To: pml1@yahoogroups.com
From: Mark Tomlonson
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 2003 10:07:44 -0400
Subject: [PML1] CC: Christina Smith

In Christina Smith's centerfold (March 1978) we have discovered a 
treasure in our beachcombing.

I'll confess right off that this has never been one of my favorite 
centerfolds. For whatever reason - a bad memory repressed from 
childhood, Protestant sexual hang-ups, lack of imagination - I have yet 
to see a female model, nude or clothed, in any medium strike this pose 
and look really good. To my eye the curves and form never hold any kind 
of attraction, either from an artistic or erotic sensibility.

Having said that, Christina looks pretty good here. The colors and the 
simple background of a sand dune set her off well. The clothing she's 
not quite wearing is O.K.; one of Arny's better attempts at clothes draping.

The centerfold also brings a light to a part of Christina that's not 
usually shown in Playboy. Taken with the contemporaneous centerfold of 
Karen Morton, I think we're seeing an exploration on the part of Playboy 
into what degree of explicitness would work in the late '70's. I 
wouldn't count this as a low point, just a dead end. I'd rather see 
Playboy venture down an occasional wrong turn than to take no turns at all.

Photographer: Arny Freytag

Scoring:
Pin-up: 1.0
Erotic: 2.0
Artistic: 2.0

Overall: 1.5

Cyber Club Portfolio Photo I like better than the Centerfold: #15

http://cyber.playboy.com/members/playmates/files/1978/03/centerfold.html
http://cyber.playboy.com/members/playmates/files/1978/03/15-lrg.html

Mark Tomlonson
Kalamazoo MI