"when people really did subscribe to it for the articles"
February 11, 2015 8:47 AM   Subscribe

 
Interesting, but the subject comes across sounding like a real piece of work ..
posted by k5.user at 8:59 AM on February 11, 2015


Piece of work...?

Really? C'mon....
posted by amanda at 9:10 AM on February 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


Back in the late 80s/early 90s, my boyfriend lived in a house with three other men, and they had a collective subscription to Playboy. There were always huge piles of them in the living room and bathroom because they never threw them away, so I started picking them up and reading them pretty frequently. The interviews were really excellent, as they had some great interviewers (Lawrence Grobel's stuff was a standout). The "20 Questions" feature was similarly well-done, and some of the fiction was pretty damn good, too. After things started to go downhill with the boyfriend, I definitely preferred reading back issues of Playboy to spending time with him. So I guess I can say I was one of those people who read it for the articles. (Although I did look at the photos, too, which was probably bad for me.)
posted by holborne at 9:12 AM on February 11, 2015 [4 favorites]


Can't tell if it's tongue-in-cheek, sarcasm, or that's how the mom is .. but yeah.. Her comments are just dripping with condescension, how everyone was so jealous of her, and how great she was (all those dates she went on, how popular she was, had such a great figure, etc etc)
posted by k5.user at 9:14 AM on February 11, 2015


It's called nostalgia, k5.user.
posted by amanda at 9:16 AM on February 11, 2015 [6 favorites]


Seriously. I read that as a rather hazy-eyed remembrance of youth and maybe wanting to show a little bravado to her daughter. "Piece of work" is awfully denigrating. Though props for using a figure of speech from that era!
posted by amanda at 9:19 AM on February 11, 2015 [8 favorites]


I was confused about Park and Lex until I realized that this was the NYC office, which, as mentioned, was an ad office.

I've mentioned before that my mom worked at Playboy in the same time period, and after a short break when she had me and my sister, went back. I don't know, offhand, what she did when she started, but when I was, oh, eight (so, 1975ish) she was a pretty senior person in the copywriting department, with a corner office on the 7th floor of 919 N Michigan. Well, IIRC that is. Firstly, I was eight or so, secondly, eight was a long time ago. She was also, apparently, the Keeper of the Gin for emergency martinis and gin and tonics. I vividly remember being used to file things, and the spinning trays of markers in all colors in the graphic department. Oh, an buying a soda in the cafeteria on 4.

(Yes, of course, I sent her the link.)
posted by eriko at 9:21 AM on February 11, 2015 [6 favorites]


The interviews were really excellent, as they had some great interviewers (Lawrence Grobel's stuff was a standout).

Marc Maron recently interviewed Larry Grobel - Grobel noted that Playboy's massive circulation and reputation as a quasi paper-of-record in the 1970s was key to his getting access to stars like Brando and Streisand, who rarely if ever spoke to the press.
posted by ryanshepard at 9:53 AM on February 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


My reading was pretty much in line with Amanda's. "Back when I was young and attractive and the world was my oyster" isn't exactly an uncommon way to remember your own history. It's definitely an interesting read; the idea of Playboy as something other than a seedy porn magazine (which might not be fair, but it's definitely the impression I've always had of Playboy) feels weird to me.
posted by protocoach at 10:00 AM on February 11, 2015


Though props for using a figure of speech from that era!

Hey, back in the day when I was hot, people really enjoyed calling each other pieces of work.
posted by michaelh at 10:10 AM on February 11, 2015


In its prime, Playboy could easily have removed the pictures and still have been as popular, at least for a while.

The interview with Jimmy Carter in 1976 was huge. I don't think a current politician, especially one seeking the presidency, would be allowed to be a candid with an interviewer as he was.
posted by tommasz at 10:11 AM on February 11, 2015 [2 favorites]


the idea of Playboy as something other than a seedy porn magazine (which might not be fair, but it's definitely the impression I've always had of Playboy) feels weird to me.

It was a genuinely prestigous market for short stories and articles, with some softcore porn and "Dear Playboy Advisor, what kind of stereo system sounds best in Hell?" type material.

the subject comes across sounding like a real piece of work
the resentment that her daughter didn't drop everything and watch 'Mad Men' as instructed was kind of off-putting.
posted by thelonius at 10:15 AM on February 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


I knew a woman who worked as an office manager at Playboy. She said she'd get calls from 12 year old boys asking her to "please talk dirty to me, ma'am." I suggested she answer "OK you're a horse's ass," and hang up. Don't know if she ever tried it out. She also had her wedding ring tattooed on.
posted by jonmc at 10:21 AM on February 11, 2015 [2 favorites]


Playboy was an excellent magazine for its time, which, yes, also featured naked ladies. It was often far more mature than many other magazines, which were only more "respectable" by dint of not showing boobs. That has more to do with immature ideas about what is or is not respectable than anything which may have been particularly seedy about Playboy itself, at least compared to other magazines during the time of its peak.
posted by Sticherbeast at 10:24 AM on February 11, 2015 [3 favorites]


"It's definitely an interesting read; the idea of Playboy as something other than a seedy porn magazine (which might not be fair, but it's definitely the impression I've always had of Playboy) feels weird to me."

I get the impression that a lot of people have this impression of playboy. I wonder how many folks with this opinion have read it (I haven't read it since probably the 80's or so, so my viewpoints are referring to what it was, but I don't get the impression its changed much). I honestly don't think that's a fair characterization of the magazine at all. Objectifying, certainly. Degrading, perhaps. Seedy pornography? I don't think it really qualifies as either seedy or pornography, or at least not much more than Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.

Yeah, women don't have their clothes on, but they aren't engaged in any sexual activity, it's really closer to the pin-up drawings of the 50's-60's, but with photographs instead of drawings.

The thing is, there were actual large-distribution magazines that were both seedy and definitely pornography (Penthouse was certainly pornographic, Hustler was certainly pornographic and seedy).

When I was a teenager I had access to all three magazines, and with Playboy, I read the articles (and skimmed the pictures).

Playboy was my first exposure to subversive politics, which weren't available on most mainstream newsstands.
posted by el io at 10:32 AM on February 11, 2015 [6 favorites]


"Piece of work" is awfully denigrating.

How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god -- the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!
posted by IndigoJones at 10:56 AM on February 11, 2015 [9 favorites]


Playboy was an excellent magazine for its time, which, yes, also featured naked ladies.

The ha-ha only serious joke is "Of course I read Playboy for the articles. I *look* at Playboy for the naked women, but I read it for the articles."
posted by eriko at 12:27 PM on February 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


I was a pretty faithful reader from college and about five years out of school, so into the 80s. The articles and the fiction were pretty stellar, just like everyone says. Man, some of those interviews were just legendary. But no one ever mentions the cartoons. Yeah, there was a lot of sexism in those but there were always some gut busters. Every Thanksgiving my wife posts an old favorite on the fridge. A family at the dining room table, turkey about to be carved, grandmother beaming and bearing some notes, grandfather just glaring at everyone, and the dad announces from the head of the table, "Before we say grace, Grandma has a short list of things we should be thankful for and Grandpa has a list of stuff that just pisses him off."
posted by Ber at 12:45 PM on February 11, 2015 [5 favorites]


But no one ever mentions the cartoons.

I loved Gahan Wilson's bizarre horror cartoons.
posted by ogooglebar at 1:06 PM on February 11, 2015 [3 favorites]


el io: I have to admit that I haven't really read much from Playboy. I'm 26, so its heyday had long passed by the time I started to get interested in either pictures of naked people or subversive politics, and both were pretty widely available from other sources, even in the fly-over Midwestern state I hail from.
posted by protocoach at 1:19 PM on February 11, 2015


In college we got both playboy and cosmopolitan thanks to the magic of magazine subscription scams and tons of roommates. Male and female roomates all agreed that playboy had much better articles and Cosmo had much sexier pictures of better looking women. I never really noticed that women's magazines have weirdly sexualized photos for a presumably straight audience of women until my male roommate fell in love with it.
posted by fshgrl at 1:35 PM on February 11, 2015 [2 favorites]


Playboy got more sexual (that is, more than just naked ladies) in the 70s, but remained pretty softcore.
posted by lhauser at 2:20 PM on February 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


That was an interesting interview. My grandmother worked for the Ladies Home Journal/Saturday Evening Post, which I have to imagine, was not at all the same.
posted by interplanetjanet at 4:28 PM on February 11, 2015


The Playboy Interview was legendary, and rightfully so. Here's a taste. Siskel and Ebert. Many of the 1970s ones aren't available, but they kept going. Stephen Colbert.
posted by eriko at 4:53 PM on February 11, 2015 [2 favorites]


I don't think it really qualifies as either seedy or pornography, or at least not much more than Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.

I haven't seen Playboy in years, but agree that it used to have amazing interviews and fiction. My partner recently needed to buy a 1970s issue on ebay to get an article that the library couldn't get for some reason, and it was amazing just how many words were in that issue, and how high quality the writing was. (This was also before the turn in the 1980s towards aggressive plastic surgery, so the images were both relatively tame and what would probably now be called fetish or specialty, with the mostly natural bodies and plenty of hair.)

And very recently someone sent me a link to a recent Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, and other than not showing any pubic hair it was about equally risque as that 1970s Playboy, complete with fully nude (though somewhat painted) models. Sadly, it was lacking the quality writing entirely.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:20 AM on February 14, 2015


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