Playboy observes 65th anniversary
We round up the magazine’s iconic sex symbols.
Playboy is celebrating its 65th anniversary.
From Marilyn Monroe to Farrah Fawcett to Kim Kardashian, We round up some of the most iconic celebrity sex symbols featured on the magazine’s covers through the years.
❚ The first edition was released in December 1953 and featured Marilyn Monroe on the cover.
❚ Over the years, Pamela Anderson has appeared on 12 U.S. Playboy covers, more than any other cover model.
❚ One of the biggest sex symbols of the ’80s, Bo Derek was a four-time cover model for Playboy in 1980, 1981, 1984 and
1994.
❚ Barbra Streisand posed in a pretty conservative T-shirt (by Playboy’s standards) for her only cover shoot for the magazine in October 1977. “What’s a nice Jewish girl like me doing on the cover of Playboy?” the magazine teased.
❚ Madonna was featured on the cover in September 1985 with the headline “Madonna Nude: Unlike a virgin ... for the very first time.”
❚ Nancy Sinatra Jr., the daughter of iconic singer Frank, was featured in the May 1995 edition. Before the edition was released, she said her father hadn’t seen it, but she “got his OK,” adding that he told her to “double the money” she made from the shoot.
❚ Patti Davis, daughter of former President Ronald Reagan, appeared in the July 1994 edition. The cover dubbed her “Reagan’s renegade daughter” and is considered one of the most controversial covers in the magazine’s history.
❚ Farrah Fawcett rose to fame in 1976 when a photo of her in a red swimsuit became the best-selling pinup photo in history. Nearly 20 years later, she posed for Playboy’s December 1995 cover, which became one of the top sellers in the magazine’s history.
❚ Joey Heatherton was a major sex symbol in the 1960s and ’70s, but the actress and singer didn’t appear on a Playboy cover until 1997.
❚ Victoria’s Secret supermodel Naomi Campbell first appeared on the December 1999 cover in a strappy bra and a white fur coat.
❚ Just months after the world became enthralled with the wild “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?” reality broadcast, the winner, Darva Conger, headed to Playboy to bare all. “The woman who married the multimillionaire takes off her wedding dress for Playboy,” the cover read.
❚ Another reality star-turned Playboy model: Jerri Manthey, a contestant on CBS’ “Survivor: The Australian Outback,” posed for the September 2001 cover.
❚ Tiffany, formerly a teen pop star, was deemed “all grown up” when she posed for the April 2002 cover. Later, she told Billboard the shoot was “a confidence booster” and that she “probably would do it again,” though she acknowledged some of her family wasn’t happy that she did the photo shoot with a young son at home.
❚ Marge Simpson became the first cartoon character to appear on the cover of the magazine in November 2009. The cover teased “the devil in Marge Simpson” – not quite the image of the fictional matriarch “Simpsons” fans were used to seeing.
❚ Before Kim Kardashian became one of the world’s celebrity icons, she gained recognition in 2007 when her sex tape with former boyfriend Ray J was released. Shortly after, she posed for the December 2007 issue with the headline dubbing her “Hollywood’s new sex star.”
❚ Lindsay Lohan made headlines when her Holiday 2012 cover shoot was leaked early.
The photo shoot apparently was designed to call back to Marilyn Monroe’s first cover.
“What’s a nice Jewish girl like me doing on the cover of Playboy?” Barbra Streisand, who posed in a T-shirt (by Playboy’s standards) for her cover shoot for the magazine in October 1977.