Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston Hefner (born April 9, 1926 in Chicago, Illinois), also referred to colloquially as "Hef," is the founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine. He has become a charismatic icon and spokesman for the sexual revolution and of personal freedom.
Hefner grew up "in a very typically Methodist repressed home" with "no show of affection of any kind". He went to Sayre Elementary School, and Steinmetz High School, then served in the U.S. Army during the closing months of WWII.
After his service, he majored in psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and resumed his relationship with Mildred Williams. They married on June 25, 1949 and had two children, Christie and David Paul (b. 30 August 1955). Christie is Chairperson of Playboy Enterprises. He divorced Mildred in 1959.
Despite spending less than three years in college before graduating, Hefner found time to edit Shaft, and sold cartoons to magazines. His first salaried job was with a firm that produced and printed cardboard cartons.
After serving in the subscription department and as a copywriter for Esquire, he left in January 1952 after being denied a $5 raise. He worked at Children's Activities, then took his biggest gamble in 1953 by lending his furniture for $400 and raising $10,000 from 45 investors - including $1,000 from his mother ("Not because she believed in the venture," he told E! in 2006. "But because she believed in her son.") - to launch Playboy.
Hefner claims he hatched the idea for Playboy while in college, and that the name for the magazine came from his decision that his "baby" should have the name he "knew he was himself". In truth, the original working title of his magazine was Stag Party but Hefner was forced to change it to avoid a trademark conflict with the existing Stag Magazine. The name "Playboy" was suggested by a friend, Eldon Sellers, with Hefner noting that rabbits were the "playboys" of the animal world. Cartoonist Arv Miller remodeled the stag in a smoking jacket to a rabbit in a smoking jacket and the transformation was complete.
From his experience in advertising, Hefner saw the need to package sexuality into aspirational categories, to tell a story about it that placed men in the narrative itself in a way that was not just acceptable but desirable. In launching Playboy, perhaps the smartest thing Hefner did was to reinvent himself as an urbane sophisticate who enjoyed the company of young women.
The first issue of the magazine arrived in December 1953 (with no date on the cover), and had a nude photo of Marilyn Monroe inside. Hefner had purchased the rights to the photos for a mere $200, then watched his investment sell nearly 54,000 copies. Marilyn was actually the first Playmate, but at the time the term hadn't been invented so she was known as "Sweetheart of the Month". During its first three years, other material in the magazine consisted of reprints from other magazines, but then became strictly original.
In 1955, the idea of the centerfold came about because of the need for a copy machine in the magazine's offices. A female employee named Charlene Drain made the request, with Hefner offering to purchase it if the well-endowed Drain would pose naked. Accepting the offer, Drain became "Janet Pilgrim" in the July issue and started the centerfold tradition that continues to the present.
Hefner saw his first brush with the law come in 1958 when he, a teenager named Elizabeth Ann Roberts, and her mother were arrested in Chicago after photos of Roberts appeared in Playboy. After authorities realized that Hefner had been told she was 18 years old, charges of contributing to the delinquency of a child were dropped.
At its peak, Playboy sold more than 1,200,000 issues each month. Hefner's concept exploded as a variety of different avenues opened up. A late-night television program, "Playboy's Penthouse," premiered; conversation among urbane guests its main selling point. In addition, the show featured prominent African-American performers. These singers and musicians, as well as comedians such as Lenny Bruce and Dick Gregory made the show a unique viewing experience.
The first Playboy Jazz Festival took place in Rhode Island in 1959 and has become a staple for the most prominent musicians in the field.
In 1960, Hefner opened up the first Playboy Club in Chicago, which featured women in bunny costumes serving drinks to customers who listened to many of the same guests that populated Hefner's television show. In less than two years, the number of clubs had expanded to 12, with over 125,000 patrons paying either $25 for a charter membership or $50 for a lifetime membership. During the 1980s, the Clubs folded, Playboy lost its casino licenses in Atlantic City and the UK. Hefner suffered a stroke in 1985. Three years later, he passed control of Playboy's business operations to his daughter Christie.
Before their wedding, Mildred told Hefner that she had had an affair; he has called the admission "the most devastating moment of my life." A 2006 E! THS profile of Hefner revealed she let him cheat on her, both in the hopes it would preserve their marriage and out of guilt for her infidelity.
After his first marriage, Hefner became the world's most famous and envied womanizer. He has said that during some years, he was "'involved' with maybe eleven out of twelve months worth of Playmates." Hefner has had sustained relationships with Donna Michelle, Marilyn Cole, Lillian Muller, Patti McGuire, Terri Welles, Shannon Tweed, and Brande Roderick, all of whom were chosen "Playmate of the Year". Other noteworthy attachments include Barbi Benton, Karen Christy, ex-Sunday school teacher Sondra Theodore, and actress Carrie Leigh, who filed a $35 million palimony suit against him. Benton remains a fixture in Hefner's life and a regular visitor to the Playboy Mansion, which she found for him.
On July 1, 1989, he ended his 35-year bachelor party and married Kimberley Conrad, that year's Playmate of the Year. They separated in 1998, though have yet to divorce. They had two children: Marston Glenn, born on Hefner's 64th birthday, and Cooper Bradford, born on September 4, 1991. While Hefner was monogamous, the THS profile suggested that Conrad was not.
After his separation, Hefner began living with an ever-changing number of women, ranging in age from 18 to 28. He told Vanity Fair: "And here's the surprise bit—it's what they want!" The actual nature of these relationships is the subject of speculation. No children have yet come of them, nor does Hefner have children from outside his marriages. The 2005 reality television series The Girls Next Door profiles his most recent girlfriends, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson. While the three all spend time with Hefner, Holly shares his bed at night.
Hefner has always espoused a shared liberal/libertarian stance in his editorials and in his life. On June 4, 1963, Hefner was arrested for selling obscene literature after an issue of Playboy featuring nude shots of actress Jayne Mansfield was released. Six months later, a jury was unable to reach a verdict.
The Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards were created by daughter Christie in 1979 "to honor individuals who have made significant contributions in the vital effort to protect and enhance First Amendment rights for Americans."
Hefner and his family have donated and raised great amounts of money for the Democratic Party.
- Every Sunday, Friday, and Monday night at the Playboy Mansion Hefner hosts a movie night. He has an elaborate collection of films atop the spiraling staircase of his bedroom.
- "The stuff that dreams are made of", a favorite quote Hefner often uses to refer to the success of Playboy, comes from Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon; both are misquotations from Act IV, Scene I of Shakespeare's The Tempest ("We are such stuff as dreams are made on").
- In a 2005 interview with Time magazine, Hefner said he is a direct descendant of William Bradford, a Puritan who came over on the ship Mayflower.
- It has been reported that Hefner has either a room or floor to himself in the Drake Hotel.
- In a TV documentary, Hefner stated that he was a virgin when he went into the Army and a virgin when he got out. He lost his virginity at age 22.
- Hefner purchased the crypt in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California, beside Marilyn Monroe.
- Hefner has appeared in The Simpsons in the episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled," which also included other guest stars such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
- Has a species of rabbit named in his honor (Sylvilagus palustris hefneri)
- Hefner is noted for smoking a tobacco pipe. His pipes of choice are Dunhill.
