A few words about Playmates

[Dianne Chandler]

I don't think we have to appeal to the grunge masses, who are into heavy
metal, cheap porn and have 10-second attention spans. Nor do I believe
we will somehow become more acceptable to women if we eliminate sexy
shots of women. Generally it has been my experience that better educated
women are less threatened by Playboy than are less educated people.
Playboy, the word, seems to imply a boy, guy, man, male-type-person who
enjoys pleasure.  Anybody disagree?? OK, and let's assume he is an adult
and enjoys sharing his toys:  exquisite music, fine wines, good-looking
clothes, exotic cuisine, travel, exceptional fictional writing.  Would
it not stand to reason that he would enjoy Playboy, as it was created to
be, and  in general try to attract this type of person today. Is the
demography that dismal?  Remember the "What Sort of Man...." ads?
Nobody's saying Playboy should try to sell more magazines than TIME, or
PEOPLE.  There is plenty of room for the traditional Playboy, with a bit
updating, but certainly with a sign that it is "THE" magazine of it's
type and begin again to attract the finest in writing, cartoons, and yes
Playmates, to grace it's pages.  Isn't that logical, that this urbane,
sophisticated ---  hey --- rephrase that, now it's "cool" guy would want
to share above-mentioned delights?

To take the "Playmates" out of Playboy, or give them less than center
stage is to devalue the entire tradition Playboy put forth, and kept the
faith of,  thru the face of competition in the face of a number of
knock-offs (Gent, etc.).  Playboy always  had the best in so many
catagories, and on top of that they had, every month, this great looking
babe, who would never have posed for anybody but Playboy.  Every guy had
the sensation that they were the first person to see this girl, in
pin-up art at first and then eventualy giving forth to (like a pendulum
swings, I guess) a rather artificial "cookie-cutter" Playmate.  She was
not some person who had already had 15 seconds of fame, but a true
Playmate in the sense of the word - somebody who was a lovely looking
girl, attractive to a cool guy and who  would enjoy sharing his
pleasures with a lovely person of the opposite sex .  This whole theory
seems to have done pretty well over the years, and although there
certainly need to be changes and some updates, the magazine would do
very well with a few "retro' items.  I'm sure even the company would be
astounded if they did a full retro month, complete with "Playmates
Revisited".  The Playmates are (sorry, Donna) such an integral part of
the magazine, and they truly did work so very hard in the early days,
(totally volunteer - we even had to drive there on our own) when we
visited Veteran's Hospital patients, who were OUR age (avg. 21) who were
delighted to see us, but we had to cover our horror, as we cheerfully
took a polaroid of ourselves with an arm around their shoulders,
pretending it wasn't true, that he didn't have another arm.  We never
had any training for this, folks.  I just need to say for the record,
here, that I personally received over **7,000** letters from guys in
Viet Nam.  I answered every single one.  I sent along a 5x7 b&w which
Playboy provided me with, and I wrote a brief letter in longhand to
each.  I was proud to do it, wanted to do it, and Playboy paid the
postage!  I made friends I have today, 36-7 years later.  I cannot
believe that nobody my age, or guys that have heard some of the stories
I have been told of guys who had my centerfold in their locker or in
their vest pocket, actually saved lives.  It happened, OK?  It
happened.  And an awful lot of men today who remember those days, or
whose **sons** have heard this kind of stuff before from their Dads,
feel very differently about Playboy Centerfolds than they do about other
"nudie" mags.  They ARE special.  Hef meets and interviews each one
before her appearance in the mag.  Of course, he's not infallible and we
have a few cases of less than best case scenarios.  But all in all, ya
gotta love him, he's his own man & the Playmates will live on as long as
he's in charge. Let's hope he knows he has a golden egg in the goose.

Dianne Chandler, Miss September 1966