Vintage Playgirl

VINTAGE THURSDAY



Playgirl is a monthly erotic lifestyle magazine published in the United States that features seminude or fully nude men. The magazine was founded in 1973 during the height of the feminist movement as a response to erotic men's magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse that featured similar photos of women.

Though the magazine is marketed to heterosexual women, Playgirl's then-editor-in-chief Michele Zipp said in 2003, "The gay readership is about 30%." She went on to add, "It's 'Entertainment for Women' because there's no other magazine out there that caters to women in the way we do, but we love our gay readers as well.

Mark Graff, stated that 50% of Playgirl's readership is gay males.

Throughout the history of the magazine, Playgirl featured male frontal nudity except for the early issues in 1973 and then the infamous non-nude year 1987.
In 1986, Carl Ruderman's Drake Publishers (later renamed Crescent, and renamed again to Blue Horizon Media) bought Playgirl and relocated it to New York. John Paul become the first full frontal centerfold in November 1987 after a disastrous non-nude year. Throughout the years the magazine has matured as erections, foreskin and non-Caucasian models have been shown in the magazine. The magazine generally featured models who have been circumcised but of late, layouts with uncircumcised models are featured.

Playgirl has not been successful in persuading many male celebrities to disrobe, nor have any of its nude models risen to major stardom in films; the most famous is likely Sam J. Jones who went on to play Flash Gordon in a 1980 film several years after his