Both DePaul University and Playboy magazine were established in Chicago, and both became local institutions – the former for its academic excellence, and the latter for the entrepreneurial spirit that turned founder Hugh Hefner into a self-made millionaire. While a Catholic university and a magazine known for its nude centerfolds might seem like an odd pair, materials in DePaul’s Special Collections and Archives demonstrate that the two have shared many connections over the past 60 years. On the heels of Playboy‘s announcement that it will eliminate nude photography next year, the University Archives looks at the effect the iconic men’s magazine had on campus life at DePaul.
Debuting in December 1953 with a now-famous centerfold of Marilyn Monroe, Playboy was an immediate success. The magazine’s sales grew steadily each month, with national circulation hitting 600,000 by its third anniversary in 1956. That fall, with an eye to attracting more college men to its readership, Playboy sponsored a national college advertising contest with a grand prize of $1000. DePaul’s chapter of Alpha Delta Sigma, a national advertising fraternity, flatly rejected a suggestion that they enter the contest. “These DePaul students refuse to endorse Playboy on the grounds that it is a magazine opposed to their standards of morality,” the chapter declared in a formal statement.
The DePaulia agreed. In an October 19, 1956 editorial titled “Strange Type of Success,” the newspaper’s opinion of Playboy was unequivocal.
“Morally, it smells,” the article stated. “Playboy could have been a good magazine. It will fail because all things fail which base their success on sexy pictures and raw jokes.”
The DePaulia‘s article struck a nerve with Playboy‘s Vice President, Victor Lownes III, who wrote a long letter to the editor in defense of the magazine. Noting that the November 1956 issue of Playboy featured articles on Christmas gifts, books, plays, restaurants, and Ernest Hemingway, Lownes wrote, “If this potpourri of articles…presents a success story based on ‘sexy pictures and raw jokes,’ then we certainly don’t know these items when we see them. We feel that our success is based on a sophisticated recognition of what interests young urban men who are spending their way up in the world. We feel that an emphasis on fashion, hi-fi, music, theatre, food and drink, and travel – yes, and girls – captures the interests of young men-about-business and men-about-campus.”
The DePaulia added their last words on the subject: “We believe in the Sixth and Ninth Commandments of God: Thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.”
In the decades that followed, concern about the morality of Playboy‘s content relaxed. As evidence of the changing times, DePaul held its annual Homecoming Dance at the Playboy Towers in 1971. The following year, DePaul’s chapter of the National Society of Pershing Rifles invited Bunnies from the Chicago Playboy Club to campus to play in a 24-hour charity basketball tournament. The Bunnies formed a team and, according to the DePaulia, “soundly trounced” the Pershing Rifles in the final round of the tournament, helping to raise $500 for the American Cancer Society.
DePaul’s latest interaction with Playboy came in 2005, when the Humanities Center invited Christie Hefner, Hugh Hefner’s daughter and then-CEO of Playboy Enterprises, to speak on campus. “This was a lively and provocative conversation about the role of women in the media, in business, and in politics,” the Humanities Center wrote in its annual report later that year. With a woman at the helm, it was clear that much had changed at Playboy since the 1950s. The positive student response to Hefner’s visit proved that opinions at DePaul had changed, too. “M[s]. Hefner was unexpectedly genuine,” junior Kelly Carder told the DePaulia. “She was uplifting and deconstructed a lot of myths and stereotypes that surround Playboy.”
Learn more about DePaul’s history in the University Archives! Contact us at 773-325-7864 or archives@depaul.edu.