Jeannie Bell Nude

Spank It Like It’s 1974

Fans of classic Playboy playmates like Jayne Mansfield, Jean Bell, Dorothy Stratten, Madeleine & Mary Collinson, Jenny McCarthy, and Pam Anderson who don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on Ebay can rejoice.

Playboy magazine has just launched a free online archive that features 53 digital back issues of the magazine, one each from the years 1954 to 2007, just as they appeared on the newsstand— advertisements, hi-fi stereo reviews, Norman Mailer stories and all.

Nothing has been this free since the Whole Earth Catalog.

Read more after the jump.

Some time ago, I was watching the Comedy Central Roast of Hugh Hefner on TV. When noted Civil Rights figure, comedian and raw foodist Dick Gregory's turn came to roast Hef, he said he couldn't say a word against him because of all the good things the Playboy founder had done in the 60s for him when he was a struggling black comic in the era of segregation. As it turns out, Hef's commitment to helping black entertainers also extended to the softer sex. Two of my favorites in this category are 1969 Playmate Jeannie Bell, who showed her cocoa chest bombs in 1974 drive-in raceploitation classic The Klansman and 1975 Playmate Azizi Johari who, along with being the owner of one of the first pair of African-American Alps to appear on the magazine's cover, also saw fit to uncover her chocolate milk sacks in 1981 boxing flick Body and Soul and the John Cassavetes classic The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976). Hef, we've just found two (or is it four?) more reasons to be grateful to you!