A couple of weeks ago, I made an impulse purchase on eBay. I can’t recall exactly how, but the topic of old-school Playboy centerfold photography came up in a thread online regarding a specific 60s photoshoot. And it made me think to look up what issue of Playboy James Bond was perusing in the safe-cracking scene in what I consider the best Bond film in the series, 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

So I did a little Google sleuthing to figure out what issue it was that’s used in the scene, it was the February 1969 issue. And it got me curious as to what the actual contents of that issue were which Bond was thumbing through. The Playmate of the Month in this issue was Lorrie Menconi and of course her’s was the centerfold he was ogling, which we barely catch a glimpse of as he folds it up and puts it into his breast pocket as he exists the office he had just broken into to run down information on Bloefeld‘s possible whereabouts.

At any rate, I found a copy of the issue in question in relatively decent condition for sale on eBay, so plunked down the $14 for it. It was an interesting, if banal magazine issue in many ways. There was a “comedy” photo shoot/spread featuring Woody Allen which, in retrospect is a little cringe given what we later learned about him. That said, the issue was a lot more literary heavy than expected, though the amount of tobacco and booze ads certainly did remind me it was a different era indeed.

A minor bit of nostalgic Bond memorabilia to have on the shelf. If a bit obscure.