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The Biggest Names in Sex
Playboy's list of the most important people in sex from the past 55 years—and, no, Hef isn't No. 1—reminds the author why we still need America's smartest smut. And not just for the articles.
This month, on the occasion of its 55th anniversary, Playboy published a list of the 55 most important people in sex from the past 55 years. Number three on the list is the magazine’s founder, Hugh Hefner. Number eight is Timothy Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web. Both men irrevocably changed the modern experience of sex, one intentionally and meticulously, the other inadvertently and chaotically. The half-century between the two marks a profound cultural shift that has for all intents and purposes doomed Hefner’s magazine—even as Playboy, or an updated version of it, has become more necessary than ever.
Without a single black person on the list, it makes no recognition of the influence that African-American sexual culture has had on American society at large.
Reading the Playboy list, what quickly jumps out is that sex is as much a cultural force as a private act. The entries touch on science, cinema, music, politics, fashion, literature, law, and business. Senior editor Chip Rowe looked for those people who have had the most influence on sexual culture, for better or worse. (Full disclosure: I have written for Playboy for years and am friends with Chip.) “There’s really no arguing with the top 25,” he says. That’s not exactly true. Many people have argued with number six, Monica Lewinsky, who is included on the grounds that if not for her, Al Gore would have won the 2000 election. But most of the top tier have indeed irrefutably shaped sex culture in profound ways, and it’s fun to trace lineages among them: From Marilyn Monroe to Madonna; from Helen Gurley Brown to Erica Jong.
There are serious entries to chew over as well: Estelle Griswold, whose arrest for distributing birth control led to the Supreme Court declaration of a right to privacy in the bedroom; Catherine MacKinnon, whose theorizing lies at the heart of sexual-harassment law.
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Rowe acknowledges that the closer you get to number 55, the more you’re in a gray area, where almost any person could have been swapped out for someone who ended up ranked between 56 and 100. He’s been flooded with complaints about overlooked sex stars, and says that most of them were considered and simply didn’t quite make the cut: Bettie Page, Xaviera Hollander, Larry Flynt, Terry Southern, Prince, David Bowie, Shere Hite, John Money, Dan Savage.
One recurring judgment Rowe had to make was whether to give the nod to the “pioneer” or the “popularizer.” Joani Blank founded the most well-known female-friendly sex-toy boutique, Good Vibrations, but she was beaten to the concept by Dell Williams (#54) of Eve’s Garden. On the other hand, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry performed sex-infused rock ‘n’ roll before Elvis Presley (#14), but, Rowe concluded, “Elvis’ influence was ten times any of those people.”
That raises what is, to my mind, the most glaring problem with the list. Without a single black person on it, it makes no recognition of the influence that African-American sexual culture has had on American society at large. The black-power movement of the 1970s was intertwined with a celebration of black male prowess. And hip hop’s sexual (and frequently sexist) swagger has become the erotic lingua franca of young Americans of all races. I proposed to Rowe that these should have been represented by, for instance, Richard Roundtree and LL Cool J. He admitted he should have considered them, but still put them in the gray area of 40 to 100.
“There are only a few suggestions people have made that I knocked myself in the side of the head for totally missing,” says Rowe. These include Evelyn Hooker, the psychologist whose work is largely responsible for the fact that homosexuality is no longer classified as a mental disorder, and, perhaps somewhat less crucially, my own proposal of Bob Clark, the writer and director of Porky’s. Rowe will cop to only one person would have ranked very high on the list if he’d thought of him: Patient Zero. Instead, the AIDS crisis is represented by Rock Hudson, who put a face on it for most Americans—a choice Rowe acknowledges as inadequate.
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Rowe may have concluded that Elvis's influence was ten times that of Berry, Little Richard and Bo Diddley, and he was right, of course, but in defending his case he should also
pointed out to Daniel that Presley did it first, as well.
Presley's first single, at SUN records, was released on 11 July, 1954. That song, however monumental, did not carry sex overtones, nor did its flip side "Blue moon of Kentucky" but his second, the sex charged "Good Rockin' tonight", hit the stores, and radios, in late September of 1954.
As far as I know, and this is histrory, not wishful thinking, both Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley's first records came out the year after, in 1955.
As to Little Richard's first record, that was in 1950, at RCA Records and he also recorded at Specialty, as of 1953, but it wasn't until he recorded "Tutti Frutti", also in 1955, that he sex variable got into his act.
Moreover, and twice as important, Presley was not just the first of the rock founders to release a record infused with sex,but the first to demonstrate how sexy this sound was supposed to be, via 334 shows in the period from July 5, 1954, to December of 1955.
The list of towns, mostly in the South, where Presley exercised the "right to move" is so extensive that books have been written on the subject.
Elvis Presley anybody??
MarineLtCol
Elvis Presley anybody??
Of course, Colonel, he's at #14. I might flip him and Madonna at #10 but this is a good list. Not a great one, but good. And ultimately designed to provoke commentary and debate, which is Playboy's REAL contribution to America.
Jimbo, wait a sec. Didn't Big Mama Thorton come out before Elvis. Didn't she sing "Hound Dog?" Wasn't that dog "scratching all the time" and trying to "catch a rabbit?" Do you think this song was really about hunting and man's best friend?
Being the first person recognized to do something isn't the same as being the first to do it or else King James is the author of Genesis.
No Blacks on this sex list means this list I must dismiss. Now if you were talking about Great Figures in Drug Abuse and Kitsch...yeah, I give that all to Elvis. He is the King.
Rock historians have recorded when, and how, each of the rock and rolls founders made their first big move, via sex or anything else, for that matter in the annals of american television.
All one has to do, is read the books, or do the proper research online, then look at the visual evidence, which in most cases, does exist.
The other day someone told me that Bo Diddley had appeared on national television before Elvis, a fact which of course I knew to be the truth. He had been asked to sing the top song in the Billboard charts that week, "Sixteen tons", and he refused. He wanted to plug his own record, aptly titled "O Diddley". And, so, he did.
I then asked my friend to look at the youtube clip showing what Diddley did on the Ed Sullivan Show, at CBS, on that cold November night, in 1955. As he sang "Bo Diddley", his standing still throughout his deliverance of the song, did little to accentuate the matter of sex, and the words had even less of a message in that direction, c no matter how repetitive. " Bo Diddley bought his babe a diamond ring,If that diamond ring don't shine, He gonna take it to a private eye,If that private eye can't see, He'd better not take the ring from me, Bo Diddley caught a nanny goat,
To make his pretty baby a Sunday coat,
Bo Diddley caught a bear cat, To make his pretty baby a Sunday hat. Mojo come to my house, ya black cat bone,
Take my baby away from home, Ugly ole mojo, where ya bin,
Up your house, and gone again".
Less than two months later, on CBS's Stage Show, the Mississippi born Presley wanted to plug his newset release "Heartbreak Hotel". The producers said no way. He then suggested "Shake rattle and Roll", and "I got a woman", and the producers agreed. As he took to the stage, a frabtic Presley went on to deliver what many people today can attest to have been the first assault on the matter of sex liberation, for youngsters and adults alike. All it took was one line from "Flip flop and Fly", which he added to what were already considered the risque lyrics in "Shake, Rattle and Roll".
"II'm like a Mississippi bullfrog sittin' on a hollow stump,.
I've got so many women I don't know which way to jump"
Those lines, and the incredible energy which he invested in delivering them, makes for the proper introduction to sex, in American television...
Guetto savant, I see your point, really. The fact that Big Mama Thornton predated Elvis in singing "Hound Dog", by at least three years, is an extremely well known fact. Less known is the fact that the song was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who were not African Americans. She took that song to the number one position in the R&B chart, where it stayed for 13 weeks. The fact that no African American is on the list is a disgrace, and I am one hundred percent with you on that one. Cassius Clay, later known by the name of Mohammed Ali, should have been on that list, for starters. The fact that he was a boxer is neither here not there. He exuded sex, every time he said he was the greatest, in those early clips. And, like Elvis, everyone wanted to BE him, with everything that being him implied...
Now, coming back to Presley, the fact that his "Hound Dog" went to number 1 on all charts, inclluding the R&B, selling 4 million copies and was seen by audiences in excess of 30 (Berle show) 40 (Allen show), 60, and 62 million, respectively (fist and second Sullivan Shows) in 1956 alone, is coincidental to his having been the first performer to exude sex, on national television, as he had done the same, with "Shake Rattle and Roll", "I got a woman", "Tutti Frutti", "Blue Suede Shoes", "Baby, let's play house", and finally, with "Heartbreak Hotel", and "I want you, I need , I love you", three months, I repeat, three months before he ever took on "Hound Dog".
Presley was "destined" to introduce sex in mainstream America, especially after growing up in depression era Mississippi and Tennessee, where he interacted with musicians of every medium known to man, before he turned 17. he was at the source of it all...
Finally, your crack about Presley falling into drugs is not very serious, particularly as we are not debating here what happens to rock stars, but how did they each deliver, when they first came on the scene.
Puzzling list, as if the author was still afraid of his own sensuality, viz. 50's America. Tough stretch to accept this list as representing anyhing but left over sexual angst and self delusion. No top listing of Betty Page, Flynnt (he must be laughing)? Elvis and not his roots? Sorry - glaring omissions, mislistings - all and more leaves one anxious . Is this American sensuality, still iced over and disguising? Why not add licks from Bob and Bing's spicier cuts from the "Road" series.
Must be hard feelings at Playboy, but Bob Guccione does deserve a top spot on the list. Flynt of course as well.
I guess when you think about sex too hard, it gets soft.
I like that Farrah's red poster is the link.
And, while I agree with the others that the absence of African-Americans is a shame (Marvin Gaye?), I'll have to consider buying a Playboy, the next time I run across one.
According to a recent interview by super-Elvis fan Hugh Hefner, Elvis Presley is said to have stayed overnight with 8 "bunnies" in a room at the mansion, now called " the Elvis Suite". hefner added that the room has been sealed and is being kept out of the public view, in his honour, for more than 30 years, even for frequent and important visitors who request to see, or stay in it. Wow!!!
Well, I really think Elvis was black in everything except his skin color.
Jimbo1234,
You posted: "Elvis Presley is said to have stayed overnight with 8 "bunnies" in a room at the mansion, now called " the Elvis Suite". hefner added that the room has been sealed and is being kept out of the public view, in his honour..."
Hey, maybe that's where he went after he faked his own death...
:)
Was there any doubt that Playboy would exclude minorities from the list? Or is the preference for blue eyed blonds just too obvious for everyone to understand. Hef is the biggest pimp in America, but you want to make him into some sort of cultural icon. He's a PIMP!
Abelard, LOL, but that would mean he's suffering even more, can you imagine,?
As much as I love Mick and Keith and Frank, what about Barry White and Johnny Mathis. Who hasn't banged to those two in the background?
Al Gore lost the 2000 election because it was stolen, NOT because some people soured on Clinton because of Monica Lewinsky..
Lists are made for debate ... but leaving Shere Hite off this one is just ridiculous.
Ha ! John Rock regularly attended Catholic mass . . . . Ironyyyy !
Elvis has just left the playboy mansion..... LOLWPMP So that's where hes been all this time??
They list Alfred Kinsey as No 1. The man who believed even sex with children and animals was 'normal' and to be encouraged. The man who drew his 'research' into sexuality primarily from prison inmates (25% of interviewees) and sex offenders and pedophiles. The man who tried to argue that children are 'sexual' because they respond to sexual molestation.
The saddest part is not that this man fathered the 'sexual revolution', nor that he paved the way for sex education at public schools, nor even that it undermines traditional, Christian values. The saddest part is that what he taught, and what has been continued to be taught since him is actually really damaging to both thos opposed, AND the very people who support his 'liberal' sexual agenda.
Go figure that a perverted, evil man who thinks child sex is a fine idea ranks as the No 1 name in sex.
So Monica Lewinsky gave us Bush. I thought all she gave was head...
Elvis Presley (#13) would not be recognized as a sexual icon were it not for his appropriation of African-American performance codes. It was precisely this white southern boy's swiveling hips on the Ed Sullivan Show and bluesy singing voice that made Presley's "cross-over" appeal (aesthetic and sexual) so threatening to mainstream white parents of the 1950s. Without the interpretive prism of race, and the fear of illicit sexual attractions which are so often a subtext of America's struggles over race, we cannot even see why some of these folks on the list became sexual icons.
I have long regarded Playboy with a mixture of respect and horro, but one thing is clear: Playboy got people talking. Playboy and its progeny opened the door, not for immorality and promiscuity - those doors were opened with the first humans to live in society - but for real dialogue, real conversation about one of the three most basic human drives. While I personally would prefer a bit more discretion and maybe even, God forbid, modesty in contemporary western culture, dialogue beats the heck out of total repression and hypocrisy any day.
Eric Jong and no Henry Miller? Was this a time range here or did we just ignore most lit? There is a ton of written stuff that would be even more relevant? Nin?
Thank you.
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