Wrong Kind of Allure

Glamour stocks usually command premium, prices--and Playboy Enterprises could be described as bulging with glamour. Apparently it is not quite the right kind of allure for Wall Street. Since 1.1 million shares in the magazine and key-club empire were offered to the public earlier this month, the price has dropped from $23.50 to $15.63. Playboy Panjandrum Hugh Hefner's shares, worth $158 million at the offering price, have fallen about $53 million in value in a little more than two weeks.

The story is an old one on Wall Street: the stock came out in a weak market, and was bought at the outset largely by speculators who lusted after a quick profit and sold speedily when it did not materialize. Shareholders who have held on are in for a different kind of disappointment. They had been promised stock certificates decorated with the bare-bosomed centerfold photo of Willy Rey, last February's Playmate of the Month, but Playboy officials have sent the prototype certificate back to the engravers for some retouching to make it less revealing. They are worried that the straitlaced New York Stock Exchange would object.

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