Original subtitles

Playboy Playmates are the perfect balance of innocence and sensuality.

Their names and photographs are etched into the memories of millions of Playboy

readers.

It is an indelible honor that has been carried forth by more than 600 of the

world's most beautiful women.

As Playboy commemorates its golden anniversary, it seems appropriate to

embark on the ultimate trip down memory lane and celebrate 50 years of

Playmates.

In 1953, I dreamed up a magazine called Playboy. What a dream that turned out to

be.

In December of 1953,

Hugh Hefner published the first edition of Playboy.

In a time of repression and conformity, Playboy presented a revolutionary

perception of life that was both sophisticated and fun.

When we have fun, we try to have fun to the fullest degree. The same thing is

also true when we work. At the heart of that message is the Playmate of the

Month. Everybody likes Playmates because we're just the girl next door.

Thanks to the girls next door, Playboy has become a rite of passage for

generations of American men.

As Hef likes to say, The Playmate Phenomena is the stuff the dreams are

made of.

Playboy's beloved Playmates are an all-American dream come true.

Cheers!

Here's to you and me.

Everybody out there thinks that playmates are the most glamorous women

in the world.

We can win the day.

Show the way.

We've got the world before us.

These women are just the ultimate ideal of the perfect woman.

We can do it. Cheers.

We should make a toast.

They're blondes, brunettes, redheads, African-Americans, Asians, and

Hispanics. Being a playmate means you're part of the sexual revolution.

You're part of history.

From Marilyn Monroe to Pam Anderson, there's been some pretty legendary

playmates. Cheers.

Cheers to you and me.

They're mothers, wives, nurses, lawyers, actresses, athletes, entertainers.

and even social workers.

So many Playmates are business women or teachers.

You can be an intelligent, beautiful, sexual woman.

With all their diversity, these incredible women have one thing in

common. They're naked and they're beautiful.

Cheers!

Happy 50th anniversary, Playboy.

I'm not one to boast.

Happy 50th, Playboy.

But we can be the best. Happy 50th anniversary, Playboy. North, south,

east, or west. We'll go all the way. Stand or fall.

So cheers to us.

The legacy of the Playboy Playmates started 50 years ago when the first

issue landed on America's magazine stands.

This is the cover of issue number one with Marilyn Monroe here on the cover.

On its cover was the most famous woman in the world, Marilyn Monroe.

1953 was the year in which she really became a star.

So we had the hottest young star in Hollywood in our very first issue.

Hi. At the center of the magazine.

In what was then known as the sweetheart of the month was an infamous photograph

of Marilyn, owned by the John Baumgarth Calendar Company.

Everyone had heard about the picture, but very few had actually seen it. The

reason nobody had seen the picture is because the post office took the

position that nudity was obscene and could not be sent through the mail.

I'm the kid who didn't believe that the post office had that legal right. I

could not have picked into my wildest dreams the more perfect choice.

Oh, do you feel the breeze from the subway?

Isn't it delicious?

More than anyone else in our lifetime, Marilyn Monroe redefined American

sexuality. Her comment that all she had on was the radio was an attitude that

was so delightfully provocative that I think that it quite literally changed

the very notion of nudity. And I think that she was the first to say that, you

know, nudity is okay, and nice girls do like sex.

That's me, right there on the beach.

My hair was a little longer then. Did you notice?

No, actually, I didn't.

Heth will be the first to tell you that his lifelong love affair with Playmates

began with the pinup girls of his youth.

Well, I think being raised in a very typically...

Midwestern Methodist home with a lot of repression. I escaped into fantasy very

early on. When I was in my early teens, I fell in love with the cartoons in

Esquire magazine that became pinups and started collecting them. In 1944, Hef

enlisted in the army.

Like every other young man in the military, he had the usual necessities

in his footlocker, a uniform, a helmet and a pin-up i think that one of the

things that needs to be understood is how very important those images were to

the servicemen and they really represented the girl back home bob hope

suggested in one of his road shows this is what you're fighting for

upon

his return from the military hef was expecting to find a national party

reminiscent of the one that followed the second world war No such luck.

Instead, the 50s brought a rush to conservatism, personified by what some

came to call the Ike Age.

When the skirt's length went down instead of up, I really knew we were in

trouble. Hef decided to do something about it.

Playboy, to some extent, was a response to the conservative times in which we

lived. I was trying, in effect, through the magazine to throw a party.

Hugh got there early and often.

There was nothing going on. There was no game. We had the Sears catalog with the

bra section before Hugh came along.

In its first issue, the 27-year-old publisher wrote, If we are able to give

the American male a few extra laughs and a little diversion from the anxieties of

the atomic age, we'll feel we've justified our existence.

Playboy is much more than just a sex magazine.

It's a lifestyle magazine, and it's a magazine that says sex is fun, there's

nothing wrong with it, it's good to be sexually free, and isn't sex a great

thing? And I think that's why it's endured, because it goes a lot deeper

than just, hey, here's some naked chicks.

The centerfold evolved considerably during the magazine's early years.

In the second issue, Margie Harrison became the first woman to be designated

Playmate of the Month and granted the title Miss January.

It's a designation that stays with the Playmates for their entire lives.

They have a specific month and year, and they have it all to themselves.

And they are remembered by, you know, the fans and generations that grew up

with them forever in that time frame.

No one can ever take away your month and year. Once you're there, you're there

for life.

You know, it's your piece of time. It's only a month, but it's yours.

There's only so many women in the world in the past 50 years that can say, I'm a

Playmate.

The double-page Playmate spread made its appearance in the third issue, and for

the first year and a half, the centerfold pictures were supplied by

photo houses and freelance photographers.

Well, I think it was very much a hit-or-miss kind of proposition, I

think, to begin with. Freelance photographers submitted pictures to us.

Betty Page, one of the most famous pinups of all time, was shot by Bunny

Yeager in Florida.

Hal Adams and other photographers out on the West Coast taught various starlets

into posing.

That's how Jane Mansfield came to us before she actually had a film career.

The concept of the girl next door came to life when Playboy's subscription

manager, Janet Pilgrim, became the very first centerfold to be handpicked by Hef

and shot exclusively for the magazine.

I have the best of everything.

now that I have you.

We were sitting around in this little group. Hef was expressing that he was

having difficulty finding the type pictures and the caliber pictures that

he wanted.

So as a joke, someone said, oh, let's send Janet over to the photographers.

And everybody started to laugh, including me.

Then all of a sudden, everybody stopped laughing.

And the next thing I knew, I was Playboy's first girl next door playmate.

in July 1955.

With the

Playboy Centerfold, HEF sent America a message.

Nice girls like sex, too.

What I tried to do with Playboy was to create a men's magazine that was a

lifestyle publication that included a romantic connection with the opposite

sex as part of that. Instead of using Hollywood stars or glamour girls from

New York, the Playmates became the girl next door.

It's hard to imagine now, but at that time, that was revolutionary.

A real girl, not a professional new model, but a real girl who worked in the

office. next door, who lived down the block.

Hef has always wanted the readers to believe they could meet this girl

somewhere. You know, she lives in your neighborhood.

You'll see her at the grocery store.

You know, she's the girl that you play softball with. She's the girl in class.

She encompasses a lot of moral values. She's intelligent, outgoing.

She's beautiful, she's smart, she's friendly, and it's intriguing, and it's

sexy in the sense, and the fact that you get to see him with nothing on makes it

even better.

Most all guys want to be with that girl next door, the wholesome girl that you

can take home to mom, and I think that's maybe what Hef tries to portray with

each of the centerfolds.

Now that I have you.

In March of 1956, Playboy unveiled a feature that would revolutionize

magazine publishing, the three-page centerfold spread.

It was the first magazine, of course, that you literally turned sideways to

look at. And that became part of the mystique. And, of course, it put... the

very word centerfold into the language and gave it a whole new connotation.

To me, the centerfold has always been almost a poster work of art. It's an

image that has its own life.

It's like a painting. It's like a sculpture.

As the magazine celebrated its fifth anniversary, more than a million readers

were lining up to buy it every month.

Hef decided it was time to bring his playmates to national television.

Well, here we have Eleanor Bradley.

And Miss Joyce Nazari, two of our most popular playmates.

Playboy's Penthouse was based on the notion that it was a penthouse that was

my apartment.

And a great many people believed that it was my apartment, although it was

actually shot in a studio in Chicago.

I'm Hugh Hefner, editor-publisher of Playboy magazine, and your host. This is

Playboy's Penthouse. Come on in.

Chicago!

Chicago!

it was a very amusing and an interesting environment you know they didn't make a

big deal out of it you know we'd all be sitting around and all of a sudden you

see a guy come out with a clapper and next thing they have to say hello and

welcome to playboy's penthouse and then you say oh we're on the air

I saw a man and he danced with his wife in Chicago. Chicago became the center of

Heff's rapidly expanding empire, which in 1959 included the Playboy Mansion.

It was all indoors, and it was larger, actually, than the home that we have

here. And on the top floor, there was a bunny dormitory. And playmates or

potential playmates would come from other cities and would live at the

mansion while they were shooting. So there were always a number of very

attractive women living at the mansion.

The bunnies that would be staying upstairs, they'd come down in their

nightgowns, and they'd just be dancing around and having fun.

The girls' tops would kind of come off, and if one came off, then

the other girls would get a little bit jealous, so her top would come off, and

pretty soon people were almost naked.

You can keep Las Vegas.

Give me the Playboy in Chicago.

Man, this is my hometown.

In 1960, Playboy overflowed the magazine, the mansion, and the TV show

to come alive in Chicago's nightclub district at the very first Playboy Club.

The establishment was an instant success and served a dual purpose.

We found a lot of Playmates in the old days through the Playboy Club system.

It was like Disneyland.

If I could get in that Playboy Club, all dreams could come true.

Playmate Joyce Nazari was the door bunny on opening night.

I was a door bunny, and I worked at the first club on the first day it opened.

It was so crowded, and the line was so long of people waiting to get in. The

girls must have worked their, pardon the expression, tails off that day.

Some of the bunnies were actual playmates.

And in the playmate bar in the club, the centerfold pictures actually hung on the

wall. They were backlit.

I worked in the club, and then I was asked to be in the magazine.

Yes, that was the job they had in those days. I lived in the mansion, and I was

having the time of my life and probably didn't realize it.

As the Playboy clubs began to spread like rabbits, Hef came up with another

idea that would prove to be enormously popular, the Playmate of the Year.

I know an angel fell to earth the way that

angels sometimes do.

It was a good idea. People caught on. They had their favorites. They were

interested in it to see who Hef's favorite was.

And that became a signature item of the magazine.

I know I had a favorite dream The

way that people often do Your

Playmate of the Year is Joe Collins.

When I became Playmate of the Year, my picture was on TV with Miss America.

That's how important it was at that time.

Well, I think the best memory I will always have is when I was chosen

Playmate of the Year. I hadn't even dreamt about it.

And then it happened, the reality happened, and I'm still proud.

I mean, I'm always proud to be Playmate of the Year.

That's why I tell myself how lucky I must be.

Lucky, lucky me when I found you.

At my Playmate of the Year party, which was 1973,

I got a big kick out of Groucho Marx giving me a kiss.

I want you to meet the beautiful young woman who will represent Playboy as our

1977 Playmate of the Year, Miss Patti McGuire.

Patti, come on up.

When

I

found out I was Playmate of the Year, I was completely shocked.

I mean, I'm a girl from Bakersfield, had no modeling, I never thought I'd be in

Playboy.

To become a Playmate was such an honor. To become Playmate of the Year was like,

I still to this day don't even know how to express my feelings on it because I

was so overwhelmed.

My future's clear is where I belong.

When we're apart it makes me blue.

It almost breaks my heart in two.

That's why I tell myself how lucky I must be.

Playboy from the very beginning always had a kind of a retro romantic kind of

quality to it, and I think that's part of what defines Playboy.

So the notion of doing a playmate review and then picking one playmate and making

a playmate of the year seemed like a natural.

Lucky, lucky me when I found

Playmates are more than pictures on a page.

They're also human beings who have touched the hearts and minds of millions

of fans.

Each has her own story, and every centerfold is worth a thousand words.

Every centerfold does tell a story. It suggests that something has just

happened or something is about to happen, that there's this feeling of

anticipation.

The tradition dates back to Janet Pilgrim's first centerfold.

It is a picture of her.

at the vanity, getting ready to go out, and in the background, slightly out of

focus, is a man in a tuxedo with his back turned, and that's me.

When you create a centerfold, we try to put something in there that'll help tell

a story. You know, a pair of cufflinks, a cigar, a pair of shoes, a jacket,

something. It's like, oh, yeah, there's a guy in that room. That guy was me.

They weren't simply sterile photographs.

They weren't simply art studies.

They were beautiful women in an environment that suggested the presence

of a man.

As the age of Aquarius dawned, Playboy was on top of the world. The magazine's

art direction, photo layouts, and centerfolds captured the exuberance of

the times.

When we got into the 1960s, a number of things had occurred.

Nudity was now increasingly acceptable.

Oh, Calcutta and hair were on Broadway stages with frontal nudity.

Fashions changed. The miniskirt arrived.

Hot pants arrived.

See-through and topless bathing suits arrived.

And with those changing times, we had to decide how far to go with the nudity.

The earlier centerfolds, when you look back, seem very naive.

But I think those times mirrored how the girls looked, how we presented them,

because we were naive as well.

Playboy was so different then. My Playboy centerfold was I barely showed

one breast and my fanny. The 1960s were also an era of turbulence, free love,

the civil rights movement, political assassinations, and the Vietnam War. In

the rice paddies of Southeast Asia.

the Playboy centerfold had become the pinup for a new generation of American

GIs.

It was the Washington Post that made the point that Stars and Stripes was the

publication of World War II and Playboy really became the publication of the

Vietnam War. The Playmates became the pinups of the Vietnam War.

and they were the girls that the men in service hoped to come back to the

playboy bunny began appearing on military planes and helicopters and in

1965 playmate of the year joe collins brought the fantasy to life when she

personally delivered a lifetime subscription to a group of soldiers

fighting in southeast asia oh that was great that was just super i said i've

got to do that what an honor we had introduced a promotional concept in the

magazine in the middle 1960s in which it was possible for a reader to subscribe

for a lifetime subscription for $150.

So I got a letter from a lieutenant in Vietnam who said that his battalion had

put together a collection and had $150 and they wanted a lifetime subscription.

Now part of the promotion was that the first issue of a lifetime subscription

would be brought to you at your doorstep by a playmate.

And he wanted Joe Collins, our then Playmate of the Year, to deliver that

first issue in Vietnam.

The only thing that really scared me is when I got off the plane and 5,000 GIs

were standing around.

I was terrified.

They said, and why are you here, Ms. Collins?

And I said, I'm here to deliver a lifetime prescription.

They said, honey, we know you're with the Dr. Order. Now, why are you here?

Twenty years later, the men of the 173rd made Joe Collins their guest of honor at

a reunion in Washington, D.C.

At the event, a special greeting from two decades earlier was relived once

again. That was probably one of the single most important things in a very

mundane life filled with hardship.

To be able to talk to a female was just an unbelievable experience.

It was as though this angel had transcended to the earth for a brief

while.

Anytime you have young men who are at war, who are isolated in a strange

country, the Playmate is sort of that piece of home that they can hang on to,

that ideal.

And I suspect right now over in Iraq, there are guys that have Playboys stuck

in their duffel bags somewhere, and it's a reminder of some of the things about

America that they like. Not only the pretty girls, but the freedom to look at

pretty girls.

In August of 1964, China Lee became the first Asian-American Playmate.

A year later, former Playboy Bunny Jennifer Jackson made her debut.

I was the first Black Playmate in March 1965.

And at the time, there was a lot of race riots, and he was afraid to have me go

out in the field, because a lot of the colleges were in the South.

Playboy's commitment to ethnic diversity amongst the Playmates wasn't always

popular.

We got a lot of letters and people said, we want the magazine to stay a white

magazine, you know. And our aim was to appeal to a diverse audience.

I'm sure that was controversial in some quarters, but I think that's part of

what Playboy was all about.

I think it's a great thing. You know, Playboy is derived from a certain look,

you know, the bodacious blonde.

slamming body.

But I think over the years, Playboy has grown to appreciate the fact that women

are beautiful any kind of way that they come.

The most important thing you need to be a Playmate is personality.

Since the magazine's earliest days, Playmates have all agreed that the

experience is empowering.

It's fun. It's exciting.

I think that it's fantastic, and I applaud all these women that have the

confidence and that have the amazing bodies. If I had a body like those

girls, I would be flashing all day long.

They're so beautiful. And when somebody has a perfect body, why not show it? I

think that people who are against it are just jealous.

Don't mess with me.

I think the fact that... women are able to get out there and do what they want

and be sexually free is in itself powerful.

See those?

I'm going to try something really different.

Nudity is okay. It's not a bad thing. Sex is not bad.

And I think that Playboy has opened this country up to that.

i'm really happy to be a part of it

playboy

was in perfect sync with the cultural diversity of the 1960s

hess decided it was the ideal opportunity to

bring the magazine's good time philosophy back to television with

playboy after dark playboy after dark 0022 take one

Playboy After Dark was really just a Hollywood full-color version of

Playboy's Penthouse. It appeared to be a party in my apartment.

And the shows were syndicated and hugely popular.

The series featured celebrity guests, live music, and a constant parade of

playmates.

One of the show's most popular was a buxom brunette named Cynthia Myers.

Welcome. I'm Hugh Hefner, your host. This is Cynthia Myers, our December

Playmate of the Month.

It was a great deal of fun. We would all join Hef over there for conversation and

music and good times.

And it was just a constant surprise.

Meeting new people, fascinating people.

And it was spontaneous, so you had this feeling that it was a party.

Well,

it's hard not to see those shows and not think about Cynthia Myers.

She was remarkably well-endowed, and she first wrote to me when she was 16 years

old. Everybody in her high school told her she should be a playmate.

And I responded and said, write again in two years. And she did, and she came,

and she posed and was hugely popular.

Cynthia Myers is just one of many American teenage girls who grew up

dreaming of becoming a Playboy Playmate.

Thank you for being you.

Well, since I was a little girl, I wanted to become a Playmate. I used to

see the magazines at my dad's house, and I would open those magazines and I'd

think, I hope I grow up to look like that someday.

I've never met a woman that doesn't secretly wish they'd been in Playboy

once. They make every woman look fantastic, and that is how every woman

should look.

I just love the pictures. I always wanted to be the girl, you know, in the

magazine. I feel like I'm a part of the American history a little bit.

Bank in Dayton, Ohio, to appearing on the covers of magazines all over the

world.

From the very beginning, becoming a Playmate is more than simply a photo

assignment. It changes lives.

Of course, being a Playmate changes your life forever.

I mean, you are everyone's fantasy girl for that month.

And everyone from rock stars to producers to the elite of the elite in

Hollywood wants you at their parties, wants to meet you. And now with the

Internet, Playmates are becoming legends in their own right.

I just always wanted to do it ever since I was 14.

I did it actually out of spite because my boyfriend told me I couldn't do it.

So I said, yeah, I can.

For whatever reason, whatever purpose, this is their dream. I'd love to tell

you we're looking for something different.

We're looking for something else than we have been for 50 years, but we're still

looking for that girl next door.

As the 1960s came to a close, Hef was a busy guy.

He was running the magazine out of Chicago and hosting the TV show in Los

Angeles. When the commute became a hassle, he did what only Hugh Hefner

could do.

He bought a jet, painted it black, and called her the Big Bunny.

No one ever painted a plane black before, and that really set it apart. It

became the most famous.

private plane in the world we got faa approval to put lights on the wings

that lit the tail with the rabbit on it so you what you literally saw at night

was you saw the playboy rabbit flying through the sky as one might expect the

ultimate playboy outfitted his flying limousine with the ultimate accessories

jet bunnies many of whom went on to become playmates

The stewardesses on the plane were jet bunnies, and they were dressed in kind

of a black wet look that was rather reminiscent of the James Bond girls of

that time frame.

Some of them were indeed playmates.

And being a jet bunny was all part of the magic.

With Playboy After Dark flying high, Hef was spending more and more time in

California. Even with the big bunny at his disposal, the commute was tiring.

So on February 3rd, 1971, he purchased a 30-room mansion on a five-and-a-half

-acre site in the exclusive Holmby Hills district of L.A. This is home? Ooh,

mighty nice.

Under Heff's direction, the estate was transformed into his personal Shangri

-La, an exotic refuge populated by the world's most beautiful women, Playboy

Playmates. It's like a dream. You pull up, you come in, and you just can't

believe that somebody lives this kind of life. Where there's beautiful women just

walking everywhere. I mean, I was just like, look at everywhere you look.

Gorgeous women, gorgeous bodies.

People stripping off clothes and jumping in the pool.

Just anywhere you look in the mansion, there is something going on.

It's almost overwhelming because you're seeing all these beautiful girls, all

these beautiful outfits, all these people that you've seen on television

and you're like standing right next to them. So it's just, it's kind of mind

-boggling.

When I first became a playmate, the best thing about being a playmate was you

could come to the mansion anytime you wanted and have lunch and sunbathe in

the nude, get a tan, work out, watch a movie, hang out with stars like Jimmy

Conn and Tony Curtis. I mean, you couldn't do that anywhere else. And they

were just enamored with you because you were a playmate.

What's so great about the mansion is that you can be so uninhibited. You can

wear anything and you look fantastic. You can wear nothing and everybody's

like, yeah, take a picture with me.

I mean, the sexier, the more sheer, the more next to nothing, the better. This

is the Playboy Mansion.

We used to streak naked down the hallways and see if anybody would bust

us. And it was fun. It was just kind of childish pranks, throw water balloons

off the roof and spy on people.

The word is free.

People feel free.

You know what my favorite pool moment is? It's just being up here with the

girls when we're laying out nude and nobody's up here and it's just kind of

like our private sanctuary and we can do whatever we want.

I can't think of one girl that hasn't done that, especially in the midnight,

you know, skinny dipping underneath the grotto. There's a cave there. You can

slide underneath the waters, come out on the other side.

Cool, refreshing, very sexy.

If Playmates were asked to vote for their all-time favorite spot at the

mansion, the hands-on favorite would surely be the grotto.

The grotto is what everybody thinks of when they think of Playboy.

It's like a cave-like area inside the swimming pool area where there's three

different hot tubs. And that's kind of where the more wild crowd kind of

congregates after midnight.

So you walk in there and you see nude guys, new women, all doing different

sorts of things.

And that's the ultimate Playboy experience.

Have created a Garden of Eden.

And in that Garden of Eden,

We were able to experience anything we wanted in the safety of his realm

Hugh Hefner may be the luckiest man in the world,

but playboys photographers run a close second

It's a wonderful job. We shoot the best locations, we've seen the best hotels,

the best restaurants, leading the Playboy lifestyle.

That's been a real honor to me, to be able to experience life with a Playboy

card in your back pocket. It's really been a wild ride. It really has. It's

been quite the ride.

Stephen Wada and the man who has shot more centerfolds than anyone else, Arnie

Freytag, all possess that secret something that enables them to get the

most beautiful women in the world to take their clothes off.

In the old days, in the 50s and the 60s and even into the 70s, part of the

photographer's talent was in convincing the girl to take her clothes off. And no

one was better at that than Pompeo.

You know, I like your expression very much.

He was the ultimate charmer. He was our Marcello Mastroianni on staff, the

Italian stud.

You know, he was so handsome and so dashing.

Pompeo Pizarro was my photographer, and all the time he used to shoot me. I'd be

lying there nude, and he would say, don't you ever talk? I was really shy.

I got over it.

Each of the Playboy photographers have their own style.

and each relate to the playmates in their own special way.

The relationship between a photographer and a playmate is very interesting. Keep

in mind, these girls are not models. They've never been photographed before,

ever.

We've had girls come in here, they're so nervous about doing this, they almost

can't stand up. They're literally shaking, and that's the first thing you

do is...

put people at ease, make them relax, make them feel comfortable, make them

feel pretty. These aren't professional models.

We're working with the girl next door.

I think we

kind of create playmates, if you will. They literally explode

with... personality beauty sexuality and i think a lot of that comes from

confidence as

playboy rang in the 1970s

hef stumbled upon a novel way to double the impact of the playboy centerfold

twins well we weren't consciously looking for them but certainly when they

arrived we were very pleased to have them and we knew it was a real

Innovation, two for the price of one. The only problem was how to get two

girls into that centerfold format, but we managed to do it.

Playboy's fascination with the sister act continued over the years.

In 1998, the magazine outdid itself with its first set of triplets.

Hi, I'm Jacqueline. I'm Erica. And I'm Nicole, and we're the Dom triplets.

I was a young kid when I first saw Playboy and I think it had a definite

effect upon my scale of acceptability for women and it made me have a very

high threshold for what was acceptable.

I mean, it set very high standards for men.

In the 1970s, au naturel became natural.

Frontal nudity was finally considered acceptable.

In January 1971, Liv Lindeland became the first playmate to reveal a hint of

pubic hair.

When he saw the picture, he just said, let's put her in January and let's make

it a playmate of the year. He says, I'm taking a chance, and it was a good

chance he took.

Liv Lindelen was the first Playmate centerfold that displayed just a little

wisp of pubic hair. And at that time, that was revolutionary.

You know, oh my gosh, they just didn't do that.

I'll never forget the first Playboy where they actually went for pubic hair.

It was a big moment in Playboy, and it changed everything, that moment.

In the latter, 1960s and early 1970s, there was a great deal of controversy

over hippies, long hair, and I suggested that there are people in America who

truly believe that hair is going to be the downfall of Western civilization.

Long hair on the hippies and pubic hair on the playmates.

And, of course, civilization managed to survive.

Anybody that has been lucky enough to spend time with a Playboy Playmate knows

that everyone is special.

Some are from big cities.

Most come from small towns.

Each has a story.

From the very beginning, we told a story about who the Playmates were and

certainly the Janet Pilgrim.

Girl Next Door concept was very much a part of that.

In an effort to present a more complete portrait of the girls, Hef created the

Playmate data sheet.

I'd like to begin the data sheet page in the Playmate feature with the July

issue. Sandra Theodore was the first Playmate to receive the honor.

I was sitting in the meeting when Hef said, well, I want to have a data sheet.

At the time when I was sitting there, I was going to go, a data sheet?

Who wants to see that?

But he understood that, again, that that was a chance to personalize each of the

features. You'd see her handwriting.

You'd see what her turn-ons were. You'd get another little personal glimpse and

insight into her, and we put the little pictures that each girl supplies us from

her life, her graduation picture, her cheerleading picture from college, some

little piece of her life.

This is going to work well.

The data sheet wasn't the only innovation that summer.

Hef also decided that Sandra should be the first playmate profiled in a behind

-the-scenes film.

You know, Sandra really personifies the sort of fresh, wholesome beauty we're

looking for. You know, the typical girl next door. The girl next door?

Boy, do I live in the wrong neighborhood.

These remarkable women have not only made Playboy a publishing phenomenon...

They've also helped to change the way the world thinks about sex.

I think the centerfold has changed society's perception of sexuality by

making it not as taboo.

I don't think that sexuality is anything to hide at all.

I think that you should be able to express your sexuality. It's such a big

part of our lives, so why hide it?

There's nothing wrong with sex, and that's the whole Playboy philosophy in a

nutshell.

Hef's idea of sex and Glamour Puss Playmates was that it was a healthy

thing.

From the beginning, the notion with Playboy was to try to incorporate sex as

a natural part of living life.

And the Playmates are the center of all of that. The Playmates are the romantic

connection. for a male audience with the opposite sex and i think that is what

has made the magazine so hugely popular and we wouldn't be here without him

that's got a lot of ideas about the um yeah philosophical end but i tell you

what i just remember getting hold of a playboy when i was like 12 years old and

just i couldn't get into my bathroom fast enough

Choosing a favorite playmate isn't easy, but who says you have to have just one?

Well, I've got two. I think Jenny and Pamela.

Hmm, who is my favorite playmate? That's a tough one.

Okay, who's yours?

Patty Farinelli. I got two reasons.

the left one and the right one i'm a boob man it makes me more of a guy

doesn't it i would have to say my favorite playmate is probably

betty page i can vividly remember being younger

and seeing deborah joe fondren's pictorial it was amazing

she's in a hallway and it's backlit and she's combing her hair

It just burned into my brain, that image.

I don't have a favorite Playmate.

They're all good.

It's like trying to choose a favorite song or a favorite memory. You just

can't do it.

When the time came for Playboy to celebrate its silver jubilee, the

magazine launched a nationwide talent search to find the 25th anniversary

playmate.

We came up with this idea, we'll do a nationwide search to find the 25th

anniversary playmate. But once you start doing the search, and I think we had 10

,000 women, something like that, come in. We went to 25 cities and, you know,

who's pretty enough to be this special girl?

That special girl was Candy Loving. That's it. Beautiful.

Candy, it looks fabulous.

I remember we had a guy work for me. Mike Berry was down in Oklahoma City

doing a search down there. And he called me that. And he says, I think I got her.

I think this girl might be it. And sure enough, he was right.

Right there.

And I said, what's her name? He said, Candy Loving. I said, no, no, her real

name. He said, no, that's her real name. I'm not kidding.

Is her first name Candace? She was a college student.

And one could hardly believe that Candy Loving was a real name, but it was.

I have the privilege of introducing to you the 25th anniversary playmate, Ms.

Candy Loving. To mark this milestone in Playboy's history, Hef returned to his

roots in Chicago, where he threw the first of many celebrations.

However, it was the Los Angeles mansion that played host to a huge 25th

anniversary reunion party with 136 playmates and hundreds of friends.

It's a celebration, so come on!

Let's celebrate!

If you're going to have a family reunion, this is really the way to do

it.

The 25th anniversary was the very first time that we invited all the playmates

from the first quarter of a century to join us in a party, and it was

wonderful.

Janet Pilgrim was there, who I had not seen for a very long time, and looking

delicious. When I walked in, I never dreamed that after 25 years, people

would remember who Janet Pilgrim was. I was so overwhelmed and so taken back by

the attention that I received.

It was an incredible experience.

At the 25th anniversary party, Hef made a statement about the Playmates that

went to the core of the Playboy empire.

Without you, I'd have a literary magazine.

The ongoing joke is I only buy it for the articles.

The reality is that indeed, the magazine runs uncommonly good fiction and non

-fiction. But it is the Playmates that set the magazine apart.

Your 25-year anniversary reunion for all of the girls, how does that make you

feel? Like a very proud papa.

A byproduct of the 25th anniversary Playmates search was the discovery of an

18-year-old Canadian beauty.

named Dorothy Stratton.

But Dorothy is really quite unique.

She is something rather special.

Something special, very special.

I had a very motherly attitude towards Dorothy. I took her to the mansion. I

introduced her to Hap. She'd never been on a plane, never been in a limo, and

came in and sat there. I don't think she said anything.

She was so special, and everyone wanted to take care of her.

Dorothy Stratton would go on to become 1980's Playmate of the Year.

It is almost impossible to describe what a very special person she was and how

much she was loved by so many people. I would like to thank the half who has

made me probably the happiest girl in the world today. Thank you.

A short time later, she was dead.

I think one of the great tragedies in the history of Playboy is the death of

Dorothy Stratton.

Killed by an estranged husband just a very few months after she accepted her

Playmate of the Year crown.

It was the beginning of what turned out to be a particularly difficult decade

for me and for the magazine.

As you can see, she is quite a lady.

But there's a lot more than what you see here.

Thanks in part to the freewheeling disco culture of the 1980s, the nation's

political climate began to swing to the right.

led by Attorney General Edward Meese and Charles Keating's Citizens for Decent

Literature. In cities and towns all across the country, Playboy was yanked

off the magazine rack.

The 1980s was in its own way even more conservative than the 50s, certainly in

terms of Playboy.

What had a huge effect on the magazine.

It cut us off from some of our distribution centers.

They lobbied against 7-Eleven. They put political pressure on advertisers.

They were taking my issue off the newsstands at the 7-Elevens.

Sex and the images of sex became very controversial in the 1980s.

Despite the conservative times, Playboy's readers remained loyal,

largely due to the fact that the centerfold had become an American

institution.

It is sort of an American institution.

It is one of those things that separates this country from all other countries.

The Playmate is a symbol. She's a guide. She's an inspiration.

They freed American women in the Main Street.

They've sort of said to American women that it's okay to have fun with sex and

it's okay to have fun with love and it's about freedom and living life to the

full. I'm ready!

I sound a bit odd, but I love titties. And as a kid, I used to look at the

magazine and look at all these girls' perfect titties and think, oh dear,

God's not been kind to me.

In September of 1985, Playboy said goodbye to a staple of the magazine when

Venise Kong became the last Playmate to have a staple in her centerfold.

When you work on a centerfold, there's a number of restrictions.

One is the side. It's a long, narrow photograph.

The other problem is where the staple seems to be.

You know, we don't use staples anymore, but you don't want a staple going

through her face or, you know, her rear end or her breasts, you know. So that

was a problem for many years, you know, where they go on a girl's body.

Miss January 1988 was a gorgeous and unassuming playmate named Kimberly

Conrad.

Kimberly was a knockout.

She had a reserve and a class and a style about her that captivated

everyone. Her playmate data sheet mentioned that she liked guys in tight

jeans, but she soon fell for one in pajamas, and he was equally smitten by

her. She is one of the most loving, one of the most giving, one of the most

understanding, one of the most unpretentious women in the whole world.

And I think maybe that was one of the reasons, too, that Hef fell in love with

her. Good night.

Happy New Year. Happy New Year.

On July 23, 1988, Hef popped the question in front of the wishing well at

Playboy Mansion West.

The marriage ceremony took place a year later.

People magazine promptly proclaimed, hell freezes over.

We were married in the front yard by a Defrock priest at the Wishing Well where

I had proposed to her. And we held the celebration in the backyard.

And it was a very special day.

The arrival of the 1990s was heralded in the pages of Playboy magazine by Pamela

Anderson. She quickly became the single most popular blonde since Marilyn

Monroe. I see a connection between Pamela and Marilyn Monroe because

they're both, among other things, baby-faced blondes. In addition to

everything else, Pamela is somebody like Marilyn Monroe who never has forgotten

the connection with Playboy and recognizes and was the turning point in

her life.

She came out here originally simply, you know, to do a cover.

And then we had to talk her into becoming a centerfold. And then, of

course, once she did it, we couldn't keep her clothes on.

With Playboy as her springboard, this fresh-faced beauty from Ladysmith,

British Columbia, became a multimedia phenomenon.

There's just something about Pam Anderson and Playboy and a playmate that

just all goes together.

Ham is my idea of the sexiest woman alive.

She is a hot tamale, and she just oozes sex.

I remember being in the hallway one day with her, and she came in with a little

Angora sweater, you know, and that blonde hair. You know, I about dropped

dead.

Well, I do think there was a moment in time in which she was the most famous

blonde on the planet.

I love Ham.

This is a really important part of my life, and no one can ever take that away

from me. I never planned any of it, so it's bizarre.

Kind of like being center square in Hollywood Squares.

Pam Anderson signaled the arrival of a new kind of playmate.

One that would use her moment in the sun to achieve national stardom. I think

today you see more young women who are using the opportunity of becoming a

playmate to further their career.

It's funny, some girls do Playboy and then you never hear from them again, and

other girls use it as a platform and take off.

Women come to Playboy and want to become Playmates for a variety of reasons. It

often has to do with the matter of wanting to change their lives, getting

away from home, getting out of a bad relationship, aspirations in terms of a

career. That was true from very early on. Of course, it's more true now than

ever before.

Many of the playmates quickly discovered that the pages of the magazine often

lead to network television.

Baywatch was doing quite well before we employed girls from Playboy. But then we

found out that once Playboy got involved, it just opened up a whole new

audience for us.

And Pamela Anderson and Gina Lee Nolan and Yasmeen Bleeth and Tracy Bingham and

Marlise Anderson and about 9,000 other girls.

I've now either done Playboy or come from Playboy.

Four decades had passed since Hef first offered his blueprint to the good life.

Just as times had evolved, so had the Playboy centerfold.

While the pictorial still celebrated the girl next door, an increasing number of

them began to embrace fashion trends that would have been unthinkable in the

past. I think within the context of nude photography, you can still see the

change in cultural styles in hair and makeup and et cetera. And of course, one

of the more recent innovations is the arrival of silicone and the arrival of

tattoos and the piercing of various body parts.

But, you know, tastes change.

And nice girls not only like sex, but some nice girls like tattoos.

I remember the first girl that came in who had no pubic hair. She'd shaved it

all off.

And a photographer was testing her, and he came running in my office. She says,

no pubic hair.

When the girls decided pubic hair was passe, I was astonished. And I go, wait

a minute. What, did a newsletter go out to all the young women in America

saying, shave your pubic hair off? I don't know.

I remember Pam Anderson had done a pictorial, and she didn't want any. So

they have said, if it's good enough for Pam, it's good enough for us.

As in earlier years, Playmates continued to push the boundaries of American pop

culture. These days, their portal to this brave new world is Playboy.com.

Well, I do think that it is technology, and most especially television and the

Internet, that have made sex commonplace and the images of sex much more

acceptable. And it is why Puritans will not be able to put sex back into the

bottle. Thanks to the Internet, in 1998, members of the Playboy Cyber Club were

able to ring in the new year with Hef and the Playmates at the Playboy Mansion

West.

Kimberly Hefner was not in attendance.

The couple had separated earlier that year.

A few months later, Hef's pals arranged a coming-out birthday bash to celebrate

his bachelorhood. The parties have been in full swing ever since.

You know, I think when you think of playboying, you think of lifestyle.

I think you have to kind of look at Hef's life. In the 60s and 70s, Hef did

the wild party era. And in the 80s, he was married and a family man for a good

part of the 90s. And it was the latter part of the 90s that once again, he

became kind of the party guy.

Hef even found time to make a guest appearance on the hit TV show, Sex in

the City.

Hugh, hi.

I'm Samantha Jones.

Hello. I just wanted to tell you, I'm a huge fan.

Well, in that case, join us for a drink. A drink? That'd be great. Oh, well,

thank you.

Seriously?

Oh, drinking with three blondes, I...

I guess that's just a regular day for you.

A slow one, yes.

The bunny was back in a very big way, so Hef decided to throw a Playboy-style

blowout in celebration of the new millennium and the Chinese Year of the

Rabbit. He is really more a party animal today than he has ever been in his life.

He's out there nightclubbing in a way that I've never seen him before in my

life. He's having a wonderful, wonderful time.

We're celebrating our 45th anniversary in the coming millennium, Playboy 2000,

and it is the year of the rabbit.

And I was looking for kind of a special way to celebrate that event.

One of the main highlights in the celebration were the Playboy bunnies.

I absolutely love the fact that the bunny outfit's back.

It's beautiful, it's kitschy, it's fun.

You know what it is the minute you see it.

The weekend was also the perfect excuse for a Playmate reunion.

The notion of having a playmate reunion and a Playboy Expo all rolled into one

seemed like an inspired idea for the girls, for the magazine, and for the

fans. The three-day party was the largest gathering of playmates in the

history of the magazine.

I always like to tell people I knew Hugh Hefner before I was Hugh Hefner.

It is one for the memory books. Five decades of playmates, a trip for me down

memory lane. I wouldn't...

want to be in any other place on the planet than right here.

The reunion personified one of Playboy's fundamental principles.

Once a playmate, always a playmate. Shortly right after my issue got off the

stands, I'm like, that's it. My issue's off the stands. I'm like, next girl's

up.

And Hef looks at me and he's like, darling, once a playmate, always a

playmate.

There's no such thing as a former playmate. It's a title that the women

carry, most of them quite proudly, for the rest of their lives.

It's like being in a sorority in life.

And for the rest of my life, no one will have the title of Miss July 1998.

It's a title that you can't take away. Once playmate, always a playmate. You

always have that title, and there is no other Miss May 1998 in the world. And

that's cool.

There's only 12 a year, you know, that's not many and there's thousands of girls

trying for this So half of those take to the attitude that if you're a planet

you're in this family forever These are also girls that

a couple months ago We're living in the middle of Iowa and then all of a sudden

they get put on the world spotlight and that can be an intimidating thing You

know who better to work with than someone who just went through that exact

same experience and was that girl?

a year or two or four or 20 years ago.

It's a sisterhood. And I think that the women feel that connection. They feel

that connection to Playboy. They feel that connection to me. And I think the

readers feel that connection as well.

Playmates are forever.

Playmates have inspired the dreams of a half century of American men and women.

Very nice.

That desire manifest itself in the hit TV show, Who Wants to Be a Playboy

Centerfold? Well, if you're going to do a reality show and you're going to watch

a group of young people living together in a house, what is better than watching

a group of Playmate candidates vying for the honor?

Hello there.

And welcome. I think America was so fascinated with the reality show, The

Search for a Playboy Center, because just to kind of see the process, nobody

has really seen the inside story on how things work, how playmates are chosen.

So America got to see that, and I think it was exciting. It was a good show.

I think all three of these girls are playmates.

I have to pick one for our July issue, and that's a tough one.

When it was all said and done, Hef picked Lauren Anderson to be Miss July

2002. The beginning of a grand adventure.

The TV show heralded Playboy's rapidly approaching golden anniversary.

In preparation for this monumental event, Hef launched a nationwide search

to find the perfect playmate.

Quite a lot of pressure to find the bookend to Marilyn Monroe.

I don't think any girl wakes up and looks in the mirror and say, Yeah, 50

years later, I could be Marilyn Monroe.

And that's what we were looking for.

I think we went through about 10,000 candidates in the search for the 50th

anniversary playmate.

We had some fascinating alternatives to choose from. We had a set of triplets

from the Midwest. We had an American Indian. We had a pair of really striking

twins from Brazil.

Four months of non-stop testing every single day. Different set, different

girl, six days a week. It was havoc around here. Some people liked this

girl, and some people liked that girl, and there wasn't a consensus.

And then I got pictures about a week before deadline of this cute little

blonde that reminded me of Tuesday World. And I looked at her, and I

thought, my God.

With the deadline looming, Colleen Shannon was chosen to be Playboy

Magazine's 50th anniversary centerfold.

Cheer.

We should make a toast.

I'm not one to boast.

But we can be the best east or west. I didn't really know who we were going to

choose until the very last minute.

And then this baby-faced blonde came in, Colleen Shannon, who had very much a

kind of a Pam Anderson, Marilyn Monroe look about her. And that seemed like a

wonderful story.

So cheap!

She is sure cute.

And I think Colleen still represents the girl next door.

Over the past 50 years, The Playmate has become an indelible aspect of America's

cultural landscape.

A sexy, optimistic, romantic exploration of all of the possibilities that life

has to offer.

Playboy is much more than just a sex magazine.

It's a philosophy and about a belief system that really honestly says it's

okay to be a man. It's okay to be sexual.

It's okay to look at girls. It's okay for girls to be looked at.

It's okay to be free about all this stuff. And I think that's why it's

endured. That's the reason it's going to last another 50 years.

In its sixth decade, Playboy continues to be the most respected men's magazine

in the world.

a fact that can be attributed largely to the popularity of the playmates.

I've always had the belief that it's completely acceptable to be extremely

sexy and be absolutely intelligent, a strong and powerful woman, and that

posing in Playboy does not detract from that at all.

Actually, it enhances that.

Well, it is remarkable, after half a century, that Playboy continues to be

the largest selling, most popular, most influential men's magazine in America

and the world.

It is the stuff that dreams are made of. It is a magazine that fuels dreams and

fantasies and becomes an extension of the reader and who they would like to

be. And that is a very powerful engine that drives the company.

Through all the changes of the past 50 years, one thing remains the same.

We were talking about Hef the other day about when he got started working on the

kitchen table, you know, in his pajamas in his house and stuff and laboring over

the magazine.

And I was thinking, well, 50 years have gone by and the mansions and the

limousines and the celebrities and all that stuff.

And Hef is still at his little table in his pajamas laboring over the magazine.

It's what he loves most. And the centerfold is kind of at the center of

that whole fantasy.

As Playboy looks forward to the next generation of Playmates, the magazine's

fans can rest assured the centerfold will always be Hef's vision of the girl

next door.

The buck ends here. That's a very pretty face. I think that's a job I would be

not inclined to give up.

When I was a kid growing up in Chicago with my brother Keith, ours was the

house where the neighborhood kids came to play.

As you can see, nothing's changed.

Happy 50th birthday, Playboy.