← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · il ragno
Thread ID: 6862 | Posts: 6 | Started: 2003-05-22
2003-05-22 20:44 | User Profile
Came across a site cataloguing the first 30-odd years of PLAYBOY magazine interviews, rightly cited as among the first of the in-depth, long-form interviews to be popularized in America. (Frankly, there have never been enough long interviews published - the more pruning is done, the less actual interview you get, and more opportunities for the interviewer to orchestrate and arrange a desired result.)
Anywho, I thought a sample listing of the PLAYBOY interview subjects separated by a decade might illuminate the descent of the American mind, and it does. Note how, relentlessly, all roads lead to television.
[url=http://my.en.com/~wizofid/playboy/interview.html]http://my.en.com/~wizofid/playboy/interview.html[/url]
NO. ISSUE YEAR INTERVIEW
121 JAN 1964 Vladmir Nabakov 122 FEB 1964 Panel on Jazz: Today and Tomorrow 123 MAR 1964 Ayn Rand 124 APR 1964 Jean Genet 125 MAY 1964 Jack Lemmon 126 JUN 1964 Ingmar Bergman 127 JUL 1964 Salvador Dali 128 AUG 1964 Dick Gregory 129 SEP 1964 Henry Miller 130 OCT 1964 Cassius Clay (Muhammed Ali) 131 NOV 1964 George Wallace 132 DEC 1964 Ian Fleming
241 JAN 1974 Hugh Hefner 242 FEB 1974 Clint Eastwood 243 MAR 1974 Groucho Marx 244 APR 1974 Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden 245 MAY 1974 Henry Aaron 246 JUN 1974 Admiral Elmo Zumwalt 247 JUL 1974 Barry Commoner 248 AUG 1974 Erich von Daniken 249 SEP 1974 Anthony Burgess 250 OCT 1974 Al Goldstein 251 NOV 1974 Hunter Thompson 252 DEC 1974 Robert Redford
347 JAN 1984 Dan Rather 348 FEB 1984 Paul Simon 349 MAR 1984 Moses Malone 350 APR 1984 Joan Collins 351 MAY 1984 Calvin Klein 352 JUN 1984 Jesse Jackson 353 JUL 1984 Walid Jumblatt 354 AUG 1984 Bobby Knight 355 SEP 1984 Shirley MacLaine 356 OCT 1984 David Letterman 357 NOV 1984 Jose Napoleon Duarte 358 DEC 1984 Paul and Linda McCartney
467 JAN 1994 David Letterman 468 FEB 1994 Pete Townshend 469 MAR 1994 Anthony Hopkins 470 APR 1994 Howard Stern 471 MAY 1994 Ron Howard 472 JUN 1994 Garth Brooks 473 JUL 1994 Bill Gates 474 AUG 1994 Dion Sanders 475 SEP 1994 David Geffen 476 OCT 1994 Jerry Jones 477 NOV 1994 Christian Slater 478 DEC 1994 Gary Shandling
I'm afraid what next year might bring. Jayson Blair, of course, and Jessica Lynch. Perhaps thug-rapper 50 Cent, or a catch-up with Queen Latifah to keep it real. Somebody from Buffy or Dawson's Creek. Sean Hannity or Ann Coulter, followed the month after by Michael Moore for balance. Dershowitz, if he wasn't already inked to PENTHOUSE.
Was it really only 40 years ago that Nabokov and Bergman were 'what's hot' as opposed to 'what's not'? Thank heaven we have left those Dark Ages behind forever!
2003-05-22 20:51 | User Profile
Onward and upward, right? The establishment of the magazine itself was a sign of the coming decline.
2003-05-22 20:55 | User Profile
Originally posted by AntiYuppie@May 22 2003, 15:50 ** In less than forty years they went from Vladimir Nabokov and Salvador Dali to Howard Stern and Christian Slater as "cultural icons" - by extrapolation one can only imagine the sort of subhuman vermin which will be put up on pedestals forty years from our time. **
They did interview Rush Limbaugh in the mid-90s, didn't they?
:rolleyes:
2003-05-23 12:41 | User Profile
At what point in this clear downward trend did Hefner's daughter take of the mag?
PB started looking suspiciously like a fag version of Cosmopolitain at some point, and I suspect that a female taking over may have been the signal event.
I admit that I read Playboy before I got religion and started bucking for beatification - not that I'd ever look at the naughty pictures. :hyp:
Walter
2003-05-23 12:52 | User Profile
Oh, I dunno, I would read an interview with Buffy! {snicker} or better yet, James Marsters!
(He was supposed to be IN X Men -- did anyone recognize him?! He had a credit, but we don't remember seeing him...)
2003-05-23 15:01 | User Profile
I was more of a Hustler aficionado myself. Mr. Flynt's erudite commentary and the wholesome, rib-ticklin' fun of Chester the Molester made the difference.
That and no vaseline on the lens.
:shock: