The man-about-town has found it far easier to get about town since the invention of the horseless carriage. And there is no denying, sparking was simplified with the introduction of the spark plug, because a girl just wouldn't believe a horse had run out of hay. Here, then, is Playboy's salute to the automobile industry: a portfolio of inkblot prints by Jerry Warshaw depicting the progress of playboy behind the wheel.
1896 Ford The horse-and-buggy dandy took a back seat in the romance department when the motoring playboy appeared on the scene in Henry Ford's new auto-buggy.
1905 Maxwell Jack Benny had just turned 39 when John Maxwell and Ben Briscoe introduced this Model L runabout. Speed playboys often hit 25 m.p.h.
1910 Stanley Steamer The nation was arguing the merits of steam vs. internal combusion engines, while many a playboy was making his own steam in Stanley's famous Steamer.
1919 Stunz Bearcat By the end of World War I, cars were taking on a modern look and Air Corps playboys were doing their ground loops around Gay Paree in the Stunz Bearcat.
1925 Ford Henry was producing 9,000 Model T's a day in 25, and on college campuses throughout the country, playboys were attempting to make it all worth while.
1932 Duesenberg Despite the depression. Playboys who'd stayed away from high windows on Black Friday were able to enjoy the many special features of the 1932 Dusenberg.
1941 Packard The Second World War temporarily took the playboy's mind off automobiles and such, and the designs of '40 and '41 stayed around for half a decade.
1954 Austin-Healey In the fifties, the playboy was really living again, zippling cross country at 100-plus in low-slung foreign jobs like the Jaguar, Porsche and Austin-Healey.
