Australian Playboy Australian Playboy Australian Playboy was an Australian imprint of "Playboy" magazine. In 1979 Kerry Packer's ACP Magazines secured the Australian rights to "Playboy" magazine. "Australian Playboy" featured similar content to the lead US edition, and included interviews, feature articles and entertainment reviews. The magazine would rely heavily on the US edition for pictorials, and thus reprinted many pictorials featuring popular US Playmates and celebrities including Pamela Anderson, Erika Eleniak and Anna Nicole Smith. An Australian Playmate of the Year would be crowned annually. The first edition issued February 1979, featured Rosemary Paul on the cover and Karen Pini as the
Playboy calendar rather than for "Playboy". Hefner chose what he deemed the "sexiest" image, a previously unused nude study of Marilyn stretched with an upraised arm on a red velvet background with closed eyes and mouth open. The heavy promotion centered around Marilyn's nudity on the already-famous calendar, together with the teasers in marketing, made the new Playboy magazine a success. The first issue sold out in weeks. Known circulation was 53,991. The cover price was 50¢. Copies of the first issue in mint to near mint condition sold for over $5,000 in 2002. The novel "Fahrenheit 451", by Ray Bradbury,