Centerfold Centerfold The centerfold or centrefold of a magazine refers to a gatefolded spread, usually a portrait such as a pin-up or a nude, inserted in the middle of the publication, or to the model featured in the portrait. In saddle-stitched magazines (as opposed to those that are perfect-bound), the centerfold does not have any blank space cutting through the image. The term was coined by Hugh Hefner, founder of "Playboy" magazine. The success of the first issue of "Playboy" has been attributed in large part to its centerfold: a nude of Marilyn Monroe. The advent of monthly centerfolds gave the
Rogue (magazine) friend Hugh Hefner coming to me in 1953 to propose an idea for a magazine to be called "Playboy". Hef was talented but poor and his passion had been fantasy. He was a struggling cartoonist and had been working in a clerical capacity at "Esquire". I had been buying fantasy cartoons from him for several years (they were so bad I never published them but he needed the money and to this day we have a running routine where I threaten to issue them as a nostalgic bonanza but defer to his pleadings of personal embarrassment) and one evening he