Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The February 1956 issue of Playboy featuring Marguerite Empey as the Playmate of the Month is a document from one of the most historically significant periods in the magazine's early development. By February 1956, Hugh Hefner had been publishing Playboy for just over two years — the magazine had launched in December 1953 — and the publication was in the active process of defining its editorial identity and establishing its cultural authority. The first thirty or so issues of Playboy represent the founding period of one of the most commercially and culturally influential American magazines of the twentieth century, and each surviving issue from this window carries the specific historical weight of a publication establishing itself rather than merely maintaining an established identity. The confirmed intact centerfold — Marguerite Empey as the February 1956 Playmate, still attached — is the primary collector attribute of this issue, and its survival in attached condition after nearly seventy years makes this a more complete artifact than the majority of surviving examples from any given issue of this era. For collectors building archives of vintage Playboy magazine issues, mid-1950s numbers with intact centerfolds are among the most historically specific and collectible material in the publication's entire run.
The confirmed non-centerfold content of this issue adds further documentary layers. The listing confirms fiction by Don Marquis ("The Crack of Doom") and John Collier ("Mary") — two writers whose credentials give this issue's literary content specific historical interest. Don Marquis was a celebrated American humorist and poet whose work had been widely read since the early twentieth century; his presence in a February 1956 Playboy reflects the magazine's consistent editorial ambition to publish writers with genuine literary standing alongside its photography content. John Collier was a British short story writer whose dark, witty fiction had earned him a devoted following and whose work appeared in prestigious American publications throughout the 1940s and 1950s; a Collier story in Playboy was a deliberate editorial signal about the kind of fiction the magazine intended to publish. The confirmed sports coverage — "Boxing 1956" — and jazz feature on Stan Kenton document the magazine's engagement with the masculine cultural interests of its readership beyond its centerfold program. Collectors of 1956 magazines will find this issue documents the magazine's editorial ambitions in their most actively developing phase, with the combination of literary fiction, sports journalism, and jazz coverage that defined Playboy's identity as more than a pin-up publication.
Stan Kenton's presence in the confirmed content is worth specific note. Kenton was one of the most commercially successful and critically debated jazz bandleaders of the 1950s — his big band arrangements pushed the boundaries of the form toward something more orchestral and experimental — and his appearance in a Playboy jazz feature reflects the magazine's consistent championing of jazz as the soundtrack of the aspirational urban male lifestyle it was cultivating. The Playboy Jazz Poll, which the magazine would formalize into an annual institution, was already becoming a significant force in the jazz world, and early issues' jazz coverage documents the foundational period of that relationship between the magazine and the music.
About the Publication
Playboy, founded by Hugh Hefner in Chicago in December 1953, had by February 1956 published approximately twenty-six issues and was establishing itself as a commercially successful and culturally distinct publication that combined the monthly Playmate centerfold with sophisticated fiction, cultural criticism, sports journalism, and lifestyle content. Its audience was primarily young, educated, urban, and male, and its editorial formula was specifically designed to address that readership's interests comprehensively rather than focusing on the centerfold photography in isolation. By 1956 its circulation was growing rapidly, and the editorial decisions of this foundational period — the writers it published, the cultural figures it championed, the visual standards it established — were laying the groundwork for the influential publication it would become through the 1960s and 1970s.
Key Highlights Inside
- Marguerite Empey centerfold — confirmed intact and attached — The listing specifically confirms the February 1956 Playmate centerfold is present and attached, a primary completeness attribute for a nearly seventy-year-old issue where centerfold removal was the standard original use.
- "The Crack of Doom" — Don Marquis fiction — A confirmed story by the celebrated American humorist and poet, reflecting the magazine's editorial commitment to literary fiction of genuine standing in its founding-period issues.
- "Mary" — John Collier fiction — A confirmed story by the British short story writer whose dark, witty fiction appeared in prestigious American publications throughout the 1950s, providing a second named literary fiction credit for this issue.
- "Boxing 1956" — sports coverage — Confirmed sports journalism documenting the boxing landscape of 1956, consistent with the magazine's early editorial formula of engaging its male readership's interest in sports alongside its literary and photography content.
- Stan Kenton jazz feature — Confirmed coverage of one of the most commercially significant and critically debated jazz bandleaders of the 1950s, documenting the early period of Playboy's foundational relationship with jazz culture.
- Water damage noted — confirmed condition factor — The listing specifically identifies water damage as a condition factor that should be assessed carefully from available photographs before any collector evaluation is finalized.
Condition & Rarity
Good condition with water damage, intact and attached centerfold, and no subscription label presents a condition profile that requires careful evaluation of two factors pulling in different directions. The intact attached centerfold is the single most significant positive attribute — for mid-1950s Playboy issues, centerfold attachment after nearly seventy years is a genuinely uncommon survival state and substantially elevates the issue's collector standing above examples where the centerfold has been removed. The water damage is the primary negative condition factor and must be assessed from photographs for its extent, location, and effect on page integrity and visual clarity — water damage that is localized and has not caused significant page adhesion, warping, or image degradation is a different situation from pervasive damage that affects the primary content sections. The no-label status confirms the full cover image is unobstructed. For a foundational-period Playboy issue with confirmed literary fiction by Marquis and Collier, sports coverage, a jazz feature, and an intact centerfold, the research and documentary value at this grade remains substantial — with water damage assessment the critical variable in any specific evaluation.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
Mid-1950s Playboy issues with intact centerfolds are among the most actively sought in the publication's collector market, and a February 1956 number with confirmed Marquis and Collier fiction alongside the Kenton jazz coverage is historically richer than most comparable issues from this founding period. The broader Playboy magazine archive at OriginalMagazines.com spans many decades of the publication's history and is worth exploring for other foundational-period issues from the 1950s. For collectors focused on the specific mid-fifties American cultural moment this issue documents, the full 1956 magazine collection covers a range of titles from a year that captured American popular culture at one of its most commercially confident and culturally productive moments.