{"product_id":"plc-s1-01-sweetheart-of-the-month","title":"Sweetheart of the Month","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"fpa-product-description\"\u003e\n  \u003ch1\u003eSweetheart of the Month\u003c\/h1\u003e\n  \u003cp class=\"byline\"\u003ePhotographed by Tom Kelley, featuring Marilyn Monroe. Taken 1949, published December 1953.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp class=\"lead\"\u003eThis is the image that launched Playboy. Photographed by pinup artist Tom Kelley in 1949 and published in the magazine's inaugural issue in December 1953, Sweetheart of the Month became Playboy's first centerfold, its most famous image, and the origin point of the archive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIn 1949, Monroe was still on the edge of fame. Then known as Norma Jeane, she posed nude on red velvet for a two-hour session and was paid fifty dollars. Four years later, Hugh Hefner purchased the rights from the Baumgarth Calendar Company for five hundred dollars and built the first issue of Playboy around her. The issue sold fifty thousand copies without advance publicity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eHugh Hefner described her in a single phrase:\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cblockquote class=\"pullquote\"\u003eShe is natural sex personified.\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe remark is blunt, but the image explains why it endured. Monroe reclines across deep red velvet, one arm lifted over her head, her body lit warm against the saturated ground: glamour, innocence, desire, and American mythology gathered into a single frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003ePhotographed by Kelley, modeled by Monroe, and preserved within the Playboy Legacy Collection, the work is part of the forty-eight-print archival edition released for Playboy's 50th anniversary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eCollection Note\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe Playboy Legacy Collection was released in 2007 for the magazine's 50th anniversary as a forty-eight-print archival edition curated under the direction of Hugh Hefner. Each print is embossed with the archive seal bearing the Playboy Bunny mark and accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp class=\"meta\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/pages\/playboy-legacy-collection\"\u003eRead the full history of the Playboy Legacy Collection\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Playboy Legacy Collection","offers":[{"title":"16 × 20 in - $450","offer_id":47674886455521,"sku":"PL-LC-S1-01-16","price":450.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"20 × 24 in - $625","offer_id":47674886488289,"sku":"PL-LC-S1-01-24","price":625.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"30 × 40 in - $850","offer_id":48399132852449,"sku":null,"price":850.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"40 × 50 in - $1150","offer_id":48399132885217,"sku":null,"price":1150.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0661\/2765\/9233\/files\/PLCS1-01_SWEETHEART_OF_THE_MONTH_finephoto_art.png?v=1779493473","url":"https:\/\/www.finephoto.art\/products\/plc-s1-01-sweetheart-of-the-month","provider":"FinePhoto.Art","version":"1.0","type":"link"}