Playboy (1968)

Playboy Magazine: This Week in Baltimore
(Jan. 18-Jan. 24, 1968)



Following is an entire issue of one of the last Playboy magazines - a guide to Baltimore nightlife that began publication in 1947 at the height of burlesque (and well before Hugh Hefner started publishing his Playboy in 1953) under the auspices of Bernie Lit and ran through the late go-go dancing 1960s. It's subtitle was "In the Land of Pleasant Living, The Magazine of Baltimore City, The Surrounding Counties & Seashores of Maryland, and Delaware Nite-Life."

I like this particular cover because even in 1968 it featured a gal in a giant cocktail glass (I wonder who sold these? I would have loved to have reclined in one of these in my backyard this past summer - it would have served as a kiddie pool for adults!), a '50s and early '60s burlesque motif that I thought was passe by 1968. (And I also wonder if Playboy ceased publication soon after as a result of that year's downtown riots which spelled the end of the "Land of Pleasant Living" and ushered in the era of urban flight?)





Notice the ad at the top left for the Gayety Nite Club which, in small print, lists Sandy Warner as a performer. I wonder if that's the same Sandy Warner (aka "Sandra Warner") who graced the cover of 16 Martin Denny albums and was known as "THE cover girl of space age pop"?



Exotica cover girl Sandy Warner

In addition to modeling for exotica albums and acting (she appeared in Nicholas Ray's Party Girl and Don Siegel's Point Blank, as well as on numerous TV shows), Sandy and her twin sister Sonia had a nightclub act, so it's conceivable.