Playboy's No. 1 Fan? This 44-Year-Old Chicago Woman

One might think Playboy’s biggest fan is a teen boy getting his first forbidden glimpse—but in reality, it’s a 44-year-old Chicago woman who’s bought every issue for the past 30 years, and keeps a spare apartment just to house the collection. And Peggy Wilkins is proud of her devotion, inspired by “a connection with the viewer, a sense of fun,” she tells the Chicago Reader.

Wilkins runs servers for the University of Chicago Library, and moderates the Playboy Mailing List, populated by similar devotees. Says her boyfriend, “Having a Playboy collector as your girlfriend is fantastic. There’s no downside to it.” And her fandom has drawn attention at the mag’s highest echelons: Founder Hugh Hefner has had her to the Mansion three times, never fails to write her back, and, after she took fans’ online pulse for Playboy’s 50th anniversary in 2002, “it may have been coincidence, but within two weeks of me sending the report he replaced the editorial director.”
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