As reported previously in this post, this month US Cosmopolitan is celebrating 10 years of naked male centerfolds. They’ve been offering up naked men since 1996 and in the last 5 years have combined the beefcake with a charity push to raise awareness of prostate cancer.
Partly inspired by Cosmo’s PR effort, I decided to write a feature article on the history of male centerfolds, to feature in the upcoming third birthday update at For the Girls. I must say, it’s been a bit of fun doing the research for this piece, as well as rather frustrating. It’s hard to find information on this topic.
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In any case, I’ve managed to locate pics of the following ground-breaking male centerfolds from the seventies. I would suggest you turn on the lava lamps and put on a little disco music in order to enjoy these hairy hunks in the splendour to which they’re entitled.
This is the first ever male centerfold, Burt Reynolds in Cosmopolitan April 1972. Mmm, bearskin rug. Everywhere. Pic is from this Wikipedia entry.
Lyle Waggoner – that’s Major Steve Trevor from Wonder Woman – was Playgirl’s first male centerfold in 1973. What would Diana Prince think? Pic is from this site.
George Maharis, star of the sixties TV series Route 66, was Playgirl’s second centerfold, the first to be fully nude. Nice… horse. Pic is from here.
Try as I might, I couldn’t find a copy of Jack Thompson’s Cleo centerfold from 1972. I still remember seeing it on the wall of my teenage babysitter’s bedroom, and being rather stunned by it. Now I have a new quest.
And if you want to know more about naked male centerfolds – who’s done it and where – you’ll have to check out For The Girls on June 1.
The most famous “male” pictorial was done by Bullwinkle J. Moose. A short time after Reynolds did his layout, Jay Ward Productions did a parody with Bullwinkle. The poster was supposed to have the tagline “Eat your heart out Burt Reynolds”, with Bullwinkle doing the same pose on a rug. They changed the tagline by taking Burt’s name off. At TV Toy Memories there is an animation cel of Bullwinkle and the original tagline http://www.tvtoymemories.com/BULLWINKLE_ANIMATION_CEL.html