Centerfolds of the Century

The nude female's silhouette can release and inspire a male's creative drive. Try it. I have. When seeking an exclusive image for the climax of my first novel, long ago, I happened to thumb Playboy open at DeDe Lind's Centerfold, and--shazam!--the metaphor was suddenly there. My mind, entranced by DeDe's national anthem of a face and form, had suddenly flipped from the logical and boring to the creative and unconscious. Where magic lives. Let this maxim stand: Confronted by a pair of luscious, shapely front-end loaders, no normal Joe can sustain rational thought for long. Your unconscious travels along the optic nerve, engages the sensual, and produces an alpha wave (text continued on page 230)Centerfolds of The Century(continued from page 107) of imagination. Ever since then, I write with a Playboy open on my desk.

Centerfolds have sparked a lot of useful alpha in the past 45 years or so--intense and invaluable relationships have grown between viewer and viewee. Of course, your favorite Centerfold will not be mine and certain women fit their historical moments more aptly than others--it's a long cultural journey from Janet Pilgrim to Jenny McCarthy. And a few, like Marilyn, are eternal. But all, to some degree, recharge and refurbish the men that look at them.

The chosen women who appear on these pages are not just pin-ups, they are our muses. Whether on the bulkhead of an aircraft carrier, in a college frat house or in the locker room of a coal mine, these are the gorgeous images that have drawn out and nurtured the American male's creative energy for almost 50 years.

100. Think as you begin. Shae Marks, Miss May 1994, lissome, sunny, stunning as an oil field blowout. Shae Marks is, well, shy. ("I am very insecure.") As you flip through the photographs of these 100 beautiful women, remember that they're human: young, yearning-not yet goddesses, perhaps even a little skittish. In fact, they're just like you, only a whole lot better-looking. Remember that: It'll help your imaginary relationship along.

99. Jean Bell, Miss October 1969, was a walking ad for the "black is beautiful" era. She enjoyed a brief film career (The Choirboys, T.N.T. Jackson), but was best known for a celebrated 18-month love affair with Richard Burton.

98. Miss May 1996, Shauna Sand, has eyes as bright as acetylene headlights and an abdomen you could bounce a silver dollar off of. Her marriage to actor Lorenzo Lamas inspired a Playmate spread in which the bride wore white lingerie. She became a regular on her husband's TV show Renegade.

97. Julie Woodson, the color of soy sauce poured on a plate of dim sum, walked off the set of Super Fly when asked to do a nude love scene (insufficient pay), which led her to Playboy. An airline attendant turned actress, Miss April 1973 has hair black and explosive as the flak over Schweinfurt, and a haunting, mysterious face that belongs at Abu Simbel.

96. Miss December 1966 Susan Bernard was, so to speak, the child of Centerfolds. Her father, Bernard of Hollywood, photographed Marilyn Monroe, among other celebrities. Susan appeared in the Russ Meyer classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, married (and divorced) actor and writer Jason Miller and wrote a book called Joyous Motherhood.

95. Miss September 1997 Nikki Schieler has more pulse points in her magnificent body than all the rest of us put together. Nikki is so radiant you could film her with the head cleaner cassette. A self-described Norwindian (part Norwegian, part American Indian), Nikki is married to Ian Ziering of Beverly Hills 90210.

94. A former Miss Denmark, Elsa Sorensen (Miss September 1956) married and divorced singer Guy Mitchell and became a popular model in the Fifties under the names Dane Arden and Alisa Davis.

93. Miss November 1975 Janet Lupo was a Hoboken, New Jersey native whose free-flowing chestnut hair and memorably buoyant 39-inch chest made her a hippie deity. She still visits the Playboy Mansion, and on one recent occasion was grabbed by an overzealous monkey. We can't blame him.

92. "I've been in some of the most fabulous backyards in Los Angeles," said Miss October 1972 Sharon Johansen. No, she was not a traveling barbecue chef--she was a Beverly Hills dog trainer, a career that soon found her hanging with Hollywood's most celebrated citizenry. Sharon went on to launch a TV career, and in recent years was known as "the Hugo Girl" for her work on the Giorgio men's fragrance.

91. The Playmate portfolio of Miss July 1973 Martha Smith looks the way a mai tai tastes: refreshingly sweet, yet exotic--with a kick. Blonde and bedazzling, Martha said she wanted to be a film director, but Hollywood insisted she stay on the other side of the lens. Her famous lingerie scene in Animal House earned her spots on a variety of TV series, soaps and game shows. Today the Michigan beauty works in real estate in California.

90. Fawna MacLaren's turn-ons--"champagne, oysters and lovemaking that lasts all night"--make her sound like a sexual enterprise zone. The Elle cover girl, who has worked more catwalks than a veterinarian-from France to Senegal-entered Playboy's 35th Anniversary Playmate search and became Miss January 1989.

89. With a complexion like fine suede and hair bent on sweet anarchy, Miss June 1980 Ola Ray spent her teen years in Japan, performing R&B numbers with her brothers in the clubs of Tokyo's Ginza district. She appeared with Michael Jackson in his Thriller video and with Eddie Murphy in 48 Hours.

88. With the face of an innocent homecoming queen, with Chiclet teeth and high-beam eyes, posed atop a raunchy body from the wrong side of the tracks, Miss October 1987 Brandi Brandt is the daughter of veteran LA rocker Brie Howard. She was married for a time to Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx.

87. Miss March 1965 Jennifer Jackson was the Jackie Robinson of Playmates: Playboy's first black Centerfold. In her classic photo layout--a study in soft mahogany set against candy-stripe wallpaper--Jennifer reminded readers that loveliness is color-blind. The Chicago native and her twin sister, Jan, were two of the most popular Bunnies at the Windy City Playboy Club.

86. A department store security guard with lush brown eyes and a black belt, Los Angeles Latina Roberta Vasquez was featured in Playboy's Women of Steel pictorial. She went on to cop a job with the California State Police, but Roberta's most memorable bust came with her recruitment as Miss November 1984.

85. In the history of Hugh Hefner's girlfriends this would be his Blue Period. Miss July 1977 Sondra Theodore danced with the man at a Mansion party to Barry White's Baby Blue Panties. One diamond-encrusted necklace later (which spelled out Baby Blue), Sondra was Hef's main squeeze and remained so for five years. Although head-to-toe blonde perfection, this San Bernardino pinball fanatic was best known for her smile and for her alluringly deep chin dimple.

84. Nine years after the Beatles' American invasion, Liverpudlian Lonny Chin (Miss January 1983) touched down in Los Angeles, having previously lived in four different Canadian provinces. The product of a Chinese-Jamaican dad and Welsh-Swedish mom, Lonny turned out an inspiring New Year's Centerfold, and went on to become Playboy's first video Playmate.

83. Bedecked only in furry white trim, and wearing a single jingle-bell diamond suspended from a gold waist chain, Miss January 1997 Jami Ferrell looks like a snow goddess on spring break in Daytona. A native of Muncie, Indiana and shyer than a newborn gazelle, Jami was one of three Playmates selected to travel to Africa for the May 1999 Playmates on Safari pictorial.

82. Ohio native Melinda Windsor, Miss February 1966, has a degree in psychology. When driving, she does not require air bags.

81. Redheaded Mara Corday shared the October 1958 Centerfold with co-Playmate Pat Sheehan. Mara became queen of the Fifties monster movies, with credits that include Tarantula, Black Scorpion and Giant Claw. She has also been featured in four Clint Eastwood films.

80. She swam like a fish, spoke fluent French, adorned the cover of the swim-suit issue of Sport, studied computer science and traveled the world--from Brazil to Kenya and back to her native Hong Kong. So what do people remember most about Miss October 1990 Brittany York? That she played the dental hygienist who got a rise out of Jerry on Seinfeld.

79. Cute and compact, with eyes on loan from Cleopatra, former Miss Bristol Teenager Dolly Read won a nationwide British Bunny Contest sponsored by Radio London, then came to the States to train as a bumper pool Bunny at Chicago's Playboy Club. Along the way, Dolly was named Miss May 1966, co-starred in the cult film Valley of the Dolls and nabbed Dick Martin (of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) as a husband.

78. Tall and tan and young and drop-dead beautiful, Miss November 1966 (and PMOY 1967) Lisa Baker was a teenage soda jerk from Broken Bow, Oklahoma who, as a bridesmaid at a friend's Los Angeles wedding, was discovered by photographer Bill Figge. After her Playmate debut, Lisa popped up again in 1979's Playmates Forever! pictorial, then relocated to Texas to be near her family.

77. Her legs are longer than a Bill Clinton speech, and infinitely more captivating. On her Playmate Data Sheet, Miss February 1994 Julie Lynn Cialini revealed that she once bungee-jumped 15 stories wearing only a string bikini; her pictures elicited a similar EKG spike among Playboy readers. A shoo-in as PMOY 1995, Julie went on to land a regular role on TV's High Tide.

76. Miss December 1958 Joyce Nizzari was besweatered and bottomless in her snow-melting ski chalet Centerfold. Discovered by Bunny Yeager when Joyce was a teenage Miami model, she went on to enjoy a two-year fling with Hef which included such run-of-the-mill dates as trips to the Cannes Film Festival, JFK's inauguration, Playboy's first Jazz Fest and a romantic getaway to Havana only weeks before Castro overthrew Batista's government.

75. Her tiny carriage, voluptuous figure and majestic mop of dirty-blonde curls made Corinna Harney, Miss August 1991 (and PMOY 1992), look like a rag doll on hormones. She followed her Playmate appearance by playing Roger Daltrey's main squeeze in Vampirella for Showtime and appearing with Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation.

74. As Playboy's 30th Anniversary Playmate, Miss January 1984 Penny Baker looks like a recruitment poster for sin. The New York fashion model decided that posing sans fashion in the Midwest would make for a more interesting career. Good move.

73. Miss June 1961, Austrian-born Heidi Becker, Playboy's gemütlich Playmate, is a fine piece of strudel. Her Centerfold did not include any Alpine references--just her winsome smile and her sidelong glance, which surmounted the language barrier just fine.

72. The glow of her skin moved Miss June 1975 to give herself a new name--Azizi Johari (meaning precious jewel in Swahili), a moniker conceived by old friend and jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. Born in New York City and raised in Seattle, Azizi worked as a stewardess, then as an actress, before Sammy Davis Jr. (who had been obsessed with a photo of her face) met her in person and hired her on the spot for his nightclub act.

71. In her Playboy photos, Miss September 1963 Victoria Valentino looks like a Modigliani painting come to life--doe-eyed, sensuous and clearly caught midthought. An actress who favored Dostoyevsky, Arabic folk dances and badminton, the Hollywood native was newly pregnant when she posed for her Centerfold, ultimately giving birth to a son who died at the age of six in a drowning accident. Today Vicky works as a bereavement facilitator and publishes Centerfold Sweethearts for fans.

70. In her Playmate story, Miss December 1981 Patricia Farinelli admitted that her life changed when nature began doing its thing just below her neck: She went from "Flatty Patty" to neighborhood attraction during her junior year in high school. But down deep the Los Angeles native was an Italian American homebody who liked spaghetti, Led Zeppelin and Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord.

69. Miss January 1968 (and PMOY 1969) Connie Kreski had a flower child's face and a penchant for wearing skirts the size of cocktail umbrellas. Raised in Detroit, she lived for a time in London and moved to Los Angeles, where she starred in an Anthony Newley sex farce and worked for the Playboy Photo Studio. Connie died of natural causes in her Beverly Hills home in 1995.

68. Just 18 when she appeared in Playboy, Miss November 1962 Avis Kimble was already a nonconformist. A bohemian before it was chic to be one, the Chicago native was a watercolorist, ballerina and poet, with a partiality to Chopin, Garbo hats and unassuming men. She was also among the more enterprising Playmates, opening her own boutique in Old Town while simultaneously working as a Bunny.

67. That so petite a structure could support such a generously endowed chest would have confounded the likes of Buckminster Fuller. But the 5'2", 103-pound Miss March 1983 Alana Soares pulled it off to perfection. A competitive skier with Hawaiian-Japanese-Spanish-Irish blood, she was a college student in Salt Lake City when she appeared at Playboy's door. Alana always considered herself something of a rarity: a brunette from Utah who became a Playmate.

66. The Minneapolis-born Dahm triplets (Erica, Jaclyn and Nicole) were so hard to tell apart at birth that the doctors had to tattoo the Misses December 1998 on their triplicate backsides. Thomas Jefferson said we are all created equal, but this is absurd.

65. The December 1973 Centerfold catches achingly attractive Christine Maddox in the middle of brushing her hair--a lustrous off-ramp of brown that cruises down her back, finally tapering off at the sweet speed bump of her backside. Christine is so innocent that she thought Screw magazine was a hardware catalog.

64. January 1994 Centerfold and 40th Anniversary Playmate, Holland-born Anna-Marie Goddard, she of the inverted nipples, could really get us in Dutch.

63. Miss November 1978 (and PMOY 1979) German-born Monique St. Pierre was an adventure in unmitigated carnality. Her sugar-cubed teeth and gang-banged hair caused complete strangers of either sex to go into estrus when she entered the room.

62. The September 1989 Centerfold was supersized for good reason: The subjects were Karin and Mirjam Van Breeschooten, 18-year-old twins from Rotterdam. With green eyes, blonde hair and stone-hard double Dutch bodies, they were identical except for Karin's tiny birthmark. Can you find it?

61. Miss September 1995 Donna D'Errico has an angel face and sumptuous shape that are almost too high-concept--indeed, one might suspect she was created by some zealous lonely guy at Industrial Light and Magic. Not so. The fair-haired and exceedingly fit Catholic schoolgirl from Georgia--discovered by Playboy when she was a Las Vegas limo driver--was real enough to beam herself up from Centerfold to a regular spot on Baywatch and Baywatch Nights.

60. Seeing Barbara Edwards nude is as painful and engrossing as a round of autoerotic strangulation. If it weren't for the floor, her legs would go on forever. Miss September 1983 (and PMOY 1984) is so enchanting, as Raymond Chandler said, that she would've made a bishop put his foot through a stained-glass window.

59. A single mother (of two daughters), Kathy Shower--Miss May 1985, PMOY 1986--lives and works in Barcelona. As Kathy's blonde hair explodes like a phosphorous hand grenade, she looks as helpless as a cat without a tongue.

58. Miss December 1959 and first PMOY Ellen Stratton was the daughter of Mississippi sharecroppers who moved west in 1949 "by way of Steinbeck--seven of us in a car" to pick cotton in Bakersfield, California. If Playboy did no more in 47 years than save this beautiful child from a life of cotton picking, it would be more than enough.

57.Connie Mason, Miss June 1963, started as a Camera Bunny at the Miami Club. Through a chance encounter with Oleg Cassini and, down the line, a meeting with model agency honcho Eileen Ford, she became a fashion model in New York. She also starred in the first two no-budget ghoulie flicks, Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs.

56. Built like a mainframe, Miss September 1967 (PMOY 1968) Angela Dorian was all photo opportunity. Renamed by her agent in memory of the sunken ocean liner (she was born Victoria Vetri), the preposterously shapely San Franciscan sang, danced, sketched, played guitar, drove a Porsche and was a TV regular with appearances on Bonanza, Perry Mason and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

55. Buff and busty, Miss January 1981 Karen Price appeared in her Centerfold lounging on a fur throw, dark bronze curls fanned above her head, mouth slightly ajar and a diaphanous robe invitingly unfurled. You may exhale now. A step ahead of the health club rage, the Pasadena native knew how to put her retina-detaching body to work as an acrobat and gymnastics coach and was one of the most active participants in the Dear Playmates advice-to-readers column.

54. With her astonishing slate-gray bedroom eyes, a lower lip that seemed bruised by making out and nipples as pink as sunshine through a white cat's ear, it's no wonder that the young men around Linda Gamble, Miss April 1960 (PMOY 1961), didn't have to leave themselves wake-up calls.

53. Miss March 1995 Stacy Sanches is so thoroughly Texas, it's remarkable she doesn't sweat barbecue sauce. Standing five-foot-ten, with a Big D figure to boot, Stacy was working for her daddy's custom-pickup-truck business when Playboy spotted her. After being named 1996 Playmate of the Year, the weight-lifting country girl took her infectious twang to Hollywood.

52.Terri Welles, Miss December 1980 (and PMOY 1981), married pro hockey player Charlie Simmer. In her Centerfolds of the Century photo Terri looks like a goalie, graceful knees together, trying to stop a slap shot.

51. Miss December 1989 Petra Verkaik was accidentally run over by her own VW van in the parking lot next to Playboy's offices--only to be saved from serious injury by her 37-inch bust. The superbly top-heavy Californian with the exotic features and the arresting name went on to appear as Al Bundy's dream girl in Married With Children.

50. Fair-haired and fit with a grin that could power a breeder reactor, Lisa Matthews, Miss April 1990 (and PMOY 1991), puts out vibes that are quintessentially American, down to the star-spangled gleam in her eye. A successful model at age 17, Peoria-born Lisa, along with Kimberley Conrad Hefner, commandeered Playboy's Operation Desert Storm letter-writing campaign.

49. Miss August 1964 China Lee was the only one in her family of 11 not to enter the restaurant business--she already had too much on her plate. A native of New Orleans, the Playboy Club Training Bunny turned Playmate was also a swimmer, equestrienne, bowler, ping-pong expert and unofficial Playmate twist champ. She had the title role in Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily? and went on to marry and divorce humorist Mort Sahl (twice), buy racehorses and gamble professionally.

48. It looks like Miss October 1965 (and PMOY 1966) Allison Parks was run over by one of those highway white-line painters. The intensity of her glance and the forthrightness of her spirit radiate outward like a solar wind.

47.Jaime Bergman, Miss January 1999 (and the 45th Anniversary Playmate) strongly resembles the great Dale Evans. Jaime, who hails from Salt Lake City, surprised the Mormons back home with a cowgirl getup that included a Stetson, boots, chaps, a tumbleweed between her legs--and not much else.

46. The first Playmate to be custom-shot from a pencil sketch by Art Director Arthur Paul, Miss June 1955 Eve Meyer was photographed by her husband, future erotic film auteur Russ Meyer. In her Centerfold, Eve appears barely clad in sky blue chiffon, lounging on a shag in front of a fireplace, with two drinks within reach (the second presumably for an unseen guest). Eve produced Russ Meyer's first films but died tragically in a two-jet collision over the Canary Islands.

45.Marguerite Empey, here seen bathing in a wok, was twice a Playmate--Miss May 1955 and Miss February 1956 (the second shoot was by Russ Meyer). A practicing nudist who studied ballet and taught belly dancing, Marguerite was cover girl for the first Playmate Calendar, in 1958. Her popularity as a Fifties pin-up prompted Gay Talese to interview her (under her married name, Diane Webber) for his book on the sexual revolution, Thy Neighbor's Wife.

44.Karen McDougal, Miss December 1997 (and PMOY 1998), has a freedom trail up her belly that Lewis and Clark could have followed.

43. Chinese-Scottish-Spanish-Australian-Filipino-Irish Gwen Wong boasted a Playboy résumé that included Playmate (Miss April 1967), Club Cottontail and Jet Bunny aboard Playboy's DC-9 Big Bunny. Her Centerfold inspired an emulation-is-the-highest-form-of-flattery tribute from Madonna herself in Vanity Fair. Two Wongs, however, do not make a right.

42. Her curves were more dangerous than Coldwater Canyon's, not to mention the so-bad-she's-good twinkle in her eyes. Miss November 1974 Bebe Buell came to Playboy from Virginia Beach and instantly transformed herself into a night-prowling, rock-and-rolling soul sister, whose romances with superstar musicians (among them Todd Rundgren, Steven Tyler, Rod Stewart, Jimmy Page and Elvis Costello) produced lots of ink--as well as a love child, acclaimed actress Liv Tyler.

41. They were 36 years old--combined. In capturing Playboy's first-ever twin Centerfolds, Misses October 1970 Mary and Madeleine Collinson, photographer Dwight Hooker set a world record, using more than 700 sheets of eight-by-ten film. Enthusiastic globetrotters with a special fondness for the discos and pubs of London, the winsome twosome from Malta followed their Playmate exposure with appearances in the Hammer Films vampire classic Twins of Evil and the screen adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's Love Machine. Today both enjoy life with their families, Madeleine back in Malta, Mary in Milan.

40. With her thick hair tousled, Janice Pennington, Miss May 1971, defied any wet blanket to get in the way of the Seventies. Janice leveraged her Playboy gig to land a guest spot on Laugh-In and became a longtime regular on The Price Is Right. She also encouraged her kid sister Ann to become a Playmate five years later.

39. Miss February 1986 Julie McCullough is as clean and precise as the Swiss civil code. She wears her nudity as if it were a uniform, but spoilsport fundamentalists helped yank her from the sitcom Growing Pains. Her beauty won out. Julie's TV hit list has grown to include roles on Beverly Hills 90210, The Drew Carey Show and High Tide.

38. Fecund is a good word for the Centerfold of Karen Velez, Miss December 1984 (and PMOY 1985). Also gravid, procreant, big with, gestant, uberous, fructiferous and laden. Karen met Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors at a Playboy Mansion West party. Their subsequent marriage produced three children.

37.Reneé Tenison, Miss November 1989, was the first African American Playmate of the Year (1990). Astonishingly, she has an equally beautiful identical twin sister. Reneé's been on the TV more than your cat--appearances include Sherman Oaks, LA Heat, Living Single, Family Matters and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

36. Miss July 1959 Yvette Vickers is a cult heroine for her films Attack of the 50-Foot Woman and Attack of the Giant Leeches. She also appeared in the normal-sized Hud with Paul Newman.

35. Miss January 1982, Kimberly McArthur, was cut from the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders tryouts for not kicking high enough. Playboy's requirements were, thankfully, less aerobic. Elfin Kim is soft as a glove and fine as a seed pearl.

34. In the film Apocalypse Now,Cyndi Wood, Miss February 1973 (and PMOY 1974), made a stunning appearance as a Playmate visiting Vietnam, a role loosely based on Jo Collins' 1966 adventure. With a pubic fleece like the nest of a dove, faultless breasts and a smile that could give you powder burns, Cyndi did five Playboy covers.

33.June Cochran, Miss December 1962 (and PMOY 1963), was a model for Little Annie Fanny and represented home state Indiana in the Miss World and Miss Universe pageants. But, for all her experience, she was still most at home when at home.

32. Most photographs of Marianne Gravatte (Miss October 1982 and PMOY 1983) leaped off the page with such intensity that readers felt the impact in their solar plexi. Killer abs, Asian eyes and a carefully carved chin cleft made to be kissed all belied the Hollywood native's big secret: She was so shy that, as photographer Richard Fegley has said, "She could hardly look at someone and say hello."

31. Miss January 1998 Heather Kozar always looks like she's about to give blood. The Akron, Ohio native--and 1999 PMOY--appears ready to be delivered to a dressing station on the battlefield of human sexuality, as if there were pain and exhaustion involved just in being Heather. Certainly her belly seems sensual and hot as a puddling furnace.

30. As the 20th Anniversary Playmate, Nancy Cameron, Miss January 1974, was shot by photographer Dwight Hooker in Playboy's only front-and-back representation of a Centerfold. Nancy is as faceted and delightful as a newly minted coin.

29. Sweet, five-foot-two and topped by a cumulous cloud of hair, Miss December 1956 Lisa Winters was discovered getting on a Miami bus by photographer Bunny Yeager, who ultimately shot Lisa's Centerfold. (Lisa was too shy to pose for a man.) Her firm 19-year-old breasts, it can be imagined, led to the invention of Nerf.

28. When Donna Edmondson, Miss November 1986 (PMOY 1987) mentioned to her photographer that she was still chaste, she soon became known as the Virgin Playmate, and even appeared on TV to preach that chastity and nudity don't have to be strange bedfellows.

27. She looks like a bureau with the top two drawers pulled out. Miss May 1974 (and PMOY 1975) Marilyn Lange has molasses-colored eyes, the softness of an impact attenuator and an invincible pubescence about her. Marilyn was named fourth-round draft choice by the North American Soccer League's Chicago Sting. "We liked what we saw," said General Manager Jim Walker.

26. A decade ago Miss July 1989 Erika Eleniak mapped out a popular strategy for Playmates to come: She parlayed her Centerfold appearance into a regular role on a new show called Baywatch. As the Pams and Donnas and Marlieces followed in her sexy footsteps, Erika--whose beauty and dramatic gifts landed her the role of Elliot's girlfriend in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at the age of 13--moved back to the big screen for Under Siege and The Beverly Hillbillies.

25.Victoria Silvstedt--Miss December 1996 and PMOY 1997--should be credited for at least one "Va" in Va-va-va-voom. A graduate of the Anna Nicole Smith School of the Bodacious, all five feet and ten inches of Victoria grew up in a Swedish village. Despite the paucity of sunlight there, the gods compensated for it by rewarding her with an awesome blonde corona. And some suggest she may be responsible for global warming and melting the Arctic ice cap.

24. In her January 1971 Playmate appearance the visible hint of pubic hair made history as the first exposure of its kind in Playboy and practically guaranteed the Norwegian's selection as PMOY 1972. Liv Lindelind's luminous smile lit every part of her, from those velvet dark eyes on down to her warm fiord.

23. For Claudia Jennings, sexuality came as easily as divertimenti came to Mozart. Yet the Playboy receptionist had to be lured to the photo studio for test shots. Those shots made possible her November 1969 Playmate debut, PMOY honors the following year and a movie career in Hollywood, where she was crowned Queen of the Bs. But fate denied Claudia an appropriate final reel. In 1979 she was killed in a car crash on the Pacific Coast Highway.

22. She was cute as a truffle, but Miss December 1971 Karen Christy is best known as the third side of a triangle that included Barbi Benton and Hugh Hefner, who referred to the Los Angeles (Benton) and Chicago (Christy) adventure as his "Captain's Paradise."

21. Weighing in at eight and a half stone totally starkers with sodding great alpha-double-plus knockers that belong on the one-quid note, Marilyn Cole, Miss January 1972, nipped along from her Portsmouth home to the London Playboy Club, to a spot of jiggery-pokery with the Squire of Playboy himself, and on to PMOY 1973, without ever once coming unstuck.

20.DeDe Lind, Miss August 1967, is a sugar cookie soaked in cognac and baked in a potter's kiln. Blonde and beguiling, freckled and as adorable as a Rugrats cartoon, DeDe arrived during the Vietnam war and reminded boys of what they were fighting for, garnering more letters than any Playmate before or since.

19.Debra Jo Fondren had perfect stomach muscles, like little spice shelves, and her amazing hair splashes gold down her back as if it were a salmon ladder. Unanimous choice for Playmate of the Year in 1978, Debra Jo seemed exquisitely wicked, and a certain silence filled the place, wherever you happened to be, when the magazine came open at her Centerfold.

18.Christa Speck, Miss September 1961 (and PMOY 1962), had size 38 pontoons and a beehive hairdo that would have qualified her to stand guard outside Buckingham Palace. She married puppeteer-producer Marty Kroft.

17. With a nose as perky and versatile as a Swiss Army Knife and a hairdo that was borrowed from Tinkerbell, Jo Collins, Miss December 1964 (and Playmate of the Year in 1965), has been through three husbands--flaky baseball hurler Bo Belinsky being the first. Jo traveled to Vietnam to deliver a lifetime subscription of their favorite magazine to members of the 173rd Airborne who had chipped in for it. A few more Playmates like G.I. Jo and we wouldn't have needed the draft.

16. I began gasping for air when first I saw Lillian Müller, Miss August 1975 (PMOY 1976). Everything about her seemed to have its own private focus. I've said this before: Müller could make even your nose get hard.

15.Anna Nicole Smith, Miss May 1992, is as well endowed as the Gates foundation. Her selection as PMOY 1993 represented a filling out of our ideal cultural physique. Anna became the Guess jeans poster girl, and an international tabloid celebrity through her marriage to 89-year-old tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.

14. When I first double-O'd photos of Miss January 1988 and PMOY 1989 Kimberley Conrad--soon to be Hefner--my porch light blew. She seemed so much to be a distillation of that unique sensibility, Playboy. Nipples and areolae like antique bronze cymbals. High crotch. Expensive skin. Eyes bright as a plasma torch. If Playboy were a great novel, KCH would be the Cliffs Notes.

13. Born Estelle Eggleston in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Stella Stevens got her big break playing Appassionata von Climax in the film version of the Broadway hit Li'l Abner. As cute as a drum majorette at halftime of the Sugar Bowl, Miss January 1960 had a distinguished Hollywood career, particularly as Hildy in The Ballad of Cable Hogue.

12. For Patti McGuire, love means nothing--at least since she married tennis legend Jimmy Connors more than 20 years ago. As Miss November 1976 (and PMOY 1977), Patti's posing style was, well, confrontational--she almost always made electric eye contact. It wasn't easy to say--Patti, or you--who was the Peeping Tom?

11.Shannon Tweed, Miss November 1981, has the best legs of the century. They support an extraordinary 5'10" woman from Newfoundland who has been a star of Falcon Crest and more than 30 films, as well as being PMOY 1982. Thinking of Shannon (who has two children by her significant other, Kiss rocker Gene Simmons) can cause a cerebrovascular accident.

10.Cynthia Myers, Miss December 1968, is stacked better than the blue-plate special at IHOP. Cynthia, from Toledo, starred in Russ Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. If you dial her measurements (39DD-24-35), you get the reservation desk at the Hilton in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.

9.Donna Michelle, Miss December 1963 (and PMOY 1964), played opposite Warren Beatty in Mickey One and appeared in Beach Blanket Bingo. Donna's superphotogenic look comes from the powerful vulnerability she projects--and from a pair of eyebrows that are almost prehensile.

8. On her Playboy Data Sheet, under the heading "Turnoffs," Dorothy Stratten wrote "jealous people." A year later Miss August 1979 (and PMOY 1980) was dead, brutally shot by a husband who couldn't bear losing her to director Peter Bogdanovich. Just 20 years old, 100 percent natural. With sweet, naive charm and apparent authentic talent as an actress, Dorothy reminds us of the danger inherent in great beauty.

7. "Spinning Jenny," you might call Miss October 1993 (PMOY 1994). Jenny McCarthy, the enthusiastic star of MTV's Singled Out, has more energy than you would find in a mosh pit. Never once has she shunned the obvious.

6. With breasts as soft and pink as salmon mousse and eyes like the definition of fine wine ("light held together by moisture"), Candy Loving, Miss January 1979 (and our Silver Anniversary Playmate), has been for many years a steadfast and cogent spokeswoman for Playboy. She has been called, after Christie Hefner, "the most valuable female asset the company has."

5. My father made a splendid sepia drawing of Bettie Page that hung over the bed where I was conceived. Mother thought he had fashioned it in a life-study class. Actually, I later realized the sketch was freely adapted from a bondage photo by Irving Klaw. Miss January 1955 lived a double life: the girl next door and a kinky, fetishistic fantasy. But when I had an earache or a nightmare, Bettie was there.

4. Some statistical considerations of the phenomenon known as Pamela Anderson: most requested image on the Internet (her wildly popular chat site at Prodigy actually crashed and had to be restarted). Most covers for Playboy (six). Her Playboy Centerfold video was number one on the Billboard chart for 12 weeks running. Add to that her starring role on Baywatch and sales of her bootleg sex video with Tommy Lee, and you have mathematical proof of Miss February 1990's status as the world's most famous living blonde.

3. If Marilyn was the brand-name blonde bombshell, Jayne Mansfield was the generic stuff: cheaper, maybe, but still marvelously potent. Jayne appeared five times in Playboy--first anonymously as Miss February 1955 and later in a pictorial called The Nudest Jayne Mansfield, which earned Hugh Hefner an obscenity bust (he beat the rap). Jayne died in a car crash in 1967.

2. I was 13 in 1955 when Janet Pilgrim (then Playboy's subscription manager) first appeared as a Centerfold--she appeared three times in all. I remember taping her photo under a bureau drawer, where my mother promptly found it. Mother absorbed Janet's sweet, almost Asian face and her mammoth spheres of influence and said, "She's very pretty," and handed the photo back. I owe a lot to Janet Pilgrim's innocence.

1. Marilyn Monroe, Playboy's inaugural Centerfold in December 1953, was not just the sexiest woman of our century, a stunning siren that men might fantasize about: We now also know that her body was the actual nexus of American male power, a mystical chalice that heroes came not to drink from, but to fill.