PMOY selection; royalism

[Dan Stiffler]

On 6/12/03 3:36 PM, "Brian Sorgatz" <bsorgatz@hotmail.com> wrote:
 
> I thought that PMOY "elections" were understood to be advisory rather than
> authoritative.  When Lisa Matthews won the title in 1991, I remember
> PLAYBOY's spokespeople openly admitting to the press that Hef had the final
> say.  Frankly, that's the way I like it.  When it comes to PLAYBOY, I am
> truly a royalist.  Somehow, the apparently true elections for Cyber Girl and
> BOL Model of the Year strike me as being too much democracy.

I'm am not too sure what you mean by "understood to be advisory."
Certainly, in 1963 the statements in the magazine indicated that the readers
picked June Cochran as PMOY because the "editors" could not decide.  When we
consider that the magazine also was running an annual Jazz Poll at the time,
a poll wherein the votes tallied were actually listed in the magazine (at
least those musicians who received a hundred or more votes), then there was
an assumption of legitimacy to the PMOY playoff.  When June was called the
winner in May 1963, I didn't question the outcome.  I wasn't thinking about
lead time for a magazine's production when I was fourteen.  And, as I
suggested in my previous post, June was probably the reader's choice anyway
(but I seriously doubt that any votes mailed in for the March 1963 playoff
had been counted by the time of June's PMOY photo shoot).

PLAYBOY would conduct two more PMOY playoffs in the sixties:  Jo Collins won
over China Lee and Astrid Schulz in 1965; Lisa Baker won over Susan Denberg
and Tish Howard in 1967.  I have no idea how legit those playoffs were.
Each PMOY did appear four issues--not two--after her playoff.  In between
those two playoffs, Allison Parks was named PMOY in 1966.  Allison was, of
course, one of Hef's primary girlfriends at the time.

When I said PMOY voting "fraud," I was thinking primarily of the phone polls
that PLAYBOY used to conduct, where it cost each caller a dollar to cast his
vote.  No matter what was "understood" about the process, this was
unequivocal fraud because not all of the playmates were eligible for the
title; thus, many voters were throwing away their dollars). Also, in some
years (such as 1997 with Victoria Silvstedt), the decision was made before
the polls even opened.  No "advice" needed.  Just how much reader "advice"
do you think went into this year's selection of Christina Santiago?  Yet
there was an cyber-club poll.

When Hef is no longer the final arbiter for PMOY, I would like to see the
playoff return.  I think it would be good for the magazine.  I know that
Penthouse does this currently (in fact, Victoria Zdrok is a playoff pet, or
so she told me at the recent Chi-GC); thus, PLAYBOY will probably shy away
from it for the "Penthouse" reason alone.  However, PLAYBOY did it back in
the sixties and, legit or not, I think it engaged the readers in a way that
the current system does not.

In fact, I would insert an official ballot in each magazine.  There would be
no on-line voting, which can be so easily "stuffed" (fortunately, PLAYBOY
discontinued the phone voting a couple of years ago).  If a someone wants to
vote for his choice more than once, then he has to buy another copy of the
magazine, not a bad thing for newsstand sales.  Votes would be mailed in the
old-fashion way, with a clear deadline.

I would also go back to the three-candidate ballot.  That way, the playmates
who should not be or who do not want to be PMOY can be eliminated.  The
"editors" can choose three playmates who would make good representatives and
who are willing to commit to a year's worth of work for the magazine.  Then
let the readers decide.

It would be even better to have an independent auditing firm tally the
votes, but that is probably asking for too much...

Dan Stiffler