Death of Playboy’s Hugh Hefner
Sexual liberator or dirty old man? Hugh Hefner, who has died aged 91, lead a life that was anything but dull
HE CLAIMED to have slept with more than 1 000 women and wasn’ t ashamed in the slightest bit to admit that he needed the help of the impotence drug Viagra to reach this milestone. To some he was just a dirty old man but others saw him as a visionary pioneer who sparked the sexual revolution.
So it’s hardly surprising that news of the publishing giant’s death at age 91 sparked a flood of tributes.
“Don’t tell me Hugh Hefner is in a better place,” tweeted one fan. “He’s been living every man’s dream since he was 27.”
The pipe-smoking mogul, who was famous for his risqué Playboy magazine and the decadent life he lived at his mansion in Los Angeles, often surrounded by a gaggle of model girlfriends, died at his home recently.
And we’re guessing that, right to the end, he had few regrets.
“I’m a kid in a candy store,” he once said. “I dreamt impossible dreams, and the dreams turned out beyond anything I could possibly imagine. I’m the luckiest cat on the planet.”
We look back on the Hef ’s long and eventful life – the scandals and controversies and the seemingly endless parade of busty Playmates who made up his “harem”.
THE BIRTH OF A LEGEND
Born into a strict Methodist family in Chicago, Hefner started out as a journalist at men’s magazine Esquire. He published the first issue of Playboy in 1953, working from his kitchen table. What made the magazine really catch the eye on news stands was its cover which featured the screen siren Marilyn Monroe, along with promises of nude pictures inside. The steamy set of pictures, originally shot for a 1949 calendar, ensured that the launch issue flew off the shelves. And from there on
Hefner succeeded in making nudity mainstream, despite objections from feminists that his magazine was degrading to women.
In addition to the centrefolds of naked “Playmates” it included exclusive interviews with everyone from singer Frank Sinatra to human rights activist Malcolm X, as well as articles by literary heavyweights such as Norman Mailer, Kingsley Amis, Kurt Vonnegut and Margaret Atwood.
These highbrow contributions allowed men to claim they bought the magazine for the stories rather than its pictures – though it’s unlikely their wives believed them. Although critics dismissed the magazine as “sleaze”, Hefner insisted he wasn’t publishing a “sex magazine”.
“I always thought of it as a lifestyle magazine in which sex was one important ingredient,” he said in a 2002 interview.
The magazine helped launch the careers of model Cindy Crawford, actress Jenny McCarthy and burlesque dancer Dita von Teese. It also put Baywatch bombshell Pamela Anderson on the map – over the years the blonde graced the cover 15 times. “You gave me my life . . . I’m in such deep shock,” she wrote on Instagram at the news of Hefner’s death.
By the mid-’80s circulation was declining as the magazine faced competition
‘I’m the luckiest cat on the planet’
from publications carrying more explicit photos. After suffering a stroke in 1985, which left him temporarily paralysed and unable to speak, Hef handed over the reins to his daughter Christie, although he still had a say in the choice of centrefolds.
While the iconic magazine doesn’t sell nearly as well as it did in its heyday, the US edition is still going. Last year it took the radical decision to scrap nudity from its pages, explaining that in the internet age, with porn being just a click away, it needed to redefine itself.
But earlier this year it did an aboutturn and the Playmates returned in all their glory. The magazine celebrated the reversal on Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #NakedIsNormal.