Playboy, promoter of 007, to cease having nude photos

George Lazenby’s 007 reading a copy of Playboy

Playboy, a big promoter of James Bond over the decades, will no longer run photos of nude women, THE NEW YORK TIMES REPORTED.

Here’s an excerpt:

As part of a redesign that will be unveiled next March, the print edition of Playboy will still feature women in provocative poses. But they will no longer be fully nude.

Its executives admit that Playboy has been overtaken by the changes it pioneered. “That battle has been fought and won,” said Scott Flanders, the company’s chief executive. “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s just passé at this juncture.”

This is obviously a big change for Playboy. Its first issue included photos of a nude Marilyn Monroe. The magazine’s circulation has plunged to 800,000 from 5.6 million in 1975, according to the Times.

We mention it here because Playboy and 007 have a long history.

The magazine serialized some of Ian Fleming’s original Bond short stories and novels in the 1960s. In the 1990s, the magazine also presented short stories by then-007 continuation author Raymond Benson. One of Benson’s short stories, Midsummer Night’s Doom, published in Playboy’s 45th anniversary issue, was set at the Playboy mansion. In that story, Bond chats with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

Bond and Playboy came together in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Bond (George Lazenby) casually reads a copy of Playboy while a safe-cracking machine (one of the few gadgets in the film) is at work. After Bond has copied the documents he needs, he takes the magazine’s centerfold with him.

Also, in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, it’s disclosed that Bond (Sean Connery this time) has a membership to a Playboy Club. Such clubs eventually went out of business.

To read the entire Times story, which has a lot of detail about the Playboy revamp, CLICK HERE.