Cover Stories

Cover StoriesThirty years of covers represent in a small way the chapter headings of our history, how we became who we are. It started out well, of course. Marilyn Monroe was our cover girl on that first undated issue of late 1953. The Rabbit followed quickly--premiering in the second issue, in fact. Hef conceived of the Rabbit as a means of personalizing Playboy. He avoided a human symbol--partly because of Esquire's Esky and The New Yorker's Eustace Tilley. Instead, he chose a formally attired...