The year was 1953.
Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in as president. For the first time, color television was commercially available. Ian Fleming released his first James Bond novel. As far as introductions go, a solid year. But we’d argue the 1953’s most important debut came courtesy of one Hugh M. Hefner.
That was the year Hefner put Marilyn Monroe on the cover of his new magazine, thereby simultaneously making her a cultural icon and Playboy’s first Playmate of the Month.
Since then, more than 700 nude centerfolds (including repeats) have found their way onto the cover and into the middle of Hefner’s magazine and we’d guess you haven’t seen all of them. To remedy this, Playboy collected every single Playmate of the Month from 1953 to February 2016 — 734 in all — and put them into an 844-page hardcover tome for your coffee table.
Featuring a foreword by Hefner and essays from Dave Hickey, Robert Coover, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Maureen Gibbon and others, Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds “perfectly captures the complete cultural and aesthetic arc of the Playboy centerfold.”
Playboy is selling the book for $75, but you can preorder it on Amazon using Prime prior to its September release date for the reduced price of $49 for a limited time.
Don’t bother pretending it’s for the articles.
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