Playgirl is an American magazine that has historically featured pictorials of nude and semi-nude men alongside general interest, lifestyle, celebrity journalism, and original fiction.
[4] At the suggestion of his wife, and inspired by the success of Helen Gurley Brown's use of male nudes in Cosmopolitan magazine (including a shoot featuring film star Burt Reynolds), Lambert refashioned his idea as a feminist response to Playboy and Penthouse instead.
[4] After two test issues (featuring race car driver Mike Hiss and the Hager Twins, country singers and stars of TV's Hee Haw, in seminude centerfolds), the magazine, initially styled as Playgirl: The Magazine for Women formally debuted in June 1973,[4][6] featuring television and film star Lyle Waggoner as centerfold and an interview and nude photoshoot with actor Ryan McDonald.
Editorial in the issue included a travel pictorial on Hong Kong, long-form interview with actress Cloris Leachman, original fiction by Jillian Charles, and a guide to selecting artwork for the home.
[11][12] After Drake's acquisition of the title, the restructured magazine began featuring simplified beefcake-style covers (usually highlighting a model from the issue in underwear or speedo-style swimwear), and implemented changes to cut costs and expand readership in an increasingly conservative and less feminist-friendly cultural environment of the late Reagan era.
[11][13] This resulted in substantial reductions in the in-depth, substantive journalism, political and social feminist commentary the magazine was known for, a decrease in non-pictorial pages, and an increase in advertising space.
"[15] By the 2000s, Crescent had fully repositioned the title as an adult brand, relaunching Playgirl's website as a pay site primarily featuring co-branded hardcore straight pornography, and increasing explicit content in the print magazine.
[16][17] In November 2001, Crescent agreed to pay $30 million in refunds and subsequently changed its name to Blue Horizon Media, Inc.[18] In August 2008, the magazine announced that it would cease publication of its print edition as of the January 2009 issue.
Others, like teen idol singer and actor Fabian, Skid Row musician Phil Varone, and supermodel Tim Boyce posed nude for the magazine after the height of their fame, introducing themselves to new generational audiences.
[4][25] While film star Atkins told UPI columnist Vernon Scott he'd posed to "stir up some controversy" in his young career,[27] Olympian Greg Louganis disclosed in his autobiography that he hadn't wanted to do his shoot, but felt pressured to do as a marketing vehicle (to bolster the heterosexual "heartthrob" appeal of the then-closeted diver).
[28] Singer Johnny Mathis, unhappy with the results of his shoot, requested his feature not run (the magazine agreed),[29] while NFL player Bob Chandler, who posed shortly after his team won the Super Bowl, was pleased with his layout, and displayed a framed shot in his home.
[6][15] The number of mainstream celebrities appearing nude in the magazine slowed steadily following a 1986 restructuring (which saw significant cuts to the budget for original features and an end to the high fees previously paid out to celebrity models), and as a result of increasing cultural conservatism at the end of the Reagan Administration and concurrent rise of cultural movements like the Moral Majority, which called for the censorship and restriction of nudity as non-"family friendly" content in American media.
[36][5] (As a general rule, explicit celebrity photoshoots, featuring erections or sexually suggestive poses with a female model, were exceptionally rare; most exceptions—including Steele, Varone and reality stars Nick Hawk and Joey Kovar—came during this later period in the title's history.)