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No matter how you or time judge Hefner and Playboy, the impact that both the magazine and the lifestyle has had on society is impressive. From the ubiquitous Playboy Bunny to his legal battles over his First Amendment rights, the outspoken man in the smoking jacket has earned a very unique place in America’s cultural history. Hugh Hefner’s Playboy, which Taschen has recently repackaged into a more affordable six-volume set, provides a visual glimpse into the Golden Age of Playboy, when the magazine was at the vanguard of high and lowbrow culture, the changing times, and it challenged the establishment in ways that might seem silly today, but were considered quite subversive in the twenty years following the Second World War. These (totally safe for work) images offer a glimpse into the workings and world of Hef and the magazine he founded.
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Playboy issue #1
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Hefner at work, with Cynthia Maddox, Chicago 1958
Interior of Playboy Mansion, Chicago 1960
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Barbi Benton and Hefner, Miami 1970
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Barbi Benton and Hefner, with Jet Bunnies, Los Angeles 1970
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Hefner and Benton at Playboy Mansion West, 1970
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Playboy’s first African-American cover star, Darine Stern, October, 1971
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Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hefner and Wilt Chamberlain, Playboy Mansion West, 1977
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Farrah Fawcett, 1978