The First Issue of Playboy, Vol. 1, No. 1, December 1953, featuring the Marilyn Monroe Centerfold

The First Issue of Playboy, Vol. 1, No. 1, December 1953, featuring the Marilyn Monroe Centerfold Playboy: Entertainment for Men. Volume 1, number 1 (December 1953). Original wrappers printed in black and red. Encapsulated by CGC with restored grade of 7.5 (of-white to white pages). Condition notes include color touch, pieces added, tear seals, cover reinforced, cover cleaned, cover and 8th wrapper married. Entrepreneur Hugh Hefner was instrumental in starting the sexual revolution when he published the first men's adult entertainment magazine, Playboy. Along with that landmark, he created the Playboy Clubs and established himself as King of the Playboy Mansion, creating an empire the likes of which had never been seen up to that time. As a canny businessman, he recognized a publicity coup when a scandal broke in 1952 pertaining to Marilyn Monroe, then an up-and-coming film star, who had posed nude anonymously for a men's calendar in the early years of her career when she was broke. Hefner obtained the rights to publish the nude portraits in the first issue of Playboy magazine, which also featured Monroe on the cover. Monroe had no say in the matter; she had forfeited her rights to the nude photos to the photographer, Tom Kelley, at the time they were taken. But Monroe was open about sexuality and not ashamed of the photos; indeed, in the charming way she had of finding humor in everything, when a reporter asked her if she had anything on when the photos were taken, she said, 'the radio.' Interestingly, Hefner bought the crypt next to Marilyn Monroe at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles many years before his death and was finally buried there when he died in 2017. Case: 9.5 x 14 in. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing