"The idea to use naked girls in Playboy came from serving in the war - that was the time when pin-ups enjoyed major celebrity because soldiers pinned up the pictures on the barracks. The pictures were drawings done by George Petty or Alberto Vargas, and they were inside men's magazines. There were also pictures of movie stars like Betty Grable. The concept behind the Playboy playmate was the pin-up. I invented the centerfold, though - both the term and the idea. I put a three-page foldout in the center of the book so people would open to it - and it was something sexy. What we created with Playmates was artistic. We put the girl into a natural setting and introduced the suggestion of a male presence in the picture ... there would be a second glass, or a pipe, or a necktie. It was intentionally a situation that suggested the possibility of seduction." ~ Hugh Hefner

Source

Playboy Gallery

International Playboy Covers