From: Vintage Gay Media History
As the June 29th, 1973 issue of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune took note regarding this new periodical that was showing up on newsstands across the country, Playgirl actually wasn't the only new "sex magazine aimed at women..." because there was also the San Francisco-based publication California Girl which also offered up "Entertainment For Women" featuring handsome male models and erotica. And Viva was just around the corner waiting to make its debut. All of this was the result of countless years of struggle for feminism. And while gay men may have tagged along, to be honest this revolution really was initially designed for and about women.
Probably to make itself the biggest banana among this field of macho competition (sorry, couldn't resist!), the June 1973 issue of Playgirl offered up two celebrities of the era: Ryan MacDonald (who was formerly of the daytime serial Days of Our Lives) and Lyle Waggoner. Unfortunately, Ryan didn't show much more than a nice thick bush of pubic hair and some strategically-placed bubbles in a bathtub. And photos aside- not everyone in the journalistic world seemed to be immediately smitten with Playgirl as a totally-new creation in the crowded world of female publishing.
As Tom Donnelly from The Washington Post noted about the new magazine, the editorial content of the first was, by and large, "a rehash of themes from Cosmopolitan." But no matter what, it was obvious that the times were changing and men were openly becoming sex objects to be enjoyed for the simple pleasure of looking at them naked
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