Sunday, April 22, 2012

Playboy Magazine's rise to Popularity

By Peter Smith


At a very young age, Hugh Hefner was in the publishing business. While in high school, he wrote articles and illustrations for the school paper. He then started his own magazine called Shudder, which focused on short stories, comics, and book and movie reviews. Upon graduation, Hefner joined the U.S. Army and was put to work as a clerk where he spent the next two years.

When he eventually left the armed service, Hefner attempted to satisfy his love and locate a position in publishing. He was, nonetheless, not able to get employed to be a reporter and his thought of marketing a comic strip called 'Fred Frat' about college pupil daily life was also turned down.

Not prepared to allow his dream career pass him by, Heffner continued looking and ultimately landed a place with Esquire periodical exactly where he discovered the ins and outs of writing and advertising a journal. Sadly, Esquire chose to transfer to Ny and shut down in Chicago, leaving Heffner once again out of work.

Hefner's instinct advised him that there was a chance to be had in publishing a publication for males that centered on beautiful women. His approach was to publish images of nude ladies - a shift which had not been extensively tried for concern of getting prosecuted for the circulation of obscene content over the U.S. mail. Hefner wasn't anxious regarding the lawful effects and had an enormous plan to have the word out about his publication.

Just before she grew to become renowned, Marilyn Monroe sat nude on a calendar photograph. Everybody inside the publishing marketplace knew about the photo but no-one dared produce it as a result of the legal hazards. Hefner determined that he would carry the danger and utilize the photo had heard about in the first copy of his new publication, Playboy in December of 1953.

At 27 yrs of age, having a startup financial commitment of just $600 plus some credit from his printing business, Hefner went to get the job done. The very first issue marketed for fifty cents each and had a press run of 53,991. The whole issue was rapidly sold out providing evidence to Hefner's marketplace possibility prediction. The rest is history, the magazine has kept growing since then.

With a profitable magazine flourishing for him, Hefner decided to expand his business into other areas. Two of his more successful ventures were Playboy Clubs, a chain of nightclubs, and a number of London casinos.

In 1988, Hefner handed the reigns of the business over to his daughter, Christie who turned the business around. Christie changed the focus of the magazine, which would now feature more content on fashion and entertainment. In addition, she launched Playboy Tv and a pay per use Website. Through Playboy, Hefner challenged the rules and societal norms and changed the way sex was seen in America.

Today, Playboy is the leading adult mens magazine in the world and with women like Kendra Wilkinson, Holly Madison and Kim Kardashian appearing in it's pages, that is likely to continue for some time yet!




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