Playboy: a publishing history

Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner poses with 'bunny-girl' hostess Bonnie J. Halpin at Hefner's nightclub in 1961. Picture / AP.

In 1953, a time when US states could legally ban contraceptives, when the word "pregnant" was not allowed on TV sitcom "I Love Lucy," a 28-year-old Hugh Hefner published the first issue of Playboy.

Featuring naked photos of Marilyn Monroe (taken years earlier), its editorial promised "humour, sophistication and spice."

The Great Depression and World War II were over and America was ready to get undressed.

Hefner, who died today at 91, and Playboy co-founder Eldon Sellers launched their magazine from a kitchen in Chicago, although the first issue was undated because Hefner doubted there would be a second. The magazine was supposed to be called Stag Party, until an outdoor magazine named Stag threatened legal action.

Playboy soon became forbidden fruit for teenagers and a bible for men with time and money, primed for the magazine's prescribed evenings of dimmed lights, hard drinks, soft jazz, deep thoughts and deeper desires.

Within a year, circulation neared 200,000. Within five years, it had topped 1 million.

Censorship was inevitable, starting in the 1950s, when Hefner successfully sued to prevent the US Postal Service from denying him second-class mailing status.

Playboy has been banned in China, India, Saudi Arabia and Ireland, and 7-Eleven stores for years did not sell the magazine. Stores that did offer Playboy made sure to stock it on a higher shelf.

By the 1970s, the magazine had more than 7 million readers and had inspired such raunchier imitations as Penthouse and Hustler.

Competition and the internet reduced circulation to less than 3 million by the 21st century, and the number of issues published annually was cut from 12 to 11.

After a mild stroke in 1985, Hefner handed control of his empire to his feminist daughter, Christie, although he owned 70 per cent of Playboy stock and continued to choose every month's Playmate and cover shot. Christie Hefner continued as CEO until 2009.

At this death he remained its editor-in-chief and still owned 20 per cent of the company.

His son Cooper is its chief creative officer and earlier this year the magazine put naked women back on its pages, ending a year-old ban on the nudity that made it famous.

The 63-year-old magazine had earlier banished naked women from its print edition because it felt the content had become passe in an era of online porn that is just a click away on personal computers and smartphones.

- Associated Press