My contribution

[Dianne Chandler]

As a Playboy Playmate way back in 1966 (Miss September) I can't
contain my enthusiasm for this round-table discussion, and am very
grateful to Peggy for all her hard work in organizing it. Like Peggy,
I was probably perceived as odd when, at 17 and still in high school,
I was surreptitiously buying Playboy at small corner stores which
wouldn't have sold me cigarettes, had I smoked.  I think I always said
it was for my dad, which was total BS because my parents had divorced
when I was about 6.

I guess at first it was the cartoons that probably drew me in, and
then I became fascinated by the whole "Playboy Philosophy" which I
would pore over each month.  Coming from a rabidly religious
background, I found the editorials to be a real breath of fresh air in
contrast to the stale, phony, sanctimonious views of my mother and
other family members and neighbors.  I had engaged in sex at about 16
and no lightning bolts had come down from the heavens to scar my
forehead with a red "X", and I was very healthy, active, and enjoyed
my life as much as my limited financial resources would allow.

Always the rebel, by the time I was in my late teens I resisted almost
everything I had been taught.  It seemed like almost everything was
some sort of lie to keep me from enjoying life, because it was
contrary to religious principles to have fun.  Calvinistic, Catholic,
whatever, the way to everlasting life was to sacrifice in this world.
I just couldn't buy into it.  They said pot was terrible, and I saw
"Reefer Madness" stoned and laughed my ass off.  Of course, after that
I didn't believe anything else they said about any other mind-altering
substances, and proceeded to find out for myself about them.  It seems
funny, in retrospect, to note that the interview in "my" issue was
with the brilliant Ken Kesey, whose "Sometimes A Great Notion"
although not as well known as his award winning "One Flew Over The
Cuckoo's Nest", was a truly wondrous piece of literature. And from
there I was off to Richard Brautigan, Alan Watts, Robert M. Pirsig,
Tom Robbins and on and on.  And then of course there was the music.
Hate to admit that I'm this old, but this was actually before there
was a Rolling Stone magazine, just the rock group.  (My life's dream
is still to meet Keith Richards.)  Then I began to get really into
jazz, which of course led me into the realm of black recording
artists.

Before I really get into the way I evolved into becoming a Playboy
Fan, let me explain a bit about my background.  When my
ever-so-religious mother felt I was too much of a brat to handle, she
shipped me off to Arkansas to live with her parents.  I was about
eight.  Certainly old enough for the little black and white TV at my
grandparents' house to have an effect on me, and as I sat there
watching the news, watching Bull Connor turn the fire hoses on blacks
marching non-violently to try to secure their right to vote, I was
horrified.  What was all this crap I'd heard from all these churchy
people all my life about "All men are created equal"?  NOW I
understood what the priest was saying back where I lived in the
Chicago suburbs, when he admonished the parishioners at Sunday church
to "vote the right way" or "coloreds" would overcome the neighborhood.
The whites in Arkansas were patient but serious about explaining why I
couldn't use just any water fountain, and why I could not swim in the
local pool when black kids were in it.  Incidentally, this occurred at
Ft. Smith, the US Army Base, where my grandfather was the base
electrician.  I was sternly lectured about swimming with the "n-word".
This was OUR government, I thought.  How could they treat these people
like they were so different?  They seemed just like me, but with a
great tan!  How could we discriminate against them like this, both in
church and in government?

My questions went unanswered or were brushed aside by adults.
Fast-forward to late high school.  Somehow got a hold of a Playboy.
The Philosophy was fascinating, but the interview was with someone
like James Baldwin, whose books I had read all of by that time.  I
devoured it.  I kept thinking "See, if a big magazine like PLAYBOY
will address this issue of race, it will have to come out of the
closet and it will have to end; it's against the law"!  But of course,
it didn't at first.  However, at that time, Playboy to me meant all
that was a challenge to society, a publication that had the courage to
stand up to this awful discrimination, and Hef seemed like a visionary
to me.  I was getting more and more into the Chicago blues scene, and
after my first taste of the magazine I was as addicted as if it were a
drug.  Lenny Bruce, Lena Horne, Count Basie, Malcolm X, Jimmy Carter,
Bobby Seale and innumerable musicians and writers were showcased in
this delectable package, which provided me with hours of interesting
reading for a couple bucks.  And it was so far ahead of the curve!
The magazine STOOD for something!  Commuters on the train could
brazenly carry it under their arm and use the old, standing line "I
read it for the articles".  Like most cliché's, it was only funny
because it was true.

You could tell a lot about a person if you just saw them buying or
walking along with a Playboy magazine.  If they only wanted to look at
T&A, they would have purchased much less expensive and often
cumbersome publications.  It was axiomatic that if you read Playboy,
you READ it, hence you were probably politically liberal and
relatively enlightened on such issues as race, the war, censorship,
minority rights (including women's rights) and the freedoms our
constitution and the Bill of Rights guaranteed to all Americans.  I
don't mean to sound so pompous.  At age 18 or 19 you are pretty full
of yourself and certain that you know it all...  Remember "Don't trust
anybody over 30"?  And I felt that if I were somehow associated with
Playboy I, too, would be bringing some of these issues to light - that
I would be in some small way helping to promote the truth.

Now that it's been 35 years since I appeared in the magazine my views
on many issues have certainly evolved, just as I've gone from a perky
34C to a rather unwieldy 38DD!  I still admire and respect the Playboy
Magazine of the '60s and '70s when Playboy really took a stand and
boldly proclaimed the liberal position.  They took on issues which
were very controversial and I believe they changed the culture of this
country for the better.

My own little story is simply a post-script to the above: as a student
at University of Illinois, and being a Playboy addict, I noticed an ad
for "lunchtime Bunnies" at the Chicago Playboy club.  I sent in a few
snapshots and to my great surprise I was accepted.  Since the club was
just across the street from the first Playboy offices on Ohio Street,
the employees, including the photographers, regularly came over for
lunch.  When one of them approached me about taking test shots for
Playmate, I was certain he was kidding.  Playmates were those golden
girls, or long, dark-haired beauties, all very glamorous, and I was
just a college kid.  After the a couple of weeks of bantering about it
I agreed, and believe me, nobody has ever been as surprised as I, in
my cutoffs & U of I T-shirt, at home cleaning house, was when Marilyn
Grabowski phoned to tell me I had been accepted as a Playmate.  It was
as if I were Cinderella!  My whole life changed in that instant, and
as I have said on many Playmate chats and on innumerable interviews
and appearances, it has been the most wonderful and exciting event in
my life. And it filled that void within me, not to be a glamour-girl,
which was unbelievablyly fun and wonderful, but to also feel I was
making a statement on a much larger platform than I ever could on my
own.  The Magazine stood against the war, yet supported the troops -
Jo Collins went to Viet Nam. We visited all branches of the military
here at home in Veteran's hospitals and took pictures with them and
just sat and visited with them.  Believe me, if you weren't there you
cannot imagine the emotion that went into these visits - these guys
were our age!

In the years since, I feel the magazine has simply lost some of its
direction.  Where is its editorial zeal that made it such a formidable
force in the culture of the '60s and '70s?  Much of this influence has
been absorbed into our lives without our thinking from whence it came.
When I worked as a Bunny, there were actually still nightclubs in
Chicago where Lionel Hampton could entertain, but was not allowed to
eat dinner after the show!  Playboy encouraged all minorities to stand
up for their rights and did everything they could to help.  Hef was
involved in those days.  Perhaps now he feels, understandably, that he
has fought the good fight and it is time to pass the torch.  I hope
the magazine will regain its original, feisty stance and begin to take
up a political position again.  Certainly there are issues out there
waiting to be addressed by the thoughtful and insightful minds Playboy
can bring to bear.  Good new fiction (the Scott Turow article in the
new issue is a great start).  Let's have interviews with Gen. Tommy
Franks, with Ken Lay the former CEO of Enron (not just the "girls of
Enron") with Jeb Bush, with Richie Daley.  I won't bring up the
"cookie-cutter" Playmates of late; enough has been said about that.
Pretty girls in the nude will always be a pleasure to anyone except
the fanatical right and Islam.  It's just my personal feeling that we
need to adopt an editorial policy that is germane to intelligent
persons who enjoy challenging interviews, new, high-quality fiction,
stunning covers and controversial articles.  We need to define WHO we
are today, and what we STAND FOR.

 --Dianne Chandler