Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
This October 1958 issue of Playboy holds a distinctive place in the magazine's early history as the first issue to feature two women sharing the title of Playmate of the Month, Mara Corday and Pat Sheehan, presented together via a double-sided centerfold. That format, unusual within Playboy's established monthly convention of a single featured Playmate, makes this issue a notable structural departure worth documenting on its own merits, independent of either woman's individual career. Mara Corday arrived at this feature already an established Hollywood actress, having built a career through Universal-International Pictures in a series of 1950s science-fiction films, including a small but now well-remembered role in 1955's "Tarantula," alongside starring parts in "The Giant Claw" and "The Black Scorpion." Pat Sheehan brought her own substantial media profile to the issue, having worked as an NBC contract player with appearances on "The Milton Berle Show" and "Texaco Star Theater," and having earned early public recognition through beauty pageant titles including Miss San Francisco. Both women's established careers outside of Playboy give this issue a dual celebrity anchor rarely found even among the magazine's more famous individual Playmate features. That combination of an unusual editorial format and two women with genuinely substantial careers elsewhere makes this issue a significant artifact within Playboy's broader publishing history. It captures a moment when the magazine was still actively experimenting with how its signature centerfold feature could be structured and presented.
Pat Sheehan's life beyond this centerfold appearance offers additional historical texture for collectors researching this specific issue. Just months before this issue's publication, in May 1958, she had married Dennis Crosby, son of Bing Crosby, in a Las Vegas ceremony held at the Tropicana Hotel, where Sheehan had worked as a showgirl. That marriage situated her within one of Hollywood's most prominent entertainment families at the very moment this issue reached newsstands, adding a layer of contemporary celebrity relevance to her Playmate feature beyond her television work alone. She had also previously dated a number of notable figures, including Frank Sinatra and Rod Taylor, and would later be remembered by contemporaries with descriptions like "Television's Marilyn Monroe." Mara Corday, for her part, would go on to marry actor Richard Long in 1957, having met him on the set of an earlier film production, a marriage that continued well beyond this issue's publication. Both women's connections to prominent figures within Hollywood's broader entertainment community situate this issue within a specific and well-documented social landscape of the late 1950s. That web of connections, spanning film, television, and Las Vegas entertainment, adds meaningful biographical context to what might otherwise be treated as a purely photographic feature.
Beyond its centerfold, this issue carried a substantial roster of fiction from several notable contributors, including Charles Beaumont's "Perchance to Dream," Ken Purdy's "The 51 Tones of Green," and Ray Russell's "Montage," each reflecting the caliber of writing Playboy was actively cultivating during this period of the magazine's development. Charles Beaumont in particular was an accomplished writer of speculative and horror fiction who would go on to become a notable contributor to "The Twilight Zone" television series in the years following this issue's publication. Ray Russell served as Playboy's fiction editor during this period and was himself an established author, giving his contribution added significance as both a piece of fiction and a reflection of the magazine's internal editorial talent. The issue also included a pictorial titled "Les Girls," focused on Las Vegas showgirls, a thematic thread that connects naturally to Pat Sheehan's own background as a Tropicana performer. That connection between the issue's photographic content and its featured Playmate's real biography reflects a level of thematic coherence not always present across Playboy's early issues. This combination of substantial fiction and connected photographic content makes the issue a rich reference point for collectors interested in the magazine's early literary development.
Taken as a whole, this issue represents a genuinely multifaceted artifact within Playboy's early publishing history, distinguished by its unusual dual-Playmate format, the substantial outside careers of both featured women, and a fiction roster reflecting the magazine's growing literary ambitions during this period. For collectors specifically interested in the structural evolution of Playboy's centerfold format, this issue's shared feature offers a documented example of the magazine experimenting outside its standard single-Playmate convention. For those interested in the broader web of Hollywood and Las Vegas entertainment connections of the late 1950s, both Corday and Sheehan's documented biographies add considerable depth beyond the photography alone. This issue stands as a well-rounded historical document, connecting several distinct threads of mid-century American entertainment culture within a single publication.
About the Publication
Playboy was founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and quickly grew into one of the most influential men's lifestyle magazines of the 20th century, combining photography with fiction, journalism, and cultural commentary aimed at a readership the magazine cultivated as sophisticated and culturally engaged. The monthly Playmate centerfold remained a defining structural feature of the magazine throughout its early years, though the specific format of that feature was still being actively refined during this period, as this issue's unusual double-Playmate presentation demonstrates. By 1958, Playboy had also established a strong reputation for its fiction content, regularly featuring contributions from accomplished authors alongside its photography, a strategy that helped distinguish the magazine from competitors relying more heavily on visual content alone. Ray Russell's role as fiction editor during this period reflects the magazine's institutional commitment to literary quality, a commitment that brought writers like Charles Beaumont and Ken Purdy into the magazine's regular contributor roster. Playboy's audience consisted primarily of young, professionally engaged American men, a readership the magazine's combination of literary ambition, cultural commentary, and photography was specifically designed to reach. Advertising within issues from this period commonly reflected products marketed toward that same aspirational male readership, offering useful secondary context for researchers studying mid-century consumer culture. The magazine's willingness to experiment with its centerfold format, as seen in this issue's shared Playmate feature, reflects an editorial environment still actively developing the conventions that would later become standardized across the publication's decades-long run. That period of active format experimentation makes issues from this specific stretch of Playboy's history particularly interesting to collectors studying the magazine's early structural evolution.
Key Highlights Inside
- A shared, double-sided centerfold featuring Mara Corday and Pat Sheehan as co-Playmates of the Month. This was an unusual departure from Playboy's standard single-Playmate format. Both women brought established careers in film and television to the feature.
- Mara Corday's centerfold appearance, alongside her established Hollywood career at Universal-International Pictures. She was known for roles in 1950s science-fiction films including "Tarantula," "The Giant Claw," and "The Black Scorpion." Her career continued well beyond this Playboy feature.
- Pat Sheehan's centerfold appearance, photographed by Sam Wu, alongside her career as an NBC contract player. She had recently married Dennis Crosby, son of Bing Crosby, in a Las Vegas ceremony just months before this issue's release. She was the first Playmate to share the title of Playmate of the Month.
- Fiction by Charles Beaumont, titled "Perchance to Dream." Beaumont later became a notable contributor to "The Twilight Zone" television series. His inclusion reflects Playboy's growing literary ambitions during this period.
- Fiction by Ken Purdy, titled "The 51 Tones of Green," and by Ray Russell, titled "Montage." Russell served as Playboy's fiction editor at the time. Both contributions reinforce this issue's substantial literary content.
- A pictorial titled "Les Girls," focused on Las Vegas showgirls. The theme connects naturally to Pat Sheehan's own background as a Tropicana performer. It adds thematic coherence between the issue's photographic and biographical content.
- Additional articles including "The Pros of Paris" and "Executive Chess," alongside the 1958 Playboy Jazz Poll. These features reflect the magazine's broader lifestyle and cultural coverage beyond its fiction and photography. Specific details of these articles are not reproduced here beyond their documented titles.
Condition & Rarity
This issue is described as being in good condition with some water damage, a combination collectors should weigh carefully when evaluating any surviving copy of this title. Water exposure is one of the more significant condition factors for vintage periodicals, since it can affect page integrity and staining considerably more than ordinary handling wear typical of a magazine that has survived nearly seven decades since its original publication. It is a copy without a mailing label, a variant collectors often value for its unobstructed cover presentation. The centerfold in this copy remains intact and attached, a particularly important condition factor for Playboy collectors, since detached or missing centerfolds are common among surviving copies and substantially reduce both completeness and collector value. That the centerfold survives intact here is especially significant given this issue's unusual double-Playmate format, since the feature's specific structural rarity adds value beyond what a standard single-Playmate centerfold would carry. Early Playboy issues from the 1950s are generally scarce in complete, well-preserved condition, given the magazine's disposable newsstand origins and the tendency for centerfolds to be removed or damaged over decades of handling. A plastic protective covering, when present, functions as a stabilizing measure intended to prevent further deterioration rather than a factor that changes the underlying grade already present. Collectors evaluating any surviving copy of this issue should weigh the significance of an intact, unusual double-Playmate centerfold against any noted water damage, since both factors substantially affect overall desirability. Given the combination of an intact centerfold and this issue's rare dual-Playmate format, a good-grade copy with some water exposure still represents a meaningful find for collectors of early Playboy history.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
Early Playboy issues featuring unusual structural variations, particularly one as notable as this issue's shared double-Playmate centerfold, are genuinely difficult to find complete and well-preserved today. The added significance of two featured women with substantial outside careers in film and television, combined with a fiction roster including Charles Beaumont and Ray Russell, makes this a notably well-documented artifact within the magazine's early history. For those drawn to this particular issue, our Playboy collection is an excellent place to continue browsing, since it gathers other surviving issues from across the magazine's long publishing history, including further examples from its formative structural and literary years. That collection offers a broader look at how Playboy's editorial and photographic conventions evolved across different decades. Collectors with a specific interest in Mara Corday, Pat Sheehan, or the broader Las Vegas and Hollywood entertainment connections of the late 1950s may find related material of interest scattered throughout that same collection. Beyond the publication itself, our 1958 magazines collection offers useful context for the broader publishing landscape of the same year, spanning titles well outside Playboy alone. Browsing by year can be especially valuable for researchers interested in a specific cultural moment rather than one particular magazine. Given how scarce well-preserved, complete issues from this era tend to be once found, we'd encourage anyone interested in this period to browse both collections at their own pace. There is always more of this history available than a single issue can represent on its own. We hope these collections help round out whatever corner of Playboy's early history you're most drawn to.