The first issue hit newsstands in December 1953, but the cover was undated because Hefner doubted there would be a second one. Playboy was intended to be a reference in men’s magazines because it did not limit itself to dealing with male themes, but to encourage (and sell) that seductive swinger lifestyle with which most men could only dream. According to legend, the first edition of the magazine was composed in the kitchen of Hefner’s house.Ī young Hugh Hefner with the first issue of his newly published magazine (credit: Los Angeles Times) He formed HMH Publishing Corporation and recruited friends and family as investors.

Briefly, by spring 1953 a guy named Hugh Hefner decided to create his own magazine.

The story of this iconic publication is already well known. It was a monthly men’s magazine whose covers were more flashy (with women in lingerie and the first hints of nudity), and articles about what was understood by the “male world” in those times: cars, yachts, guns. The style really began to change with the emergence of Modern Man (subtitled “The Adult Picture Magazine”) in 1951. They also bring black-and-white photos of movie stars or anonymous models in short clothes or bikinis, but that was pretty much all.

The first publications of the genre were harmless: Stag (created in 1937), Peek (which hit newsstands in 1938), and Laff (quite popular in the 1940s) used to publish articles about literature, music, sports, and eventually some almost innocent sexy issues, such as striptease. Digital intervention by FMG on original photo by Nils Jorgensen/Shutterstockīack in the 1950s, the concept of men’s magazines was still very far from what we understand today.

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