Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds [Hardcover]

Robert Coover (Author), Maureen Gibbon (Author), Jay McInerney (Author), Daphne Merkin (Author), Robert Stone (Author), Paul Theroux (Author), Dave Hickey (Introduction), Hugh M. Hefner (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With the first Centerfold, who just happened to be the radiant Marilyn Monroe, Hugh Hefner masterminded a cultural icon: Playboy's Playmate of the Month. Now, for the first time ever, Playboy has gathered together every Centerfold from every issue into one luxurious collector's edition. That's over 600 beauties. We've reproduced these Centerfolds exactly as they appeared in the magazine to create a full-size, deluxe volume. Paging through this colossal, chronological collection provides a breathtaking view of our evolving appreciation of the female form: from the fifties fantasy of voluptuous blondes to the tawny beach girls of the seventies to the groomed and toned women of today. Housed in a handsome leather briefcase lined with velvet, this impressive tome is the ultimate indulgence for every passionate collector.

Read Hugh M. Hefner's Foreword

See the Table of Contents

About the Author

Hugh M. Hefner is editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 720 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (November 22, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811860590
• ISBN-13: 978-0811860598
• Product Dimensions: 27 x 15.5 x 6.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 35.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #710,359 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 49 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks Hugh! November 29, 2007

By Robin Benson

Format:Hardcover

I think I'll leave it to others to write reviews about the deep philosophical significance of the Playboy centerfolds and contemporary American society. My capsule review is: here's a very heavy book with hundreds of photos of gorgeous females.

The following are a few random thoughts on this amazing book.
* The total weight of this (reassuringly?) expensive package is thirty pounds, the combination lock case weighs five pounds. You can check out the dimensions in the Product Details section.
* Production values are suitably sumptuous with photos printed in 200dpi screen on good paper and an obviously robust black binding holds it all together. The carrying case acts in lieu of a book jacket I guess.
* The centerfolds in the book are the same size as those in the perfect bound magazine. For many years Playboy was stapled and the centerfolds were a bit deeper by about three-quarters of an inch.
* There seems to be some confusion about how many Playmates and centerfolds are included in the unnumbered pages, 640 are in the index, from Rhonda Adams (June 1995) to Pamela Zinser (March 1974) but Janet Pilgrim made it three times. Marilyn Waltz and Marguerite Empey both appeared twice. Some centers featured two Playmates: the Collinson twins (October 1970) Carol and Darlene Beraola (January 2000) Deisy and Sarah Teles (December 2003) and the Dahm's (Erica, Nicole and Jacclyn) all appeared in December 1998. Playboy started in December 1953 (but no issue for March 1955) and the last photo in the book is December 2006. You can relax though because I've counted the pages (it took some time) and there are 638 centerfolds. October 1958 included two centers (Mara Corday and Pat Sheehan) as did January 1974 but here it was the front and back of the delightful Nancy Cameron.
* Five lucky photographers seem to have spent their lives telling Playmates to "Look straight at the camera, imagine it's your lover!", Mario Casilli, Richard Fegley, Arny Freytag, Pompeo Posar and Stephen Wayda have, between them, taken over 350 centers. The index lists sixty-nine photographers.
* Sure it's an indulgence but if you have to justify the purchase to anyone just say as well as being a huge coffee table book it IS a coffee table. Put a pile of your back issues at either end and voila!
* One problem remains though just where am I going to keep such a huge book?

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the Best January 11, 2008

By Alagosa

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a piece of history. I was around when the first playboy was issued. So that means a long time.This comes in a black briefcase with combination locks and a raised playboy bunny. Just the case alone is stunning.The book inside contains all the centerfolds unfolded in real size.The cover and binding are first rate. The pages inside are printed on top notch paper. This is well worth the money. This book and case weigh 37.5 pounds. Once you see it you will realize you have a true collectors item if that is what you are into. I debated on whether I should spend the money on it and took a chance, because I have three other playboy books,now I am glad I did, because you will not see any other kind of book bound like this and in a case like this, let alone for the money. It is unique among any type of book.

It is not something you buy just for the pictures, you could have saved all the single issues and have them all, but of course they would be folded and in this book they are not. It is something that you buy for the volume, binding and case itself. A piece of history, that usually would never be produced in any other book. Think of it a large page from every issue of this magazine. I doubt that any other magazine of any kind will ever do what Playboy has done. This is a show stopper as a book.

I stopped reading Playboy because I considered the girls to be too one dimensional and the pictures to be to contrived. They don't seem real. I like my women to look like women, not fake breasts, shaved pubic hair and airbrushed plastic dolls. But I did buy this book because of the quality, besides a lot of the centerfolds in the earlier issues looked more like real women before Hef got old and silly.

33 of 40 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Record of American History January 24, 2008

By Tome Raider VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I frequently ask this question: Who had the most fun in the twentieth century? The answer I've maintained for some time is: Mick Jagger. (Keith would be second, but I disqualify him because I don't think he remembers much.) Hugh Hefner would be the next in line. What a career. What a legacy. Some people might maintain that his legacy is vacuous and that his career is insipid. I disagree, and immediately sense either jealousy or ignorance. Hefner has done wonderful things for women (as well as us men, obviously), women's rights, and countless other charities and causes, First Amedment and beyond. His decades of frolicking with babes only a fraction of his age is a well-deserved reward for his numerous efforts on various fronts, and thereby advancing the notions of freedom and enlightenment. Hefner is straight out of an Ayn Rand novel, a bold visionary who believes life is to be lived for ample doses of work and pleasure, and whose self-indulgence has as a byproduct vast benefit for his fellow man. (True, I do think his epic life-story would have a fabulous ending if he now married a woman close to his age, and made a proclamation of some sort advancing romantic ideals, to work in conjunction with his previous accomplishments relating to sexual idealism.)

I mention the man who is the publisher of this book because I thought of him and his decades of accomplishment as I flipped through each and every page of this vast tome. Imagine, the first picture is of no one other than Marilyn Monroe! But my personal favorite was about a year later: Bettie Page! I was also struck by the photo of Dorothy Stratten. There are lots of stories here, lots of history. Indeed, most of the shots are very appealing, and actually much sexier than I had remembered. (True, the recent shots of girls who have shaved themselves are, in my opinion, grotesque.) Although my favorites are somewhere between 1965 and 1978, each decade has its appeal. These pictures really jump out at you, the printing quality is first-rate, and the vast volume of beautiful female imagery is probably unmatched by any other book anywhere. It took me almost two hours to flip through these pages.

The briefcase: I was curious if it was real "leather." No, it is not. Is it kind of cheesey? Yes, very. The dilemma posed by the briefcase is that you have to find a place to stash the darned thing. You can't really place it on a bookshelf. Really, I wish they had built a slip-case for the book instead of this vinyl, goofy briefcase. However, the briefcase is kind of useful because the book is so heavy that it otherwise would be cumbersome to move about. But the thin vinyl reminds me of an old cassette tape case, and I suspect that before long the vinyl will crack or get holes punctured in it. The book itself, however, in contrast, is very solid with a nice cloth binding. I do wish it had a nice ribbon book mark, because there was one babe in particular in 1978 who really deserved a rigorous marking! (I guess I'll just have to flip through this thing again soon and re-locate her.)

All told, this book is perhaps the best single summary of an incredible publishing legacy. Thank you, Mr. Hefner, for all you've done to enrich our lives the last sixty years. While many of us primarily read Playboy during our "fraternity years," the lessons taught in this magazine about living the good life, and being a gentleman, have endured long after that.