Customer Reviews

Playboy: The Celebrities

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have collected the many hard cover books Playboy has put out, and was looking forward to this one. It was a big disappointment. Playboy has 5 decades of celebrities to choose from, and yet so many were left out. Part of the reason for that is there's one photo per the page, which quickly fills a coffee table book. I would have prefered smaller, multiple photos with some text on each page. As was pointed out in a review above- where was Sherilynn Fenn? Joan Collins? Pamela Tiffin? Lana Wood? Fran Jeffries? I also have a problem with including "celebrities" that were also centerfolds. Erica Eleniak? Shannon Tweed? The Girls Next Door? Barbie Benton? Ok, maybe Pam Anderson would count as a celeb, but some of the others don't rank as celebs in my book. Yet they get extensive coverage in here. I was really looking forward to a single, comprehensive book on celebrities that have appeared in Playboy. Not the first installment of a multi-edition collection. It'll be hard to pass on this one because it has some wonderful photos of the celebrities that it does include. But it could've been a lot, lot better.

I enjoyed this book. It has some very iconic images, especially the Marilyn Monroe pics. I was a little disappointed,however as it is by no means a complete overview of all the celebrities who have appeared in the magazine.They seem to have arbitrarily choosen who to include.Where are, Tiffany,Vanity, Kristy Swanson,Joanie Lawler,and most puzziling Joan Collins? I guess they'll be in volume 2.

I bought this for an early Christmas gift for my fiance' and we both love it. There's a sampling of all kinds in here - from young to older, earthy to, well, Pamela, and dated to modern.

This is a high quality book with many beautiful images. While there are a number of women here that are most famous for being Playmates, they are also women who legitimately had some celebrity outside of the magazine (movies and/or TV). But as others have said, there are many "A List" celebrities that didn't make it into this volume. We can only hope they'll be a "Volume 2" in the future.

If you grew up in the 70's like I did and you were trying to project an image of cool and hip you read Playboy. Besides the great photography there were well written articles on politics and mens lifestyle issues that just weren't available anywhere else. And the special treat of having a glimpse of a favorite celeb partially nude made reading the articles less important for that particular issue and almost guaranteed it would become a collectable item. Many of the photos are mild to say the least by today's standards but still demonstrate the high quality photography that I believe always set Playboy apart from the rest.

This book is full of the same high quality images anyone who has followed the magazine would expect to see and some of us will even remember when some of the models first appeared. I was hoping to see a few more of my favorites, but hey there's always the next volume and as long as Mr. Hefner's name is on the masthead we'll have to trust him to pick the subjects and I'm very comfortable with that. If you ever liked Playboy and/or ever collected any of their compilation volumes this one is surely worth having.

There isn't a table of contents, though there is an index in the back of the book. Perhaps Playboy knew that its list of celebrities would be largely unimpressive?

Maybe I'm just too young. Maybe the ubiquity of modern websites like SuicideGirls and TMZ (eager as they are to catch every upskirt and nip slip) have caused my generation to take Playboy's achievements for granted. Upon realizing how loosely they define 'celebrity', though, it's hard not to be disappointed.

But the photos themselves are nice enough, so to dismiss the book based on the lack of name recognition alone would be extremely naive. One is better off, though, with 50: The Playmate Book or The Complete Cenetrfolds, both of which showcase Playboy's real contribution to pop culture; the playmate.

The book promised more than it delivered. I am tempted to return for my money back.