After many, many, many years of looking I finally found a nice copy of the very first issue of Playboy for sale here in Canada.  I just couldn't pass it up.

I have provided some high quality scans of the inside.  Just click on the following thumbnails.

UPDATE: In 2007, Playboy began selling replica copies of the first issue.  There were 20,000 copies made and they retailed for $25 each.  The copy does not state anywhere on it that it is a reprint.  I have compared the new reprints to my original and it is identical except for the following:

• The reprint has 3 staples while the original had just 2

• The reprint has a black rectangle in the upper right corner while the original had a square

While it is nice to have a copy I am not afraid to touch and let people look through - it is also a little disappointing.  I thought I had something pretty special in my collection but now 20,000 other people will have it too.  Not to mention the poor people that are probably going to get ripped off.  Without something very obvious on the front cover that says it is the 2007 Reprint I think people may get fooled into thinking it is original.

Marilyn's Playboy Covers

December 1953	September 1955
May 1979 (MM impersonator)	January 1997
January 1999 (collage)	December 2005 *
*Note: Although the 2005 issue had a stunningly beautiful cover it contained the most awful trash that has ever been published about Marilyn.  It presented June DiMaggio as fact which she is not.  This woman claims to have baked Marilyn a pizza on the day she died and attended her funeral with her Uncle Joe.  Outrageous lies. Even worse was the "alleged" tapes that Marilyn recorded for Dr. Ralph Greesnson.  John Miner came out of the woodwork to claim that he had heard the tapes and could recall verbatim what was said in them.  Total sensational trash designed to sell.  It is a shame that Hefner supported the articles.  I thought he had more respect for Marilyn than that.