When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
KELLY MONACO – MISS APRIL 1997
This is Kelly Monaco’s original Playmate of the Month issue, making it an important early-career collectible for fans of Monaco and television memorabilia.
Monaco’s Playboy appearance came before the television career for which she would become nationally known. She soon appeared on Baywatch and later became a major daytime television star, most famously portraying Sam McCall on ABC’s General Hospital for more than two decades.
Her fame expanded well beyond daytime television in 2005 when Monaco became the first-ever celebrity winner of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.
That later success gives this April 1997 issue particular crossover appeal: rather than a Playboy appearance by an already-established television celebrity, it documents Kelly Monaco before the career that would make her a household name to millions of television viewers.
The original Kelly Monaco centerfold is present and intact. As shown in the photographs, it remains remarkably clean and vibrant and complements the exceptional overall condition of this copy.
OTHER MAJOR FEATURES
PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: VINCENT BUGLIOSI
An especially substantive historical feature with the celebrated prosecutor and author of Helter Skelter. Bugliosi discusses Charles Manson, O.J. Simpson, JFK, the American legal system and the drug crisis. His role as prosecutor in the Manson murder trial and his later prominence as a legal author make this interview an interesting piece of American true-crime and legal history.
20 QUESTIONS: VANESSA WILLIAMS
A fascinating 1997 snapshot of Vanessa Williams after she had successfully rebuilt her career and established herself as a major recording artist and actress. Williams had made history as the first Black Miss America, resigned the title amid the highly publicized 1984 controversy involving unauthorized publication of private photographs, and subsequently achieved remarkable success in music, film and television. Her Playboy 20 Questions appearance captures Williams after that extraordinary career transformation.
BRACE YOURSELF FOR HOWIEWOOD – HOWARD STERN
Jamie Malanowski profiles Howard Stern during the enormously important Private Parts period, when Stern’s radio fame was expanding onto the big screen and further into mainstream American popular culture.
ZERO MINUS TEN, PART I – RAYMOND BENSON
The beginning of Raymond Benson’s first original James Bond novel, Zero Minus Ten. An excellent crossover feature for Bond and Ian Fleming continuation-novel collectors.
PAL JOEY – JOEY HEATHERTON
Pictorial featuring Joey Heatherton, who also appears on this issue’s striking Spring Preview cover.
ADDITIONAL CONTENT INCLUDES:
Talk About Toothsome! pictorial; Playboy’s History of the Sexual Revolution, Part III: The Jazz Age (1920–1929) by James R. Petersen; Electronics Fix ’97 by Jonathan Takiff; A Toast to Taste by Gary Regan & Mardee Haidin Regan; Playmate Revisited: Dolly Read; Power Grooming by Donald Charles Richardson; Playboy Gallery: Mariel Hemingway; Fashion Forecast; Bad Blood at the FBI by Jeff Stein; plus Playboy’s regular departments, commentary, reviews, humor and features.
CONDITION – EXCEPTIONAL / LIKE NEW
This is an exceptionally well-preserved collector copy for a magazine published in 1997.
The photographs show a remarkably glossy, clean and vibrant front cover, with deep black background and brilliant cover colors. The magazine lies exceptionally flat. Corners and edges remain very sharp, and the spine presents extremely well with remarkably little evidence of handling.
Interior pages shown are bright, crisp and clean, with excellent color and no obvious staining, writing, significant yellowing, dog-ears or major handling damage visible in the photographs.
Most importantly for the Kelly Monaco collector, the original Kelly Monaco Playmate centerfold is present, intact and exceptionally well preserved.
I hesitate to describe any ungraded nearly 30-year-old magazine as literally “mint,” but this copy has a Near-Mint/Like-New overall appearance and is substantially better preserved than the average vintage magazine encountered today.
Please examine all photographs carefully. They show the actual magazine being offered and form an important part of the condition description.
For the Kelly Monaco collector, General Hospital fan, Dancing with the Stars collector, Playboy Playmate collector, or collector of 1990s popular culture, this is an especially appealing issue: Kelly Monaco’s original Playmate of the Month appearance from before the television career that ultimately made her famous.
Original April 1997 issue — not a reproduction.
