lyle wagonner was the first centerfold in playgirl magazine.

However, I discovered that by end of Playgirl’s extremely successful first year of publication, the less is more tactic became no more. However, this wasn’t always the case, as a couple of actors did ask to have more explicit photo shoots. Originally, most of the actors did not reveal everything, with arms and other things covering up the proper business. She also said looking at the naked male was healthy, because viewing male nudity was, until the more liberating 70s, a secretive practice which was now being flounced around for everyone and their grandmothers to ogle over. Hollywood-gossip-columnist-turned-Playgirl-centerfold-booker Toni Holt hated the word beefcake and she didn’t care how good your body was if you had “dead eyes” (which means Jaws wouldn't have been able to pose). He said (and I quote) “they did it for the exposure.” Sometimes the jokes just write themselves! Playgirl was popular enough that Penthouse spawned its own imitator called Viva, after Bob Guccione declared naked men as “lewd.”

Yikes! But now that I’m older and, uh, better equipped for this sort of thing, I’ve been getting nostalgic for the decade where men willingly shared their, uh, assets with their fans! According Jacki King, who did an article in 1974 for the Associated Press, none of the actors were paid. My first naked man came via those pages of Playgirl, and I think it kept me away from real naked men for quite some time. I can’t say I was a regular reader of the magazine (and I use the word reader lightly, perhaps gawker is better), I do remember obtaining a copy back in the mid 80s.

In short, they successfully pleased many. Although the founder says the original intent of Playgirl was to hit a female audience with something new, Playgirl has also always been synonymous with the gay movement. In an era of bra burning, it was only a matter of time before objectification of gender switched. Playgirl was indeed a phenomenon that happened to be in just the right place at the right time. In a 1987 interview Lambert attributed the magazine’s success to its “clear focus” and reported that at one point they had over 2 million subscribers. Douglas Lambert founded it in 1973 although he credited his wife Jenny with the idea. It just so happens that the 70s was also the decade Playgirl hit the magazine stands. I have always been about the machismo, and while the 80s took it to superhuman level, I thought the 70s was a nice balanced point for rippling muscles.

That’s just the way it was with those tanned gods of the airwaves.

I think it will come as no surprise when I say that many of the actors of 70s television exuded S-E-X.

Lyle wagonner was the first centerfold in playgirl magazine.