Readers' Choice

Last December, we chose ten favorite Playmates from among the more than one hundred who have adorned our centerfold during Playboy's first decade of publication, and graphically announced our selections in a feature called Editors' Choice. We invited Playboy readers similarly to select their all-time top ten, and gave them a chance to review their favorites, from December 1953 through December 1963, in the monthly feature Playmates Revisited. Proving that tastes in beauty are more universal than most connoisseurs might want to admit, Playboy readers and editors, batting a spectacular .700, agreed on seven out of ten girls--Connie Mason, Janet Pilgrim, Christa Speck, Joyce Nizzari, Lisa Winters, Heidi Becker and Donna Michelle--with three new faces, Laura Young, June Cochran and Toni Ann Thomas, filling out the figure ten. Here they are, the choicest Playmates of the Decade, as chosen by you, our readers.

Laura Young is a swinging lady driver whom we first met on the rolling green of a golf course. We were sufficiently impressed with her classic form (36-25-36) to ask her to be our October 1962 Playmate. At that time we learned that lovely Laura, in addition to pursuing her carefree country-club sport of letting the chip shots fall where they may, is also skilled at painting ceramics, and secretly addicted to confession magazines. We also discovered that because she was brought up in a Navy family, she led a peripatetic childhood, moving from Miami to Panama to Key West to Red Bank--and finally to Chicago, where she hoped to become a model. Since teeing off with her gatefold appearance, Laura's fashion career has been driving in high.

Connie Mason was a successful haute couture mannequin (she worked for the famous Oleg Cassini) and a Bunny in both the Miami and Chicago Playboy Clubs before becoming Playmate of the Month in June 1963. As eye-catching and well assembled as the gowns she wears, Connie is graphic proof that not all fashion models are spindle-shanked, slab-chested and hollow-cheeked. Since her gatefold appearance, she has elicited a number of movie offers, not the least of them from producer Howard Hawks. Whether in films (her current preference) or modeling (her former one), Connie gets our nod for any best-dressed--or undressed--list.

Janet Pilgrim, who appeared a record three times as Playmate of the Month--July 1955, December 1955 and October 1956--was the inspiration for Playboys "girl-next-door" Playmate concept. This is more than a figure of speech, for Janet literally was discovered next door--to Editor-Publisher Hugh Hefner's office--where she headed the magazine's fledgling Subscription Department. Because of the tremendous reader response to her fresh, wholesome qualities, a genre was born and has continued with noteworthy popularity. Beautiful Janet, in the meantime, has been the titular director of Playboy's Reader Service Department.

Christa Speck is a spectacular import from Germany who is partial to jazz, modern dance and experimental drama. She was not only unanimously voted Playmate of the Year by Playboy's editors--after her twin appearances as Miss September 1961 and as a house guest in the Playmate Holiday House Party (December 1961)--but has proved equally popular among Playboy readers: Christa's foldout feature has garnered more fan mail than any other in the magazine's history.

Joyce Nizzari first posed before Playboy cameras for the July 1958 cover, wearing a pair of green sunglasses and a bikini of Rabbit emblems. Our readers, recognizing Playmate potential when they saw it, wrote in demanding that Joyce be given gatefold treatment sans bikini, and sunglasses, too. Only 18 when she appeared as our December 1958 Playmate, Joyce, as these photographs attest, gets prettier every year. Since 1958, she's acted in a number of films, including A Hole in the Head (with Frank Sinatra) and The Great Race (with Tony Curtis), as well as such TV shows as Burke's Law, The Beverly Hillbillies and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. When told that she had been chosen for Readers' Choice, Joyce said how pleased she was "that readers still remember" her. It isn't difficult, we think, with a beauty like Joyce.

Lisa Winters is a sun-ripened Miami product, who was discovered by photographer Bunny Yeager waiting for a bus. Her subsequent Playmate appearance in December 1956 has been an all-time favorite. A year later, we published a feature about Lisa, describing how her shyness (she has never posed for a male photographer) had prevented her from accepting acting offers. While we regret the entertainment world's loss, we can't help being grateful for women photographers--and Miami buses.

Heidi Becker, a Milwaukee miss who hailed from Austria (when she was strudel-sweet 16), established our June 1961 issue as a memorable one. Originally a hair stylist in the city that made beer famous, she was discovered by Playboy photographer Mario Casilli in Los Angeles (together with her close friend, Christa Speck). Heidi, back in Europe and thrilled at being selected for Readers' Choice, wrote us that she still digs dancing, savors summertime swimming and continues her year-round taste for awesome quantities of pizza, a proclivity which has had no adverse effect on her remarkable figure.

Donna Michelle nurtured lifelong theatrical ambitions when she appeared as our December 1963 Playmate. Her gatefold prompted acting offers from stage, screen and TV producers, all as impressed with Donna as Playboy's editors are. We not only unanimously selected her the current Playmate of the Year, but have used her likeness to brighten our Christmas subscription ads and have shown Donna adding a " beautifying personal touch to the Jamaica Playboy Club in our September 1964 issue.

June Cochran, who combines little-girl charm with big-girl proportions, was raised in Indianapolis. Although she's adept at twisting and miniature golf, partial to Corvettes and shish kabob, June talks most readily about her phenomenal luck in contests: In 1961, she was selected Miss Indiana in the Miss Universe Pageant; in 1962, she won the same title in the Miss World Contest. After being chosen December 1962 Playmate, June was one of the principals in a three-way tie for 1963's Playmate of the Year. A readers' runoff placed the crown on June's lovely blonde tresses. At present, she's a winsome and photogenic Photo Bunny in the Chicago Playboy Club.

Toni Ann Thomas, an instructress for Vic Tanny's before becoming our February 1963 Playmate, obviously knows what there is to know about keeping in shape (38-22-36). California born and bred, Toni earns her bread working in public relations, occupies her spare time reading upbeat fiction and indulging a penchant for comedies and whodunits at the flicks. Also an ardent shutterbug, Toni is one of those rare creatures who makes a pretty picture regardless of which side of the lens she's on. Although her main ambition is "to marry a nice guy," Toni is still unattached.