Playmen

Last updated
Playmen
Playmen3.tiff
September 1974 cover depicting Camille Keaton
Founder Adelina Tattilo
Categories Men's magazines
FrequencyMonthly
Publisher Tattilo Editrice S.p.A.
Total circulation
(1971 [1] )
450,000
Founded1967;57 years ago (1967)
Final issue2001;23 years ago (2001)
Country Italy
Language Italian
Website www.playmen.it [ dead link ]

Playmen was an Italian adult entertainment magazine. It was founded in 1967 by a mother of three, Adelina Tattilo, [1] achieving fame as Italy's version of Playboy magazine. [2]

Contents

The magazine was published monthly and featured photographs of nude women, and articles on fashion, sport, consumer goods, and public figures. Playmen's use of "tasteful" nude photos is classified as softcore in contrast to hardcore pornographic magazines. It ceased publication in 2001.

Early years

During a running battle with the Italian police, the magazine reached a circulation of 450,000 within four years of its 1967 inception. [2] It sold at about the equivalent of a US dollar per copy.

Playmen was initially an imitator of Playboy magazine, although the first Girl of the Month, Brigitte Bardot, held her hands to cover her breasts. [2] Playmen later developed a style of its own, reflecting European tastes and not overly displaying breasts as per the American Playboy counterpart. The founder Tattilo was quoted as saying, "The U.S. is a matriarchy. I think this is the reason for the American male preference for women with exaggerated, voluminous bosoms." [2]

In the early years, with Italy still a religiously conservative society at the time, each month the Italian police in some cities would order a mass seizure of the magazine. Playmen rarely lasted more than 48 hours on the newsstands before either being sold out or seized by the police. [2]

Content

Many actresses began their careers on the cover of Playmen: Pamela Villoresi, the singer Patty Pravo, the actress Ornella Muti, the singer Amanda Lear and many others. The magazine contained notables such as Teresa Ann Savoy, Barbara Bouchet, Lilli Carati, and Camille Keaton. [3]

The July 1968 edition contains an article by Henry Miller. In the December 1972 issue, Playmen obtained an international scoop: it published the photo of Jacqueline Kennedy, then wife of Aristotle Onassis, [1] while she was naked in the swimming pool of their villa in the island of Skorpios. [4] The photos were not published in the United States until Hustler printed them in 1975. [5]

In addition to naked women Playmen occasionally also depicted naked men. It paid John Paul Getty III (who was 16 at the time) $1,000 for a naked photo spread and cover of the August 1973 issue – on newsstands a month after the oil empire heir had been kidnapped in Rome. [5]

The magazine contained interviews of significant people in literature, cinema, politics, and sport. [3]

In the 1990s, with the arrival on the market of pornographic videocassettes, the magazine's sales dropped significantly and advertising revenue sharply declined, causing Tattilo's empire to gradually enter a crisis, followed by the closure of Playmen in 2001. [6]

Adelina magazine

In 1979, Tattilo announced that she was planning on publishing — under the company name Chuckleberry Publications — an American edition of Playmen. The magazine was titled "Adelina" (in honor of its publisher) with the tagline, "America's edition of Italy's Playmen". Playboy magazine objected and sought a restraining order. Despite this, a number of issues of Adelina were published in the U.S. in 1980. [7] [8] [9]

In 1981, a federal judge found in Playboy's favor, stating that Adelina's subtitle was "designed to promote Adelina in such a way as to trade on the Playboy mark. It promotes a 'subliminal association with Playboy.'" [10] The judge also forbid Tattilo from renaming Adelina "Playmen" in the U.S. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Playboy</i> American lifestyle and entertainment magazine

Playboy is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Flynt</span> American publisher (1942–2021)

Larry Claxton Flynt Jr. was an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications (LFP). LFP mainly produces pornographic magazines, such as Hustler, pornographic videos, and three pornographic television channels named Hustler TV. Flynt fought several high-profile legal battles involving the First Amendment, and unsuccessfully ran for public office. He was paralyzed from the waist down due to injuries sustained in a 1978 assassination attempt by serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin. In 2003, Arena magazine listed him at No. 1 on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list.

<i>Hustler</i> (magazine) American pornographic magazine

Hustler is a monthly adult-targeted magazine published by Larry Flynt Publications (LFP) in the United States. Introduced in 1974, it was a step forward from the Hustler Newsletter, originally conceived by founder Larry Flynt as cheap advertising for his strip club businesses at the time. The magazine grew from an uncertain start to a peak circulation of around 3 million in the early 1980s; it has since dropped to approximately 500,000. Hustler was among the first major US-based magazines to feature graphic photos of female genitalia and simulated sex acts, in contrast with relatively modest publications such as Playboy. In the 1990s, Hustler, like several of its competitors, began featuring depictions of sexual penetration and oral sex.

<i>Playgirl</i> American womens magazine

Playgirl is an American magazine that has historically featured pictorials of nude and semi-nude men alongside general interest, lifestyle, and celebrity journalism, as well as original fiction. For most of its history, the magazine printed monthly and was marketed mainly to women, though it quickly developed a significant gay male readership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Goldstein</span> American pornographer (1936–2013)

Alvin Goldstein was an American pornographer best-known for helping normalize hardcore pornography in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Softcore pornography</span> Erotic still photography or film that is not sexually explicit

Softcore pornography or softcore porn is commercial still photography, film, or art that has a pornographic or erotic component but is less sexually graphic and intrusive than hardcore pornography, defined by a lack of visual sexual penetration. It typically contains nude or semi-nude actors involved in love scenes and is intended to be sexually arousing and aesthetically beautiful. The distinction between softcore pornography and erotic photography or art, such as Vargas girl pin-ups, is largely a matter of debate.

<i>Screw</i> (magazine) American pornographic magazine

Screw is a pornographic online magazine published in the United States aimed at heterosexual men; it was originally published as a weekly tabloid newspaper.

<i>Club International</i> British mens magazine

Club International is a British softcore pornographic magazine published by Paul Raymond Publications that features pictures of nude women. It is a sister magazine of American magazine Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pornographic magazine</span> Magazines that contain content of an explicitly sexual nature

Pornographic magazines or erotic magazines, sometimes known as adult magazines or sex magazines, are magazines that contain content of an explicitly sexual nature. Publications of this kind may contain images of attractive naked subjects, as is the case in softcore pornography, and, in the usual case of hardcore pornography, depictions of masturbation, oral, manual, vaginal, or anal sex.

Erotic photography is a style of art photography of an erotic, sexually suggestive or sexually provocative nature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centerfold</span> Portrait of a model in the middle of a magazine, or the model depicted therein

The centerfold or centrefold of a magazine is the inner pages of the middle sheet, usually containing a portrait, such as a pin-up or a nude. The term can also refer to the model featured in the portrait. In saddle-stitched magazines, the centerfold does not have any blank space cutting through the image.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Depictions of nudity</span> Visual representations of the nude human form

Depictions of nudity include all of the representations or portrayals of the unclothed human body in visual media. In a picture-making civilization, pictorial conventions continually reaffirm what is natural in human appearance, which is part of socialization. In Western societies, the contexts for depictions of nudity include information, art and pornography. Information includes both science and education. Any ambiguous image not easily fitting into one of these categories may be misinterpreted, leading to disputes. The most contentious disputes are between fine art and erotic images, which define the legal distinction of which images are permitted or prohibited.

<i>Barely Legal</i> (magazine) Pornographic magazine

Barely Legal is an adult magazine targeted primarily at heterosexual men.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gail Harris</span> British model, actress, and entrepreneur

Gail Harris is a British model, actress, magazine publisher and industry entrepreneur.

Adelina Tattilo was an Italian publisher. She is acknowledged to be a pioneer in the Italian erotic magazine publishing sector, who contributed to change the social customs Italy from the second half the 1960s. By launching Playmen, Tattilo engaged publishers in an ideological battle to liberate sexual attitudes and free them from bigotry and false moralisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imagery of nude celebrities</span> Topic of visual depiction of nude celebrities

There has been demand for imagery of nude celebrities for many decades. It is a lucrative business exploited by websites and magazines.

Jacques Bourboulon is a French photographer, specializing in nude photography. In 1967 he started as a fashion photographer, publishing in Vogue and working for the fashion designers Dior, Féraud, and Carven. In the mid-1970s he switched to nude photography.

<i>Playboy Special Edition</i> Unique, infrequent, or semi-regular spin-offs of the magazine

Playboy Special Editions are a spin-off series of Playboy magazine containing glamour and softcore nude photographs. The initially infrequent and later semi-regular editions ran from 1963 through 2000 then re-branded from 2000 through 2012 final issues. A one-off special edition was published in February 2015 featuring images of models in different locations within California from the controversial photographer Terry Richardson.

<i>treats!</i> Erotica and fine arts magazine

treats! is an American limited-edition erotica and fine arts magazine that is primarily available by subscription. The magazine, which debuted in 2011, is described as a quarterly although it was initially only published twice a year.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 "Raw Competition". Time . 11 Dec 1972. Archived from the original on Jan 5, 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Women, Not Girls". Time . 18 Jan 1971. Archived from the original on Apr 1, 2007.
  3. 1 2 Mascheroni, Luigi (5 March 2007). "Farewell to Madame «Playmen», muse of eros to browse". Il Giornale . No. 39. p. 18. Archived from the original on Oct 8, 2007.
  4. Bianchi, Martín (Sep 11, 2023). "Jackie Kennedy and the billion dollar nude: 50 years since the first case of 'revenge porn'". El País English.
  5. 1 2 Nicolaou, Elena. "The Risqué Italian Magazine That J. Paul Getty III Appeared In Has A Controversial History". refinery29 .
  6. "Adelina Tattilo, pioneer of eros, who published the first "hot" Italian magazines, dies". La Repubblica . 5 Feb 2007. Archived from the original on Feb 5, 2007.
  7. "Adelina magazines". wonderclub. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  8. "Adelina February 1980". wonderclub. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  9. "Adelina - Magazine". The King Cover Archive. Archived from the original on 28 September 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  10. "A federal judge Wednesday ruled in favor of Playboy..." United Press International . UPI ARCHIVES. April 22, 1981.
  11. "Court backs Playboy, bars publisher from naming magazine 'Playmen'". United Press International. UPI Archives. April 22, 1981.

Sources