26.09.2020
02:08
Hugh Hefner’s publication opened the doors of stardom to many models
September 26, 2020 Share on FacebookShare Share on TwitterTweet Share on WhatsAppShare
Pamela Anderson, Carmen Electra and Jenny McCarthy have something in common: They rose to fame after appearing in Playboy
They could well have been just “one more” of the hundreds of “bunnies” that paraded through the cover and inside pages of Playboy in its 66-year history, but some privileged women achieved the dream of thousands: to make the leap from magazine to international fame.
Their faces and figures were popular in the pages of the famous publication created by Hugh Hefner in 1953, but their personal charm, their ambition and their effort allowed them to forge a career in film, television and modeling.
Pamela anderson
The clearest case of Playboy’s influence in the world of entertainment and popular culture.
Pamela was 22 years old when she starred in her first magazine cover, in October 1989. That image showed the young woman flirtatiously covering her intimate area with a hat, but nowhere on the cover did her name appear.
The first cover of Pamela Anderson in “Playboy”, when she was 22 years old
And it is that Anderson had only a few years of having moved from his native Canada to the United States to make a career in the industry and his front door was the Playboy Mansion.
“Hefner loved her and saw her beauty. Pamela was a girl who was beautiful without makeup. She was very smart and talented, ”recalled her ex Jon Peters, about the time she met Anderson at Hugh’s house.
Pamela, in February 1991
The next cover came in February 1991 and the third in July 1992, in that year the blonde made the leap to television in no less than Guardians of the Bay (Baywatch). And so he got one more cover, in August 1993. A star was born.
In November 1994 he added his fifth cover, but this time his name already appeared. “Babewatch!”, The magazine title the issue, referring to the popular television series. “Great New Photos of Pam Anderson.”
In 1994 she was no longer just another blonde on the cover of “Playboy”, she was Pam Anderson
Today Pamela is not only the record bunny with 14 magazine covers and 15 photo shoots, she already has an extensive history in film and television in the United States with appearances in The Nanny, Scary Movie 3 and Dancing with the stars , as well of being a popular icon (rider Mario Cipollini had a photo of Pamela on his handlebars to motivate himself).
“Hugh Hefner was a pioneer and helped empower so many women… he got me into a way of life that no one else can understand. I am eternally grateful, ”she acknowledged in an interview with the newspaper El País.
Victoria Silvstedt
After an injury at age 16 ended her dream of being an Olympic ski athlete, the young woman from a small town in Sweden entered the world of modeling thanks to her mother, who sent her photo to a beauty pageant.
Later, her sister registered her for Miss Sweden and thus earned the possibility of representing her country in Miss World, which was followed by a stint in Paris where she was rejected for not fitting the body standards of the industry.
So when she got the chance to appear in Playboy , Victoria knew that was the chance for her career to take off.
This is what Victoria Silvstedt looked like in December 1996, when she was 22 years old
“I was in Palm Springs when a model who had barely been on the cover of Playboy , Jennifer Driver, told me ‘you would be perfect for Playboy !’” The model recalled in an interview with Monaco Life . “ She ended up talking to Hugh Hefner, showed him my photo and told him it could be the new Anna Nicole Smith. So he flew me to Los Angeles and … I never went back to Paris. It was the American dream ”.
Victoria debuted in December 1996 (although not on the cover, but in an indoor session) and in 1997 she was named Playmate of the Year, there with a cover. Then followed, one after another, appearances in the most famous magazines such as GQ, Maxim, FHM and a contract with a New York agency that led to a campaign with Guess and its entry into television and cinema.
In 1997 she was named Playmate of the previous year
“So many opportunities presented themselves and I made the most of each one. I think I was very lucky; it could have gone another way. Having all this success very quickly and being alone, I always listened to my instincts. I think a lot of that comes from the strength and discipline I had in training as an athlete, which helped me survive.
Silvstedt even tried to make a career as a singer in 1999, but it did not have the same success as on television, where she is known mainly on the screens of Italy and France.
Jenny McCarthy
Today she is known as an actress, comedian, model and writer, but in October 1993, when she was 20 years old, she was Jennifer Ann McCarthy, a young woman from Chicago who was going through financial difficulties.
The lack of money and the desire to continue studying led Jenny, a girl who studied at a Catholic school, to send a photo for Playboy magazine.
Jenny McCarthy in her first Playboy shoot, October 1993
Among the thousands of models who aspired to a place in the pages of Hugh Hefner’s magazine, McCarthy was chosen to pose in that October issue for which she won $ 30,000 (and in which, by the way, she posed in clothes that remembered a school uniform).
Getting to the center pages of the magazine was not easy.
In an interview for Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Jenny recalled that at that time girls were given five days of tryouts to try and earn those pages, but Hefner was not liking their performance.
“Eight hours a day for five days, then on the fourth day, the producer said, ‘Come meet me, Hef is on the phone,’” he explained. “And Hef said, ‘You have one more chance. Go home and practice, because your face looks like you’ve hit a deer with your car. You look so horrified. ‘ So I went home that night trying to find myself sexy, and I came back and said, ‘Okay, listen, all you’re going to get is a smile. That’s all I know how to do ”.
Jenny McCartney has posed several times in the magazine
It was that smile that gave him his chance in the famous magazine and, from there, everything went up. She became the Playmate of the Month and later the Playmate of the Year , starring on six magazine covers (the last one in 2012). She moved to Los Angeles and began working as a presenter on Hot Rock and later on MTV’s Singled Out .
In 1997 she debuted as a writer with her autobiography and also made the leap to cinema. In fact in 2003 he appeared in Scary Movie 3 , like Pamela Anderson.
Jenny has made headlines in the US for being one of the voices in favor of the anti-vaccine movement, as she assured that her son had a normal development until he was 15 months old, when the triple viral was applied.
Carmen electra
“Once I saw the photos I was like… I had to pinch myself. I couldn’t believe that it was in the magazine and that it was going to be a part of such an iconic time, to be a part of Playboy in general. Marilyn Monroe started with Playboy , and those are the women that I look up to and have really been inspired by. So yes, Playboy was a lot of fun ”, this is how Carmen Electra recalled, in an interview with Fox News, her debut in the bunny magazine, which although it was not on the cover, did allow her to attract enough attention.
Although Carmen had already made a career in California, where she had contact with Prince, and had even published a self-titled album, her May 1996 session at Playboy marked a watershed in her career.
Carmen Electra in her May 1996 shoot for Playboy
The following year, Pamela Anderson’s series debuted on Baywatch, and requests to host shows and appear in movies became numerous.
Carmen in the magazine, January 2009 (Courtesy Playboy)
“There was always something inside of me that, you know, wanted to be a sex symbol. I always looked up to Marilyn Monroe and all those iconic women who were sexy but also acted and danced, (like) Ann-Margret, those were the women who inspired me deep down and still do to this day. I feel super honored and I love it, ”she recalled about the moment she decided to pose for the iconic magazine.
Kim kardashian
Although she had already risen to fame for the dissemination of her intimate video, at the same time of the premiere of her reality show, Kim Kardashian was contacted by Playboy to appear nude in the December 2007 issue.
Although she doubted it at first, Kim finally agreed to pose, as she considered it would be good for her career.
Kim Kardashian in Playboy
The conflict came when she was told that she had to pose completely naked, but Hugh Hefner took action to convince her and thus achieve the famous session with her body covered with pearls.
