#312 - Parisian Playgirl

Parisian Playgirl, Volume 1, Number Two
Seven, Seventy One Publications
6311 Yucca Street
Hollywood, California
c. 1963

digital replica

The title page of Parisian Playgirl provides the publishers street address but not the date of publication. The absence of zip code in advertiser addresses suggests a date the precedes the middle of 1963.

Tables of contents typically begin with citation of a piece on a page with a small number. The table of contents for 64-page Parisian Playgirl begins with page 60.

Most pictorials use a theme as their focus, not a personality. While there's pictures a-plenty of plenty-pretty girls, a lot of the content is filler. Nothing about these models, or the rooms in which they were photographed, suggests Frenchness.

Professional clip art expresses the French aspect of the title with gratuitous ornament. The graphic artist who accomplished page layouts here used clip art like grout. Although two pages of cartoons and jokes appear and original drawings introduce fiction pieces, some clip art is meant to be construed as illustration.

Selection of the Gallic motif may have been influenced by available clip art, which shows the Eiffel Tower twice, chateaux, a guillotine, a sidewalk kiosk, and Notre Dame. But a drawing of a suspension bridge verifies one blond's connection to San Francisco. Two pages show clip art renderings of 10 old cars.

Two short stories are introduced by illustrations. An essay discusses the effect of the moon on sexual behavior.

The mix of pix and prose echoes the content of magazines like Rogue and Gent. But there's none of the airbrush gleam seen in Parliament zines. While complexions are clear, no effort was made to obscure beauty marks or smooth skin texture.

The tonality of photos was adjusted and many spots re-touched. The page sequence was revised to achieve continuity of one story. Some page layouts were revised to show pictures without reduction in size. The digital replica presents all the content of the magazine, including ads.

The centerfold in the original requires the reader to rotate the magazine. Those pages have been joined and rotated 90° on the last page of the ebook.

All new scans.

Without pretension about its own importance or announcement of any ideals, Parisian Playgirl cobbles together a sweet larder of loveliness that delights the eye. Blending nonsense, nudity, and now nostalgia, this pin-up potpourri streams honey and spice.

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