Playgirl: The Erection Trajection

Cody Springs

'They didn't want a full-on erection, so the photographer shot pictures as I went down…giving them the opportunity to select the degree of erection.'

'Brian Dawson (Centerfold)

Brian Dawson (April 1978)

Most of us don't remember our first erection. For many, that first chubbie occurred while we were still in the womb.  Many of us however, remember the first time we saw an erection on another guy, either in person or in print.  For many young men and women, earlier erection memories stem from Playgirl Magazine.  

Jonathan Howard (2001)

If you first experienced reading Playgirl in the 1990's or 2000's, you might have assumed they'd always been there.  In one form or another, they sort of were.  The journey however, to showing full on hard ons didn't really begin until a decade after the first issue was released.  This isn't a history of the magazine, there are some great articles on-line.  My favorite is Esquire Magazine's look back at the history of the magazine. (HERE)  Thanks to a FH reader however, I was inspired go back and check out the rise of erection in the magazine.

Steve Rally

Their rule was, if I showed a penis and it was erect, it needed to be floating on water or something, so they could say, "This is not an erect penis."

Simón Cherpitel (photographer, August and October 1974):

One of the reader-favorite centerfolds called, enraged because there was a three-month period where erections were used, and a model he felt competitive with had a hard-on. I said, "I'm looking at your photograph and you have nothing to be ashamed of." He said, "Get a ruler and I can prove to you that I'm at a disadvantage." 

Neil Feineman (special editions editor, 1979–83) 

John Joseph Mills (1976)

Playgirl officially hit the market in 1973 and I believe the first erection appeared in the magazine three years later. 1976 Discovery John Joseph Mills may not have had a raging hard on, but it was an erection none the less. 

Greg Louganis (1987)

1987 ushered in a brief period when not only erections disappeared, but penis's as well.  It only lasted a matter of months, but someone decided the focus should be on celebrity.  Greg Louganis was one of a slew of athletes, soap stars and actors who graced the magazine during the 80's.  By late 1987, penis's, and erections were back.

Brian Buzzini

Although Man of the year's Brian Buzzini spread (photographed by Richard Arma) was incredibly hot, it didn't really feature any full on erections.  His centerfold however, showed Brian at full alert.  It was common for awhile to shoot models with erections, but only use them for the centerfold. 

Bill McAnally, Man of the Month June 1980

Bill McAnally in the eighties, and Sean McNeil in the nineties erected two of the most memorable boners.

Sean McNeil

For awhile, in addition to centerfold standing at attention, the only other section of the magazine that featured erections were the Playgirl Fantasy's.  For the magazine's first few decades, they went to great lengths to distance themselves from their huge gay readership.  One of the ways they did this, and to make sure we knew the model was 'straight' was to ensure his willy only got hard when a woman was present in the image.  

Richard Lewoncyzk (1993)

When Richard Lewoncyzk posed for Playgirl in 1993, he was an aspiring model, and was hesitant about having his images be overly sexual. His layout was mostly clothed with a few 'timid' shots, like the image above, appearing in the issue.  Erection shots were indeed shot though, and later were published on the magazine's website. There are several models whose erections shots appear only on-line and not in the magazines print editions.

'I started in the early 90's. When I started erections were not mandatory. They did not care if we shot them, but the models were encouraged to fluff at least part way. I had worked for about a year and then John Holliday did a spread in the magazine (he was a famous centerfold) and he did a full on erection shoot. He was very well endowed and it caused a change in the way the magazine was presented after that.' 

John Holliday

'From that point on, all models had to do erection shots. From my experience, all the models wanted to do erections, so nothing really changed except that now they printed those shots. Some bring magazines, videos, but today they use their cell phones. The money is the same.'

Greg Weiner

Marco Washington (1997)

By the time the 2000's rolled around, erections were the norm, and it was sometimes difficult to find any models posing without them.  I miss the days of the flaccid penis myself.  I like an erection shot before, but loved when they featured a model at different levels of excitement.   An 'all erection' series of images bores me.  The competition Greg referenced between models played a part, but the magazines competition with the net also meant everything had to be bigger and longer to get any attention. 

Mirko Dragul (2009)