Back in 1953, Hugh Hefner was a skinny, bookish editor, formerly with Esquire, who sat down at a table in his home and pasted together what became the first issue of Playboy. His creation was not entirely original; it was a combination of two existing forms: the sophisticated, urbane text of Esquire and the lowbrow, pulchritudinous imagery of cheaply produced, under-the-counter nudie magazines. But by the 1970s, Playboy had a monthly circulation of over six million, and Hefner was flying around the world in a custom DC-9 painted with the famed bunny-head logo.
