COVER STORY
The delicacy offered as this month's cover comes not from the nearby patisserie
but from the camera of Christian Moser and the office of our French edition in
Paris. We think it's the best Franco-American product since SpaghettiOs. The lady
is Natalie Levy Bencheton, a mademoiselle whose modeling career lasted only six
months. Now she lives with her husband in Paris and throws an occasional soiree.
We're glad Moser got our cover shot before Natalie got up and slipped away.
5 PLAYBILL
13 THE WORLD OF PLAYBOY
15 DEAR PLAYBOY
21 PLAYBOY AFTER HOURS
Are fraternities for you? Checking in with Kathleen (Body Heat) Turner.
30 MUSIC
Heavy Metal roundup; "Holiday Record Rack."
34 BOOKS
The compleat Elvis; "Holiday Book Bag."
40 BOOK ESSAY
No-frills books speak volumes.
42 MOVIES
In the stage-to-screen parade: one hit, one near miss.
49 COMING ATTRACTIONS
Sequelmania strikes again: Watch for more of The Sting, Star Trek, Airplane! and
Grease.
53 THE PLAYBOY ADVISOR
57 DEAR PLAYMATES
59 THE PLAYBOY FORUM
69 PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: GEORGE CARLIN—candid conversation
His wry radicalism has taken him from class clown to class act, but he's still
looking for ways to shake things up. The speaker of The Seven Words speaks with
us about cocaine, cardiac arrest, courts-martial, the cosmos, comedians' groupies
and comedy to come.
102 KILLING—fiction John Updike
Anne's father is dying, and so is whatever she once shared with her husband. A
thanatotic tale of crisis and estrangement in our modern shadowland.
106 THE UNRETURNING ARMY—article PHILIP CAPUTO
The author of A Rumor of War searches the psyches of Vietnam veterans and finds
them still under fire. Rumor has it that the Vietnam vet is an ambulatory scar.
The rumors are true.
110 THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL—pictorial
What's brasher than M*A*S*H, bigger than the Hulk, sexier than Charlie's Angels
and harder to follow than the Road Runner? A soap opera, of course—and the
loveliest soap stars of all reveal a lot more than plot lines in their dazzling
debut in our pages.
120 BETWEEN ROCK AND A SOFT PLACE—article Stephen King
America's reigning creep-show barker is horrified at the beating up of the beat.
Can rock take a stand and carry the day, or is the dead zone dead ahead? Also:
a visit with an embattled hard-rock disc jock trying to preserve a place for his
music.
123 THE ELEVENTH-HOUR SANTA—gifts
Salvation for the poor soul who has let those shopping days dwindle.
126 BLUE CADILLAC—fiction Michael MALONE
Braxton Cox is headed home to Mom's for Thanksgiving dinner, when blonde, beautiful
Marie sidetracks him. Mourning the King together, they go for a ride in her blue
"Elvis" Cadillac, and Braxton gets all shook up.
128 TOGETHER AGAIN: BUBBLY & BLACK TIE—drink EMANUEL GREENBERG
Champagne's the perfect potable at tuxedo functions for the holidays.
131 AT HOME WITH THE HAIGS—humor HENRY BEARD, CHRISTOPHER CERF and TONY
GEISS
A comic-strip sortie into the flinty heart of the man who would be king.
134 THE GENTLEMAN PREFERS BLONDES—pictorial
John Derek's blonde ambitions are fulfilled with a passion.
143 REAGAN OF THE LOST ART—satire Jules Feiffer
One of our foremost social commentators represents the supply side of some cuts
that come at our Chief Executive's expense.
144 CARS '82: ALL SYSTEMS ARE GO!—modern living GARY WITZENBURG
The means, methods and opportunities of finding the best automotives.
148 LORDS OF THE RINGS—sports Richard Price Kurt Thomas and Bart Conner, that matched set of tumblers, personify only the
tip of the iceberg in the new gymnastics generation—and a very cold iceberg
it is.
150 SOUTHERN STAR—playboy's playmate of the month Kimberly McArthur didn't make the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders because she didn't
kick high enough. While Kim doesn't do Dallas, you'll agree that she provides
plenty of kicks as January's gatefold girl.
162 PLAYBOY'S PARTY JOKES—humor
165 TAILORED FOR '82—attire David PLATT
Style in haberdashery requires a dash of designer flashery—and a lively
imagination.
172 LIVE LIKE A KING—travel STEPHEN BIRNBAUM
Louis XVI lost his head over accommodations like these.
174 THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS—humor TOM KOCH
1981 gave us a royal wedding and a lot of royal pains, from Reagan to Begin to
Byrne. The high points were hard to discern.
176 20 QUESTIONS: JOHN MATUSZAK
The news from The Tooz is that some football heroes really are larger than life.
180 IN PRAISE OF OLDER WOMEN—fiction THOMAS M. DISCH
Brief breakfast banter between Jocasta and her husband Oedipus, who is certainly
a complex character. A classic little dialog.
183 PLAYBOY'S PLAYMATE REVIEW—pictorial
A dreamer's dozen—last year's delightful duodecimal.
197 THE TALE OF A SOFA—ribald classic CREBILLON FILS
198 PLAYBOY'S ANNUAL AWARDS
Harder to pick than a stringless guitar—PLAYBOY'S best writers, artists,
photographers and cartoonists of 1981; here they are.
202 MAN AND WOMAN: Part I of a Series JO DURDEN-SMITH and DIANE DE SIMONE
From the frontiers of sex and science, this seven-part PLAYBOY series will explore
the latest thinking on what makes man man and woman woman. In this introductory
installment, there's also a stimulating PLAYBOY questionnaire that will help us
(and you) determine your place in the sexual scheme.
216 PLAYBOY FUNNIES—humor
276 PLAYBOY POTPOURRI
303 LITTLE Annie FANNY—satire HARVEY KURTZMAN and WILL ELDER
307 PLAYBOY ON THE SCENE
Wine storage; loungewear; monograms; Sex News; Grapevine.
