Pornographic magazine While the 1940s images focused mostly on legs, by the 1950s, the emphasis shifted to breasts. Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe were two of the most popular pinup models. Marilyn Monroe continued to be a popular model for the men's magazines in the 1950s. The 1950s saw the rise of the first mass-market softcore pornographic magazines: "Modern Man" in 1952 and "Playboy" in 1953. Hugh Hefner's "Playboy" started a new style of the men's glossy magazine (or girlie magazine). Hefner coined the term centrefold, and in the first edition of his "Playboy" used a photograph of a nude Marilyn Monroe,
Playboy was published in 1953 and serialized in the March, April and May 1954 issues of "Playboy". An urban legend started about Hefner and the Playmate of the Month because of markings on the front covers of the magazine. From 1955 to 1979 (except for a six-month gap in 1976), the "P" in "Playboy" had stars printed in or around the letter. The legend stated that this was either a rating that Hefner gave to the Playmate according to how attractive she was, the number of times that Hefner had slept with her, or how good she was in bed. The