Early Playboy Playmate Was From Pasadena

[FilioScotia]

Bet you didn't know that a beauty from Pasadena was the first Texan to get into the pages of Playboy. Her name was Marian Stafford and she was Playboy's Miss March 1956. Her bio says she was born in Houston, but she grew up in Pasadena. She was born in 1931, graduated from Pasadena HS in 1949 and from the University of Houston in 1953. 

 

She was a real beauty in a wonderfully wholesome southern girl sort of way. There are some photos on the Playboy website, but don't worry. The photos are very innocent and Safe For Work. Even her centerfold - which is NOT included in this spread - showed only a little "skin." She never posed nude by the way. Just a lot of sexy partially clothed peek-a-boo poses with small glimpses of skin. It was such an innocent time. 

 

http://www.playboy.com/galleries/playmates-1956-3-marian-stafford-0/slide-1

 

Marian's centerfold was the first to consist of three foldout pages. In addition to posing for other men's magazines in the 50s, Stafford was a popular and very lovely presence during the so-called "Golden Age" of television. She was a regular co-hostess on game shows like Treasure Hunt and the $64 000 Question. 

 

She never had much of a TV career beyond that. Most of her TV experience was in TV commercials for various products. As for acting, she had a walk-on in a Kraft Theater production and small parts in two Robert Montgomery Presents shows. She passed away in 1984 at the age of 53. She's buried in Austin under a head stone that reads: "Marian S. Foshko". 1931-1984. 

 

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=31892608

 

Marian's husband was Robert Foshko, a well known 1950s and 60s TV producer and director who became an equally well known professor of screen writing at UT Austin. He died earlier this year at the age of 85. Check out his obituary. He had quite a life and career. Marian was a flop in TV but she married very well.

 

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/statesman/obituary.aspx?pid=174826694

 

I have my own memories of Marian because her mother was my 7th grade math teacher at Jackson Junior High in Pasadena when that issue of Playboy came out. I will never forget how angry Mrs. Stafford got when she caught one of the guys in the class looking at it behind his notebook. She grabbed it away from him and left the classroom in tears. She came back about ten minutes later, saying only that "we will never do anything like this again." And we didn't.  

 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2015 by FilioScotia

[GEM]

Pasadener....................

[FilioScotia]

Where the air is greener. The grass died a long time ago.
 

[Elseed]

Cashadena TX Baby aka Chemical City!!

[FilioScotia]

As someone who grew up in Pasadena in the 50s, I can testify that it was a very nice place to live back then. Watching it decay over the years has been hard. The parts that were "nice" areas in the 40s, 50s and 60s are rundown slums now.

 

Most of the home building of the past 20 or 30 years has been south of Spencer Hwy and Fairmont Parkway. The people at Pasadena City Hall are wringing their hands over the sad state of "old" Pasadena. I read several years ago that a commission was appointed to find ways to revitalize it and restore it to the thriving suburb it was 50 years ago. Does anybody know how that's going?

[artistpro]

There was another Houston girl who appeared in Playboy long about 1967;  She was Carol Lee, blond haired beauty... photographed riding a horse.

& uuuh, 'I remember her very well'...