The Great 40Th Anniversary Playmate Search

Late one evening this past June, Playboy Managing Photo Editor Jeff Cohen announced "the odyssey is over" in a memo to the corps of soldiers that helped him pull off Playboy's 40th Anniversary Playmate Search. "We've packed our banners and unloaded the cameras. We have interviewed 5000 women in 25 cities, taken more than 13,000 Polaroids, caught 132 flights and ordered room service 147 times. And, boy, did we get an eyeful." In a three-month-and-one-day spin, Cohen and company crisscrossed two countries--from Des Moines to Manhattan, Miami to Phoenix, and all the way up to Vancouver--in search of one woman who would pitch camp in the center pages of Playboy's 40th anniversary issue. We saw the expected as well as the unexpected: a magician, kindergarten teachers, construction workers--even the crew chief of a fighter jet. The youngest of our applicants turned 18 the day of her interview; the oldest was a 53-year-old grandmother of five. And although all their stories were different, we kept hearing a recurring theme: "I've always respected Playboy and its portrayal of women," said Cynthia Brown of southern California. "Only the most beautiful women pose for Playboy," echoed Wendy Wilcoxon from Georgia. The woman who ultimately walked away with the blue ribbon appears somewhere in the following pages, just preceding her centerfold feature. See if you can spot her--and have fun looking.