Playboy #1

Trivia · 7 facts

• Published December 1953 by HMH Publishing Co.; deliberately printed without a cover date because founder Hugh Hefner was uncertain a second issue would follow.
• First appearance of the 'Sweetheart of the Month' feature, the inaugural version of what would become the magazine's signature 'Playmate of the Month' centerfold format.
• Cover image shows Monroe waving; the interior nude centerfold used a previously unpublished image of her on a red velvet background, selected by Hefner as the most striking of the available shots.
• Literary and text content included contributions by Norman Holland, Bob Norman, William March, and Ambrose Bierce, plus an article on Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey — establishing from the first issue the editorial policy of mixing serious fiction and journalism with pictorial content.
• Hugh Hefner's name does not appear anywhere inside the issue, making it unique within the entire run of the magazine.
• The 44-page issue carried a cover price of 50 cents and sold approximately 53,000–54,000 copies on its initial newsstand run.
• The series ran continuously from 1953 through 2020 (with format changes), making it one of the longest-running men's magazines in American publishing history; the title also spawned numerous Special Editions beginning in 1963 and a separate comics/cartoon anthology tradition that ran through the Little Annie Fanny strip (Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder, 1962–1988).