MALE NUDES: PLAYGIRL MAGAZINE: "SEXY MEN" 1980 SPECIAL PORTFOLIO ISSUE

Los Angeles, CA: Playgirl Magazine, 1980. First Edition. First Printing.. Softcover. Fine/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. Los Angeles, CA: Playgirl Magazine, 1980. Softcover. Fine/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 100 pages. Rare Playgirl Magazine collectible item. A fine copy of Playgirl Magazine's 1981 "Sexy Men" Special Portfolio Issue. This is the first - and the rarest - of Playgirl's "Sexy Men" Annual Issues. Retrospective collection of male nudes. The first and only edition. Published in a small and limited print run as a softcover original only that sold out upon publication. There is no ISBN. The Special Portfolio Issue is now rare. Presents Playgirl Magazine's "Sexy Men" 1980 Special Portfolio Issue. Page after sexy page of male nudes. The models, who all appeared in the original issues of Playgirl Magazine during its first decade, represent, individually and collectively, some of the handsomest and sexiest men Playgirl Magazine ever discovered and photographed. Features David White, in extreme closeup, on the Cover and inside pages, along with many other models. One of the singular appeals of PG's Specials is that apart from reproducing images from its previous Issues, the Portfolio also showed previously unpublished nudes ("outtakes"), which were often deemed too daring and "in-your-face" for the magazine's still-evolving mainstream audience. It is a well-established fact that a significant number, if not a majority, of Playgirl's readers and collectors are men, gay as well as, by open admission, straight, who were looking to compare and size themselves up versus the models, and in the hope of landing on PG's coveted Centerfold, too. While the "physique" magazines of yore scored their fair share of good-looking and well-endowed models, they remained esoteric and could not attract many of the otherwise willing specimens of American male beauty because the latter feared being branded as gay. That fear was effectively extinguished for good by Playgirl Magazine with its "For Women Only" branding - while being fully aware that men constitute a large, unacknowledged audience. Whatever one's feelings about this strategy, it worked brilliantly, and hastened the acceptance of the male nude as no "physique" magazine - before AND after PG - ever could. Today, Playgirl is seriously collected throughout the world, as nostalgia for a more innocent, happier time Before The Internet, and for the incomparably beautiful men who graced its pages. Many of them will not be equalled much less surpassed. An absolute "must-have" title for Playgirl Magazine and male erotic photography collectors. This title is an erotic photography classic. As far as we know, this is the only copy of the Special Portfolio Issue available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A rare copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with color plates. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER PLAYGIRL MAGAZINE TITLES IN OUR CATALOG).