Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth

Anderson’s early success, and particularly her instant rise to fame, was largely due to two major 1980s and 1990s pop culture phenomena: Playboy magazine and the television series Baywatch. Anderson’s photoshoots in Playboy—a centerfold in October 1989, followed by a “Playmate of the Month” profile in February 1990—launched her career. A Canadian model with one beer commercial on her resume, Anderson was completely unknown to mainstream American audiences until her introduction to Playboy’s millions of subscribers. At the time, the magazine was still helmed by founder Hugh Hefner, who plucked Anderson from obscurity and invited her into the Playboy community. Hefner, or “Hef,” as Anderson calls him, was renowned in the 1980s for his role as founder and editor of the magazine, and for his famous mansion where he held parties with celebrity guests and Playboy models. Anderson recalls of the parties, “It was always a good time, and quite innocent for debauchery. Sexy, classic, playful, wildly entertaining, and just plain old-fashioned fun” (92). 

Though Anderson’s experiences with Hefner and Playboy are largely positive, the magazine and its founder share an ambivalent cultural legacy. Founded in 1953, Playboy helped pave the way for greater openness about sex and sexuality in popular culture. The magazine pushed the envelope in ways that went beyond sexuality as well, publishing many of the leading writers and intellectuals of the 1960s and 70s, including interviews with civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. At his Playboy clubs, Hefner hired Black comics at a time when many comedy venues were effectively segregated. However, the magazine’s depiction of sexuality has always been heteronormative and focused on the male gaze. Former Playmate Holly Madison wrote a 2015 memoir, Down the Rabbit Hole, in which she describes an environment in which women were pressured to compete with one another in conforming to impossible and narrow beauty standards (Drexler, Peggy. “Hugh Hefner’s Legacy Has a Dark Side.” CNN, 2017). Though Playboy helped to launch Pamela Anderson’s career, it also arguably set the tone for the commodification of her sexuality, leading to the superficial, caricatured persona she laments throughout the memoir.

Anderson’s first acting role as Lisa on Home Improvement, which she describes as “the most popular show in North America” at the time, also made her more recognizable to American audiences (96). However, she soon became internationally famous when she accepted the role of C.J. on the lifeguarding drama Baywatch. While critically panned, the drama series became hugely popular with audiences around the world; it aired in 148 countries and was translated into 44 languages. Today, it still holds the Guinness World Record for the most watched television show in history. Anderson did not just benefit from the show’s popularity, however, it seems that she was a large part of what made the show so successful. As one of the show’s most popular characters, her performances helped to attract massive audiences, boosting the show’s ratings in America and abroad. In Love, Pamela she remembers, “By the fourth season, I was the highest-paid actress on the show. Many of the international broadcasters would buy only the episodes I appeared in, so there were ‘Pamela clauses’ in the international deals” (98). There was even a C.J. Baywatch Barbie by Mattel, which became a best-selling toy. While Anderson has acted in many television and film projects in recent years, her public image is still strongly tied to her first introduction to audiences around the world.