Following is a list of facts about Playboy magazine, which celebrates its 50th birthday in December.
- Playboy's first issue went on sale in December 1953, selling 54,175 copies at 50 cents each. The maiden magazine contained 44 pages.
- The magazine's original name was Stag Party, and instead of a rabbit, its mascot was a buck. Hugh Hefner changed the name to Playboy at a friend's suggestion after the name Stag Party was challenged in a trademark infringement case.
- The first edition featured a nude photo of Marilyn Monroe that Hefner bought from a local calendar printer, as well as a Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
- The famous Playboy rabbit logo has appeared on every cover since the second edition in January 1954.
- The first centerfold was Marian Stafford, who appeared in the March 1956 issue.
- Spy author Ian Fleming's James Bond character was introduced in a short story the author wrote for Playboy's March 1960 issue.
- US actress Pamela Anderson has been featured on Playboy's cover more than any other model, appearing 10 times between October 1989 and July 2001.
- Seven men have appeared on the cover of Playboy N -eter Sellers in April 1964; Burt Reynolds in October 1979; Steve Martin in January 1980; Donald Trump in March 1990; Dan Aykroyd in August 1993; Jerry Seinfeld in October 1993; and Leslie Nielsen in February 1996.
- Playboy launched into the lucrative merchandising business in 1956, when it began selling cufflinks shaped like a rabbit's head - which first appeared on a magazine cover.
- As of the December 2003 issue, 602 women have been Playmates.
- Hefner has 112 pairs of silk pyjamas, one of the trademarks of his image.
- Playboy launched into the television business in 1982.
- In 1982, Hefner's daughter Christie took over as president of Playboy Enterprises Incorporated.
- There are 18 international editions of Playboy around the world, with the magazines printed in Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain and Taiwan.
- Playboy magazine remains banned in mainland China, but the company's largest product licence deal is with China's Chaifa Investment Ltd., which opened its first store in the communist country in 1993 and operates more than 300 Playboy outlets in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
- Playboy opened the first of its famed Playboy Clubs - staffed by bunny-costumed hostesses - in Chicago in 1960 and closed the last ones amid a severe economic downturn in 1986, when Hefner called the bunnies "a thing of the past."