The Playboy Interviews: Larger Than Life. This item is unavailable.The Playboy Interviews: Larger Than Life

Fame: It's a world unto itself. Only certain people -- the lucky few--are permitted entrance. Their notoriety and influence shape our views on politics, art, commerce, music, even the way we dress and speak. Our lives become defined by how we were before they existed and how we see ourselves after. Everyone remembers where they were the first time they heard the Beatles, watched Muhammad Ali step into the ring, or how they sat in amazement as Marlon Brando filled the big screen. For the last 40 years, Playboy magazine has gone into the living rooms and into the minds of America's glittering few, capturing in candid interviews the thoughts and emotions of these historic men and women at the height of their fame. Now, Playboy and M Press are honored to collect the interviews of 14 people who shaped the world, who can truly be called Larger Than Life.

Since Playboy's inception in 1953, guys have been telling their sweethearts that they read the magazine for the articles. The third installment of Playboy interviews gives their claim some validity (although probably not enough). The first two collections were grouped under the topics of sports figures and film directors, while the latest simply has the designation "Larger Than Life," and indeed those interviewed were awfully big for their britches. The interviewees include Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Bette Davis, Bob Dylan, Mae West, and Muhammad Ali, among others. The interviews--in true Playboy fashion--are revealing, but also fascinating to realize are the periods in which they occurred. Sinatra was interviewed in 1963, and the cold war was definitely on his mind. Bette Davis, in 1982, had a long career of ups and downs to sound off about. But Muhammad Ali is the perfect example of how honest these personalities could become when allowed to digress; asked why he flunked the army's preinduction test, he replied, "I have said I am the greatest. Ain't nobody ever heard me say I was the smartest." Jerry Eberle
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