‘Playboy’ caters to blind via radio
Suzi Hanks reads Playboy magazine for the articles. And the jokes. And the letters and cartoons. And yes, for the pictures.
Each week, for an hour, Hanks snuggles close to a microphone in a tiny soundproof closet, reading — and describing in great detail — portions of the latest Playboy issue for the blind.
“I don’t have to try to read it sexy,” laughs Hanks, one of about 200 volunteers at Houston-based Taping For The Blind, Inc.
Hanks, a tall, blonde California native whose regular job is reading the news for a classic rock station in Houston, said she once “chickened out” of an offer to pose for Playboy for a feature on women in radio.
Describing photos
In a voice made for radio, she reads the articles and describes the photos without innuendo. Hanks examines in great detail the magazine’s trademark monthly centrefold subject. The picture becomes clear.
She is a “Latina, brunette with dark chocolate brown eyes. She has long curly brown hair... She is in the first photo sitting in the ocean. She has a very large grin on her face, pink lipstick. She has a small tattoo right over the small of her back over the dimple area that appears to be maybe some sort of tribal design. It is red. ...Her legs are kind of crossed.”
Hanks became the first woman to handle the assignment. “What guy would want a man to read Playboy to him?” she said.
