70 years ago the first issue of Playboy magazine was published (11 photos)

The history of the popular publication began in 1953. To create the first issue, the founder of the publication had to pawn furniture and borrow money from his mother. He released it in his kitchen and without specifying a date, because he doubted that the second release would take place. The magazine sold out in just a few weeks, and featured the famous photograph of a wide-smiling Marilyn Monroe on its cover.





After leaving Esquire, Hefner, 26, took out a mortgage and raised more than $8,000 to finance his own magazine. It was originally supposed to be called Stag Party, but Hefner changed the name after trademark issues arose.

The magazine was called Playboy - translated from English - “naughty” or “rake”, “ladiesman”.

Marilyn didn't even pose for the magazine.

The cover of the first issue featured a photograph from an erotic calendar for 1949, which the model took when she was strapped for cash. Monroe took the photographs under the pseudonym "Mona Monroe" and received $50 for them.

Hefner, who was obsessed with Monroe, paid $500 for the rights to the photographs and placed the nude photograph on the magazine's front spread and the non-nude image on the cover.



The first issue, printed undated because Hefner did not know whether there would be a second, went on sale on December 1, 1953, for 50 cents.



And although Hugh Hefner was very worried about how readers would perceive the magazine, everything went well. In the first week, out of 70 thousand copies printed, 3/4 of the circulation were sold out

It became clear that the publication was expecting success



Then it happened like this: once a month the magazine published a photograph of a beautiful girl.





In addition to Marilyn Monroe, no less famous actresses, style setters, models posed for Playboy: Elizabeth Taylor, Cindy Crawford, Pamela Anderson, etc. The emblem and logo of the publication was the head of a rabbit.



The reason for the magazine's success is explained as follows: before the release of Playboy, men's magazines covered sports, tourism, yachts, and, at best, picnics in nature.

“We like our apartments,” said Hafner. “We like to mix cocktails, prepare delicious snacks, dress elegantly, invite women over and, with quiet music in the right mood, talk with them about Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex...

According to Hefner, the magazine promoted a sophisticated lifestyle.



And “about Picasso, about Nietzsche, about jazz” - and you could read about all of this in the magazine. Playboy began publishing short stories - this is how stories by writers Vladimir Nabokov, Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Fleming, Stanislaw Lem, James Baldwin, and other writers were published. Articles were published on fashion, sports, reviews of various products, jokes, articles about public figures: politicians, scientists, actors and musicians (where else could one read secular gossip?).



Interviews with famous people have appeared, including the most recent famous

an interview between John Lennon and Yoko Ono given to Playboy magazine correspondent David Schaff in the summer of 1980 (and Lennon was killed on December 8, 1980). Despite the fact that this is a magazine of a liberal orientation, interviews with comrade Yasser Arafat and the leader of the Cuban revolution Fidel Castro were published on its pages, and American senators talked about the senselessness of the war in Vietnam... Erotica and conversations “about sex” increasingly became the cover, the packaging that attracts readers.

An icon of the 20th century, the magazine made its founder, Hugh Hefner, an international star.



Hefner died on September 27, 2017 at the age of 91 and was buried in the crypt, for which he paid $75,000.

Over its 70-year publication history, Playboy has played an important rolerole in promoting the sexual revolution of the mid-20th century. He published writers and supported them to great acclaim—the 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury was published in 1954.



The iconic bunny logo and Hefner's Playboy mansion became associated with the magazine's particular brand of promiscuity, both good and bad. Many criticized the way the magazine sexualized women through the male gaze.

Just under three years later, on March 17, 2020, Playboy released its final print issue. Today he continues to publish, but only on the Internet.