Playboy magazine, June 1973
Let's take another trip back in time courtesy of Playboy magazine, and travel 49 years to June, 1973.
This issue has a massive 254 pages. It's crammed with full page, and half page, and column-sized advertisements.
The cover girl, and Playmate of the Year 1973, is Marilyn Cole, a British girl who was the first woman ever to appear in the magazine while displaying full-frontal nudity. She was featured in a December, 2021 article in The Daily Mail.
Back then, getting a suntan was a priority and Coppertone was there to help........
Playboy can't be said to have been a showcase of diversity back then. Looking at the list of contributors, there is heavy representation by white, Jewish, and Protestant males. A couple of women, including Joyce Carol Oates, get admitted to the boy's club, but that's about it in terms of Inclusion and Equity.
A fashion features on men's swimwear makes clear that wearing these trunks magically will grant you the embraces of bare-bottomed chicks, who are just lolling on the sand, eager to make your acquaintance !If it's not beachwear you're interested in, well, Tom Seaver, star pitcher for the New York Mets, can show you some fine, polyester dress shirts to wear to the office:
There are plenty of wholesome, early 70s girls with long, natural hair (no lacefront wigs, no weaves, no extensions) posing in the pages of this issue...... This cartoon would not go over well nowadays........
The 'On the Scene' feature mentions an up-and-coming British rocker named David Bowie. And guys are encouraged to ditch 'the wet look' and go with the 'Dry Look' by using hairspray - err, excuse me, 'hair control', from Gillette ! Despite problems with inflation, those were halcyon days, with a gallon of gas costing 39 cents, a gallon of milk $1.31, and a six-pack of Ballantine beer set you back 99 cents.........
There you have it. June, 1973.
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