Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Centerfold Missing: Playboy Signed by Ray Bradbury and Gahan Wilson

Someone took the trouble to take a copy of the January 1967 issue of Playboy and to have it signed by contributors Ray Bradbury and Gahan Wilson (in 1996, at least for Bradbury). Today that interesting copy comes to market on AbeBooks, but alas with the centerfold missing. The darn thing must have fallen out.


Playboy, January 1967
"No CF." Caveat emptor.

"When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer."
Back cover advertisement

"The Lost City of Mars" signed by Ray Bradbury on December 1, 1996

Tantalizing detail of published cartoon signed by Gahan Wilson but not dated

Ray Bradbury and Gahan Wilson
AbeBooks Listing Retrieved September 10, 2019



Well, that won't do. It's frustrating to glimpse just a fragment of a cartoon like that. Fortunately, we can get a better look at Gahan Wilson's full original artwork:
"You rang, sir?"
Gahan Wilson
Original art
Playboy, January 1967

Gahan Wilson
Swann Galleries
June 5, 2018, Sale 2480, Illustration Art, Lot 221


There, that's so much more satisfying. But what of the missing centerfold? Is there any way for us to get to see that? Well, of course there is. Playboy centerfolds are easily searchable on the internet. (The cartoons, not so much. Go figure.) On inspection the centerfold photograph from January 1967 looks highly doctored—see the suspicious curtain edge, for example—not to mention anatomically improbable, does it not? Well, no wonder it was removed from this copy of the magazine!
Surrey Marshe
Photo by Alexas Urba
Playboy, January 1967


Surrey Marshe, Miss January, was born Solveig Mellomborgen in Norway. She is the author of The Girl in the Centerfold, published in 1969 to no particular acclaim. She is now 71 and no longer contributes to the literary scene.

You can still buy the book on Amazon, though, where it is cleverly cross-marketed with a banner ad for "Essential school supplies!"
https://www.amazon.com/girl-centerfold-uninhibited-memoirs-January/dp/B0007HGWFI

Me, I'm waiting for the audiobook. Finally, for the benefit of those too young to remember the cultural importance of the Playboy centerfold in its heyday, this music video just may be of help:
"Centerfold"
J. Geils Band



Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery 
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Gahan Wilson

Playboy


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September 11


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