cardboard boxes. Notice, however, I said “read” as contrary to what Hustler founder and publisher Larry Flynt and likely every woman in the world thinks, I actually did read the magazine for the articles.
The first thing I looked for in every monthly issue were not the “pretty pictures” but critic Bruce Williamson’s movie reviews. Williamson, who died in 1998 was the magazine’s longtime movie critic since 1968 and was among the few reviewers whose writing I drew inspiration from when writing my own film reviews that also included Chicago film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, Pauline Kael and Richard Corliss.
Although Playboy showcased a number of fictional short stories from such notable writers as Ray Bradbury, Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming and Norman Mailer it was the interviews I paid most attention to. The most colorful was Lawrence Grobel’s March 2001 interview with former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight.
“He (Grobel) wants to know how I feel about God, marijuana, Gore and Bush,” Knight told his friend and former Dayton coach Don Donoher during the interview. “This has been like an investigation being conducted by the CIA to see whether or not I'm capable of running the Buenos Aires branch of covert operations. This is a question-and-answer session the likes of which Rockefeller did not put his potential son-in-law through."
Playboy magazine’s business decision last month to no longer publish women fully nude beginning with its March 2016 issue next year didn’t come as a surprise to me. The adult publication’s circulation, which peaked at 5.6 million in 1975, dwindled down to 800,000 over the years thanks to the Internet.
Unlike Today hosts Willie Geist and Al Roker who spoke of the first time they opened up an issue and the image of a naked woman changed their lives forever at the ages of nine and ten, my first exposure to the magazine did not happen until junior year in high school when a friend smuggled the May 1987 issue featuring "Wheel of Fortune" (1983) host Vanna White on the cover.
Stupid me, I was too scared to attempt to buy the magazine at the bookstore or at 7-11 without being asked for identification. Yet, I had no trouble writing fake doctor’s notes with my parent’s forged signatures as a means to get out of class towards the end of the day during junior and senior year in high school.
I stopped buying Playboy over ten years ago, one, because I had no more room, two, the older you get your interests change and three, I felt the magazine had lost its way in terms of offering worthwhile content let alone noticing how increasingly thinner each month’s issue was getting. Yes, even those “pretty pictures” were less than stellar.
It seems fitting now for the magazine to return back to its roots where the publication was known for the articles as much as it was for the pictures. The 1953 premiere issue featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover, which was undated, was only 44 pages. Back then, Hefner didn’t know if there would be a second issue.
The question now is come March next year, can the once mighty Playboy bunny with its new look (women will still be featured in provocative poses but the centerfold’s days are numbered) compete in an age where there is already a glut of PG-13 adult magazines such as GQ, Maxim, FHM and Esquire who already offer plenty of pictures of scantily clad women in the same provocative poses on the covers and inside their monthly issues.
At 89, Hugh Hefner doesn’t sound worried.
“It’s been a wonderful ride and it’s not over yet,” he said.
©11/11/15
For almost 20 years from the late 80s to the early part of this century I read Playboy magazine on a monthly basis and kept the current and back issues in mint plastic bags with each decade labeled in cardboard boxes. Notice, however, I said “read” as contrary to what Hustler founder and publisher Larry Flynt and likely every woman in the world thinks, I actually did read the magazine for the articles.
The first thing I looked for in every monthly issue were not the “pretty pictures” but critic Bruce Williamson’s movie reviews. Williamson, who died in 1998 was the magazine’s longtime movie critic since 1968 and was among the few reviewers whose writing I drew inspiration from when writing my own film reviews that also included Chicago film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, Pauline Kael and Richard Corliss.
Although Playboy showcased a number of fictional short stories from such notable writers as Ray Bradbury, Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming and Norman Mailer it was the interviews I paid most attention to. The most colorful was Lawrence Grobel’s March 2001 interview with former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight.
“He (Grobel) wants to know how I feel about God, marijuana, Gore and Bush,” Knight told his friend and former Dayton coach Don Donoher during the interview. “This has been like an investigation being conducted by the CIA to see whether or not I'm capable of running the Buenos Aires branch of covert operations. This is a question-and-answer session the likes of which Rockefeller did not put his potential son-in-law through."
Playboy magazine’s business decision last month to no longer publish women fully nude beginning with its March 2016 issue next year didn’t come as a surprise to me. The adult publication’s circulation, which peaked at 5.6 million in 1975, dwindled down to 800,000 over the years thanks to the Internet.
Like Dallas based Blockbuster Video, which closed its doors in 2014 (several franchise stores reportedly still exist) and became victim to viewers downloading movies off the Internet and video-on-demand, the porn industry has also taken a hit."After 62 years, Playboy is putting its clothes back on," Playboy Enterprises CEO Scott Flanders told CNN Money. "It served its purpose. When (Hugh) Hefner launched the magazine in 1953 nudity was provocative, and today it's passe."
Unlike Today hosts Willie Geist and Al Roker who spoke of the first time they opened up an issue and the image of a naked woman changed their lives forever at the ages of nine and ten, my first exposure to the magazine did not happen until junior year in high school when a friend smuggled the May 1987 issue featuring "Wheel of Fortune" (1983) host Vanna White on the cover.
Stupid me, I was too scared to attempt to buy the magazine at the bookstore or at 7-11 without being asked for identification. Yet, I had no trouble writing fake doctor’s notes with my parent’s forged signatures as a means to get out of class towards the end of the day during junior and senior year in high school.
What set Playboy apart from all the other adult publications is how it crossed over into the Hollywood mainstream. Ross and Chandler argued over whose joke it was the magazine chose in that Friends episode. Bud Bundy was heartbroken and found no reason to journey down to the basement anymore when Peggy sold Al’s Playboy magazines in "Married... with Children." Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) visited the Playboy Mansion and met founder Hugh Hefner in "Beverly Hills Cop II" (1987). When a couple nerds needed to create the perfect woman in "Weird Science" (1985), they opened up a locked chest full of Playboy magazines from the 1980s for research.“I don’t think that any other magazine in the 20th century had more influence on America and the world and that’s a pretty wild position to be in,” Hefner said on Today.
I stopped buying Playboy over ten years ago, one, because I had no more room, two, the older you get your interests change and three, I felt the magazine had lost its way in terms of offering worthwhile content let alone noticing how increasingly thinner each month’s issue was getting. Yes, even those “pretty pictures” were less than stellar.
It seems fitting now for the magazine to return back to its roots where the publication was known for the articles as much as it was for the pictures. The 1953 premiere issue featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover, which was undated, was only 44 pages. Back then, Hefner didn’t know if there would be a second issue.
The question now is come March next year, can the once mighty Playboy bunny with its new look (women will still be featured in provocative poses but the centerfold’s days are numbered) compete in an age where there is already a glut of PG-13 adult magazines such as GQ, Maxim, FHM and Esquire who already offer plenty of pictures of scantily clad women in the same provocative poses on the covers and inside their monthly issues.
At 89, Hugh Hefner doesn’t sound worried.
“It’s been a wonderful ride and it’s not over yet,” he said.
©11/11/15
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