A much shorter lead on Playboy features/Survivor woman in Playboy

[Dan Stiffler]

On 6/9/03 7:43 PM, "Brian Wallace" <brian_c_wallace@yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/661.htm
> 
> I'm not sure if everone has read the news about one
> of the Survivor girls being in the August issue but
> at the end of the Post article I think there is an
> important note at the end.
> 
> <begin quote>
> 
> This will also be the fastest Playboy has ever turned
> around a photo project. The magazine's editors
> typically spend months working the photo shoots into
> each issue. 
> 
> The "Survivor" project will go from photo session to
> print in the less than 90 days.
> 
> "It's about as fast as we're capable of doing it,"
> Kaminsky said. "I'd love to think that we can use this
> as a model for the future because we often spend an
> awful lot of time on the photo shoots, it's just sort
> of the process." 
> 
> <end quote>
> 
> I think having a faster turnaround on pictorials and
> features can only help the magazine stay current.

I remember Gretchen's commenting upon lead time in relation to the Phil
Spector article.  Certainly, if a magazine is focused upon current events,
then it needs to have a short turnaround.  For example, Lewis Lapham's
columns for Harper's are almost always timely.

Forgive me, however, if I am not entirely sanguine about Kaminsky's
comments.  While Brian mentions "features," Kaminsky is focused upon photo
shoots.  What I read into this faster turnaround is the necessity for speed
when dealing with the celebrity du jour--or is it about to become the
celebrity d'heure?

Regarding turnaround: probably the fastest pictorial turnaround in PLAYBOY
history was the 1963 PMOY Playoff.  Playoff photos of Laura Young, Avis
Kimble, and June Cochran were run in the March 1963 issue, with the
statement that the winner would be revealed in the June issue, three months
hence.  Given that, as Gretchen has noted, the magazine usually ran a three-
to four-month lead time, on the surface this sounds about right--except that
this playoff was a poll among readers.  Back in the day when snail mail was
the only mail, readers should have been allowed at least a month to get
their votes in, making the June issue really a two-month turnaround.  I am
not sure that I thought about such things when, at the age of 14, I dropped
my vote for Laura Young into the mailbox (btw, my vote was based on Laura's
incredible centerfold; June clearly had the best photos in the playoff,
where she was positioned last, as she had been in January's review).

Well, if a June 63 turnaround was going to be speedy (there was the matter
of time-consuming vote counting, after all), imagine the speed that turned
around the 1963 PMOY pictorial in time for the May issue!  Indeed, the "Next
Month" for the April issue announced that the PMOY would be appearing in May
(a scant two months after the playoff issue hit the stands).  When the
pictorial appeared, the copy claimed that June had won "the lioness' share
of reader votes" when "all votes [were] tallied."

So consider this time line: playoff on the stands in mid-February; readers
return votes for several weeks; votes are all "tallied"; June Cochran is
informed that she has the "lioness' share"; Pompeo Posar shoots the PMOY
layout; the magazine is on the stands in mid-April.  And keep in mind that
by mid-March PLAYBOY acknowledged this was going to happen this fast (the
April "Next Month").

Wow!  Maybe Kaminsky could take a lesson from those old folks!

Okay, sarcasm intended.  The first PMOY playoff was only the first in a long
line of PMOY voting fraud (and you think the 2000 presidential election was
bad...well, of course it was worse).  This must be what happened.

I don't doubt that the "editors" had a hard time deciding between Laura,
Avis, and June, all worthy contenders.  Either this was before the day when
Hef made the decision unilaterally or Hef had made a lot of impulsive
promises (as most of us know, this can happen in the heat of the moment!).
Whatever the case, when the March issue was put to bed, there were three
playmates in the running for PMOY.  However, by the time that issue had hit
the stands, the reader mail for December's playmate, June Cochran, was
flooding the mailroom.  Thus, the editors decided to do some advance polling
and *project* the winner in advance of the poll's closing (most likely, in
advance of its opening!).  After all, they surely knew that those amazing
photos of June rolling around on the bed (p 107) would be enough to tip the
vote in her favor anyway.

Then there was the fact June was, according to her own timeline in The
Playmate Book, 7 1/2 months pregnant when Pompeo shot the PMOY layout (as I
have noted before, June was probably also pregnant when she shot her
centerfold).  If PLAYBOY had waited until all the votes came in--including
mine--well, the setting just might have been the maternity ward!

regards,

Dan Stiffler