Playboy Playmate as a "former" Playmate because "Once a Playmate, always a Playmate". Marilyn Monroe, who was featured in the first issue, was the only one to appear as "Sweetheart of the Month." The first model called a Playmate of the Month was Margie Harrison, Miss January 1954, in the second issue of "Playboy". Generally a woman may appear only once as a Playmate, but in the early years of the magazine, some models were featured multiple times. Marilyn Waltz (February 1954, April 1954, April 1955 her first appearance was as Margaret Scott) and Janet Pilgrim (July 1955, December 1955, and October
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