This Technicolor lithograph shows Arline Hunter, who was a Playboy centerfold in August 1954 and an actress on television and in movies. Her first brush with show business was in the 1948 erotic reel Apple Knockers and the Coke. Yeah. That’s a real title. And a literal one, too—the reel shows a topless Hunter suggestively playing with an apple and drinking a Coke. It’s available for the moment on YouTube as an age restricted upload and you can watch it in all its grainy goodness there, or just get the gist from the photos below. If you think she looks a bit like Marilyn Monroe you aren’t the only one. The resemblance helped propel Hunter to recognition, and in fact her Playboy appearance was what you might call a revisitation of Monroe’s famous centerfold from the previous year, featuring similar poses and a similar red velvet background. The above image comes from Champion Line and dates from 1952.
1935—Parker Brothers Buys Monopoly
The board game company Parker Brothers acquires the forerunner patents for Monopoly from Elizabeth Magie, who had designed the game (originally called The Landlord’s Game) to demonstrate the economic ill effects of land monopolism and the use of land value tax as a remedy for them. Parker Brothers quickly turns Monopoly into the biggest selling board game in America.