Le Guin, Joyce Carol Oates, and James Baldwin.

( The Simpsons once showed a parody of the magazine, called “Playdude,” bearing the cover line UPDIKE ON THE MARTINI.) But that’s also a little unfair: Playboy published good work by Ursula K.

The articles were, indeed, pretty good, even if Playboy tended to pay extremely well for the second-tier writing of first-tier talents. Men (and some women) joked that they bought the magazine for the articles, even though the centerfold and its associated pictorials were, of course, the main draw. The magazine’s licensing operation since then has put the signature rabbit logo on cocktail glasses, clothes, car accessories, and far more. The magazine peaked in the early 1970s at a circulation, breathtaking to see now, of 5.6 million copies a month. It also moved into TV with Playboy’s Penthouse (later Playboy After Dark), a late-night talk show of sorts starring Hefner and an array of celebrity guests. By the early 1960s, it was a huge success, soon expanding to open its namesake clubs all over the world. Founded in 1953, it was a significant force in the loosening of anti-obscenity laws regarding the press. Hard to imagine it now, but Playboy once felt forward-thinking and modern. Hugh Marston Hefner, its founder/editor/latter-day reality-show star/loungewear enthusiast, died in 2017, as his faded empire contracted around him, and one got the sense that the magazine was kept going partly because nobody wanted Hef to outlive it. It’s not a surprise, exactly - its circulation and advertising drooped long ago, accelerating as the nudie pictures for which it was celebrated became available everywhere for free. It seems unlikely, given the wording of the announcement and the state of print magazine-making, that it will ever return. Playboy has announced that it’s closing down its flagship magazine for the rest of 2020.

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