Years ago I read a story by Ray published in either Playboy or Penthouse. As best as I can remember ,it was about the heat and sweat of the city and this guy stopping in a shop where this woman offered him a drink of some kind of magic potion,,,anybody know this story??

I have to say, it sounds like a Bradbury-ish story, but working with the details given, I can't identify it.

According to my records, Ray Bradbury had only one story that originally appeared in Penthouse:

“Have I Got a Chocolate Bar for You!”—it’s definitely not that story.

However, he had lots of stories in Playboy:

The Best of All Possible Worlds
The Utterly Perfect Murder
Some Live Like Lazarus
The Machineries of Joy
Vacation, The
The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair
The Witch Door
The Picasso Summer (In a Season of Calm Weather)
A Miracle of Rare Device
The Lost City of Mars
The Parrot Who Met Papa
Heart Transplant
The Toynbee Convector
One For His Lordship, and One For the Road!
Unterderseaboat Doktor
By the Numbers!
The Anthem Sprinters
Downwind From Gettysburg
The First Night of Lent
The Illustrated Woman
Heavy-Set
The Man in the Rohrschach Shirt

I remember some of these stories quite well, and have sketchy notes on the others. As far as I can tell, it isn’t any of these stories. There’s always a possibility that I could be mistaken, but it’s unlikely.

What we are probably looking at (again) is that the story isn’t by Ray Bradbury, but that it’s Bradbury’s name the reader remembers.

thank you for your info and time to respond. I still feel quite sure it's Bradbury since I only bought the mag for his story.but, hey ,you might be right since it had to be in the 70's . thank you again

thanks so much for your help

That is "Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds," from Long After Midnight, which is

(drumroll)

ACTUALLY BY RAY BRADBURY

meaning you win the forum for today! (Should there not be a prize for cases in which the "Bradbury story" sought is actually by Bradbury?)

It was not in Playboy or Penthouse but a similar magazine, Gallery, April 1976.

thank you so much!!!

Well done, reddknight! I thought it sounded a bit like Bradbury!

I wish you'd mentioned that you bought the magazine especially because it had a story by him, because that considerably reduces the chances that you're thinking of the wrong author.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: douglasSP,

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