Sting in the bunny tail for Playboy’s earliest nudes

Playboy will soon be leaving the era of nude models behind but the first few models didn’t even know they were being made into bunnies

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner surrounded by Playboy Bunny Girls in photo from TV documentary program 'Sex in 69: Sexual Revolution in America', on History Channel.

The final nude photo shoot for a Playboy centrefold has taken place and the January/February edition that hits stands on December 11 will be the last to feature naked women.

Owner Hugh Hefner recently decided to end the magazine’s 62-year tradition of unclothed models because, he said, given the amount of pornography freely available on the internet, Playboy’s more modest images seem “passe”.

Taking away the nudes will change the character of the magazine but it will be hard to expunge a legacy of six decades of women taking their clothes off for the glossy mag.

At the time though some of the women featured didn’t even know they had disrobed for Playboy.

A former copywriter for men’s magazine Esquire, Hefner borrowed money from dozens of investors, including his mother, to start his own men’s mag.

He wanted something like Esquire but with more sex. He chose the name Stag Party but another publication named Stag threatened to sue, so he came up with Playboy.

The first edition hit the stands in 1953. Some of the featured models would go on to bigger and better things, others faded into obscurity.

Marilyn Monroe

In 1949 photographer Tom Kelley took nude photos of then struggling actress Marilyn Monroe. At the time Monroe was between films and needed $50 to make a payment on her car. Kelley sold the pics to the Baumgarth Calendar Company. Monroe then shot to stardom in 1953 in films Niagara, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How To Marry A Millionaire. Hefner bought the nude photos for his first edition to capitalise on her rising fame. She became “Sweetheart of the Month”, then only a single-page nude picture in the middle of the magazine, and the first edition sold out.

Margie Harrison

The January 1954 edition designated its featured model, then not named but later revealed to be Margie Harrison, as “Playmate of the Month”. A model and aspiring actress, Harrison’s picture was also bought from Baumgarth by Hefner. Harrison had no idea she was a Playmate until after the magazine appeared. She appeared again as the June Playmate but, despite this, didn’t achieve lasting fame.

Magaret Scott

The Playmate for February 1954 was an actress, singer and model whose real name was Marilyn Waltz. Born in 1931, she used the pseudonym Margaret Scott for her first nude shoot but appeared again in the magazine in April under her real name. Hefner assumed it was a different woman and discovered the truth when he was looking over photos for a compendium Playboy book in 1990. Waltz was also in Playboy’s April 1955 edition. She later ditched acting and went into real estate. She died in 2006.

Dolores del Monte

A professional pin-up model, del Monte was the March Playmate and, like Harrison before her, didn’t realise where her nude pics were headed until long after they appeared in the magazine. She married and had children and years later her son was looking through a 25th anniversary edition when he found evidence of his mother’s past career.

Joanne Arnold

Miss May for 1954 was actress Joanne Arnold, who had some minor roles in films before she appeared in the magazine. Although she would return to the magazine for a 1955 cover, the photographs didn’t help her acting career, which petered out in 1955 with Son Of Sinbad.

Neva Gilbert

The centrefold for July, Neva Gilbert, was also an aspiring actress who had acted with Monroe. Both knew the photographer Kelley, both ended up on Baumgarth calendars and then in Playboy. Gilbert only heard about being in Playboy months later but couldn’t find a copy. She finally saw her original centrefold while doing a 1979 Playboy shoot.

Arline Hunter

The August centrefold was the first one that Hefner didn’t buy from Baumgarth. It featured actress Arline Hunter, whose career was built partly on her likeness to Monroe. She would appear in B-grade films and guest spots in sitcoms into the 1960s.

AND THE REST OF 1953

September: Little is known about model Jackie Rainbow though the name was probably a pseudonym. She died in 1988.

October: Madeline Castle was a professional pin-up model who was well known in other men’s publication in the 1950s.

November: Diane Hunter, aka Gale Rita Morris, another professional model who was very popular with photographers at the time

December: Terry Ryan became the first model photographed specifically by Playboy commissioned photographers. In the December edition the magazine showed behind-the-scenes pictures of the shoot taking place.

Originally published as Sting in the bunny tail for Playboy’s earliest nudes