Stuart was given a huge collection of vintage Playboys some time ago and over the weekend I went through a pile of them and saved a few for my own collection of vintage books and mags.
I can't say that I've looked through a contemporary Playboy recently, but I wouldn't imagine that out of 100 pages only 9 include playmate photos. In the 1950's and 60's editions there are only 9 pages devoted to the type of images Playboy is renowned for. The rest of the magazine features interesting articles and interviews, fashion and sometimes even recipes. Yes, recipes! Maybe they did really buy it for the articles. And of course the playmate photos are very tame by today's standards - everything below the waist is covered and the poses are very modest.
The old Playboy covers are beautiful and have a 'Where's Wally' aspect to them: the shape of the Playboy logo (the bunny head silhouette) features somewhere on each cover. Sometimes it's very obvious, but more often than not it's subtle and clever - it could be a shadow, bubbles or a bow on a suspender belt. Can you can see it on the 1963 cover above? I'll give you the answer at the end of this post.
I love the style and colour of these old magazines - the illustration (check out the fab Losing my Hair image below), fashion and ads are fabulous. 
Spot the bunny logo on the 1963 cover: it's the glove on the driver's seat.
Vintage Playboy magazines
20 October 2008
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