For the first time since Marilyn Monroe graced its pages in 1953, Playboy said it will stop running photos of nude women.

The streak will end with the March edition — its first without any naked ladies.

Many industry observers see the move as a huge gamble — one last gasp at getting the magazine back to any semblance of its glory days when circulation was at a high of 5.6 million.

That was in 1976. Today, it stands at just a bit more than 800,000.

“I am sure they are hoping that they will be able to attract advertisers, now that a reason for staying out of it has been removed,” said one former top executive at Playboy.

Playboy’s new look is likely to set up a clash with Maxim, another title aimed at young men and trying to soften its image to attract more ads.

Both titles are said to be losing money.

To turn around Playboy’s fortunes, experts say, the title will have to ramp up circulation after letting it run down for years.

It backed away from a deal with American Media to handle circulation and ad sales at the end of 2014.

Newsstand sales — the most lucrative form of circulation revenue for publishers — today accounts for only around 30,000 copies a month for Playboy.

And its current circulation level now lags the 2 million claimed by Maxim.

Both titles are facing competition from explicit images and videos available on the Web.

“The political and sexual climate of 1953, the year Hugh Hefner introduced Playboy to the world, bears almost no resemblance to today,” conceded Playboy Enterprises CEO Scott Flanders.

The CEO said the magazine, without the nudes, will “stay true to those core values with this new vision of Playboy’s future.”

It will be printed in a larger format and on heavier paper stock.

The company, most likely, will try to get the no-nudes Playboy back in stores that carried it before the Meese Commission pornography report — ordered by President Ronald Reagan when Ed Meese served as attorney general — was issued in 1986. The report led many stores, including Walmart, to stop carrying the title.

Circulation expert John Harrington said, “I don’t think Walmart will ever carry it.

“There may be a few bookstores and gas stations that start carrying it, but I don’t see it going on sale in major supermarket chains anytime. It may be a case of too little, too late.”