PLAYBOY & FLASHMAN
Over the years I’ve lost count of the number of people who told me their introduction to Flashman came through Playboy. Flashman appeared along side recipes for cocktails and smoked salmon, interviews with great sportsmen and politicians, political and satirical analysis of the Vietnam war, recruitment and the use of drugs; also Ian Flemming’s James Bond, Fredrick Forsyth’s thrillers and or course the lovely bunny of the month - clearly Playboy has changed a lot since the seventies.
George Macdonald
Fraser collected two Playboy awards
for Fiction and “Flashman at the Charge”
was voted Playboy novel of the year.
I recently asked George if he went to the Playboy mansion to collect is rewards, but he declined, instead his American Agent, a proud upstanding New Englander of fine repute and spotless character went to the mansion to collect awards, meet Heff, and the bunnies. The agent has never yet confessed even to George what happened.
Flashman remains to live
up the same image of 19th “Playboy” - dandy, cad, bounder, plunger,
beau, pleasure seeker, rake, sport, swinger, whorehound,
Casanova, heartbreaker, ladies' man, lady-killer, libertine, Lothario,
philanderer, Prince Charming, rake, Romeo, seducer, stud, woman chaser,
debauchee, while also being a soldier, an officer and gentlemen, a proud
cavalryman, a Hussar and above all a report, a satirist, memoirist,
correspondent, journalist, eye, ferret, fink,
eavesdropper-to-history-in-the-making and legman-to-history’s hidden
truth! Flashman was
THE SERIALISATIONS
Playboy Serialised 'Flashman at the Charge' in 1973 in the April, May and June issues.
The serialisation is
unabridged, including most of the notes and appendixes and features a few
interesting illustrations, collages from various paintings and pictures to
depict a period montage of the Charge and
'Flashman in the Great Game'
appeared in 1975 in the September, October, November
issues.
This time the story
features some commissioned illustrations such as the
Playboy back issues are collectible, these issues for Flashman fans are worth while looking out for.
Vintage Playboy
price guide: Fair £5, Good £10, or Mint £15 each - or
more as collected sets.
The condition
varies and it always worth asking what condition a magazine is in before you
buy.@ Also if you are collecting it is worth noting the
REVIEWING PLAYBOY!
Well this was certainly an interesting assignment! The girls aside Playboy in the seventies were highly entertaining. There is plenty of fashion, Men's that is - the women don't wear much that I can comment on! Lots of flares and adverts for Hi-fi’s which require extremely sturdy sideboards and if you like cars wonderful ads for 70’s Dodges! The issues featuring Flashman also feature some very interesting interviews.
April '73 features an
interview with Tennesse Williams,
May '73 Canndid
Conversation with Walter Cronkite, veteran broadcaster. October
'75 chat with
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· Dawns & Departures of a soldiers life; Flashman Journal
· Victorian Newspaper Cuttings about Flashman
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