384

Marilyn Monroe ''Playboy'' #1

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:NA
Marilyn Monroe ''Playboy'' #1
"WINNERS WILL BE NOTIFIED AFTER THE AUCTION ENDS BY THE AUCTIONEER ONCE ALL BIDS HAVE BEEN PROCESSED TO DETERMINE THE WINNER FOR EACH LOT."
Very rare first issue of ''Playboy'' magazine, December 1953, Volume I in fine condition. Landmark issue of Hugh Hefner's pioneering and controversial men's magazine, featuring the famous color centerfold of Playboy's very first ''Sweetheart of the Month,'' Marilyn Monroe. The magazine was originally titled ''Stag Party,'' until an unrelated outdoor magazine titled ''Stag'' threatened to sue Hefner. The replacement name ''Playboy'' came from Hefner's executive vice president Eldon Sellers, who named it after the short-lived Chicago company Playboy Automobile Company, where Sellers' mother had worked. The first issue, with its 50 cent cover price, did not carry a date, as Hefner was unsure whether or not there would even be a second issue. However, ''Playboy'' proved an instant sensation, selling out its initial 53,991 circulation in a matter of weeks. The mostly black-and-white issue includes a parlor strip game pictorial entitled ''Playboy Party Jokes;'' Virgil Partch cartoons mocking the Kinsey Report; full color gag cartoons; and the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle excerpt ''Introducing Sherlock Holmes.'' CGC graded as 7.0, in fine condition with ''...a small amount of color touch on cover & centerfold, cover & centerfold reinforced...'' White pages. A much-coveted piece in near fine condition.