[Ads-l] Antedating of "Centerfold"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The OED definition of centerfold (sense 2) with a 1969 citation refers
to the model and not the picture.

[Begin OED excerpt]
centrefold centerfold NOUN
2. A person, esp. a woman, who appears or has appeared nude or
scantily clad in a photograph on the middle pages of a magazine.

1969 I was the centerfold—the playmate for December, 1966.
Los Angeles Times 28 March iv. 25/1
[End OED excerpt]

The early instances of centerfold refer to the picture and not the
model. Sometimes there is ambiguity.
For example, in the following 1960 citation the noun "centerfolds"
might refer to the models, but I think the most likely referent is the
pictures (or postcards) themselves and not the models depicted.

Date: December 29, 1960
Newspaper: The Swanton Courier
Newspaper Location: Swanton, Vermont
Article: Who started all this?
Author: Chandler L. Mason
Quote Page B-6, Column 6
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
Horsley must have been horrified at the turn taken in the eighties,
when British cards blossomed out in a rash of colorful nudes; not too
unlike the "Playboy" centerfolds of today. Kate Greenaway, the famed
illustrator of children's books designed many cards and is on record
as having received an average of three pounds per design.
[End excerpt]

The following 1965 citation for "centerfold" refers to the model and
not the picture. This was the earliest match I could find with the
desired sense without ambiguity.

Date: November 15, 1965
Newspaper: The Tipton Daily Tribune
Newspaper Location:
Article: In Hollywood
Author: Vernon Scott (UPI Hollywood Correspondent)
Quote Page 2, Column 2
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
While Mamie is changing her professional image, in person she is still
the centerfold of a girlie magazine.
[End excerpt]

The 1966 citation mentioned by LH in the previous message, I believe,
refers to the picture and not the model. So it corresponds to sense 1
of centerfold and not sense 2 in the OED.

The first issue of Playboy was published in December 1953. Hence,
earlier instances in which "centerfold" corresponds to a model might
exist. Maybe a list participant can find one.

Garson

On Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 2:25 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> I suspect the more specialized sense--
> OED s.v. centerfold, 2:
> A person, esp. a woman, who appears or has appeared nude or scantily clad
> in a photograph on the middle pages of a magazine.
> --can be antedated back from the 1969 first cite, given that both the
> layout and the "persons, esp. women" featured therein in (at least) Playboy
> predate 1969, as some list members will recall.  (The OED includes a 1966
> entry for "center fold", with space, from a piece in McCall's Magazine.)
>
> LH
>
> On Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 10:55 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > centerfold (OED 1941)
> >
> > 1938 _New York Daily News_ 23 Aug. 1 (Newspapers.com)
> >
> > Other pictures of subway crash on centerfold and back page.
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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