In the olden days there were other magazines available like MEN, MALE, STAG, REAL MEN with adventure stories and a section of big breasted “cheesecake”.
I remember going to the drugstore to pick up the evening newspaper and being educated while cruising the magazine isles in 1959. There were plenty of nudie magazines on the rack other than Playboy.
In the late 1970s the homo industry started making inroads on them with titles like MANLEY MEN! The real men’s magazines then ceased publication rather than be mistaken for a fag mag. I do miss those paintings by Mort Kunstler.
Another amusing tale of PB mags...
We lived in a lovely middle class neighborhood in coastal Turkey for 2 years while serving in the USAF. There was an incessant stream of Turks coming by, looking for *rags* [old USA clothing, any condition], magazines, old Sears catalogs, anything they could get...or trade for odd jobs.
A MP who lived next to us had a subscription to PB; turns out his wife could sell the mags for $5 each. Which in the ‘60s, to me, seemed like a lot of money. Well, she sold a big stack of them to a Turkish national/$5. each.
The next day he was back with the stack....screaming and with animated yelling ....wanted his money back. I had to translate for her. He complained that all the centerfolds were torn out ...AND HE WANTED HIS $$$ BACK!!! She said to me, yes, she tore them all out....and had been using them to line the cat’s litter box b/c they *fit so perfectly*.LOL
By then, she had spent the money on groceries so I made her a quick pay-day loan, to pay back the Turk. Today’s climate , with the West being so hated.....we might have been decapitated for want of PB centerfolds.