DIFFERENT HUGHS I
Hef’s foray into late-night TV
T’S a shame, really, that most people equate Hugh Hefner’s TV career with his appearances (from 2005-2010) in “The Girls Next Door” — his E! reality co-creation following the lives of Hef’s girlfriends living in his Playboy Mansion (which, by that time, had seen better days).
Hef, who turns 91 on Sunday, is the subject of Amazon’s new docuseries “American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story,” which chronicles his life and career — including his two early forays into late-night television: the Chicagobased “Playboy’s Penthouse” (1959) and, 10 years later, “Playboy After Dark,” shot in LA. Both were syndicated and both were hosted by Hef. Now a hazy memory, they spotlighted a veritable Who’s Who of A-list talent, including Lenny Bruce, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole (“Playboy’s Penthouse”) and Bill Cosby, Linda Ronstadt and Jerry Lewis (“Playboy After Dark”). Bob Newhart, on the cusp of fame, guested on both shows, as did Sammy Davis Jr. — whose desire to appear on “Playboy’s Penthouse” clashed with his (and the show’s) schedule. No problem: Hef had a replica “Playboy’s Penthouse” studio built elsewhere in Chicago to accommodate Davis. Tony Bennett (seen in the photo
above) was a big fan of the show, and of Hef. “Hugh Hefner was a supporter of jazz music, so what’s significant about ‘Playboy After Dark’ was the opportunity it gave to so many jazz artists to get on television,” he says via e-mail. Both shows had similar formats; Hef would stroll onto the set — which had the ambience of a swingin’ party — and chat with his guests, some of whom would also perform. “I loved doing the show,” Bennett says. “It was a fun and informal atmosphere — very spontaneous.”
Tony Hendra, who wrote for “Playboy After Dark,” has a bit of a different perspective. Prior to joining Hef’s show, the British-born satirist had already appeared with his comedy partner, Nick Ullett, on several shows (Merv Griffin, Ed Sullivan, Jack Paar); “Playboy After Dark” was his first full-time TV writing job in the US. “[‘Playboy After Dark’] was such an awkward show, mainly because of the host,” says Hendra, who would eventually write for National Lampoon, edit Spy magazine and play cricket-bat-wielding rock manager Ian Faith in “This Is Spinal Tap.”
“Hef was very eloquent off-camera,” Hendra says. “He had a speech he made [to the staff] about fantasy, which underscored the philosophy of Playboy. It was a brilliant analysis of what he did for a living. But when he got in front of the camera ... he always had a pipe and was always sort of snuffling [swallowing his words]. He was terribly unsure of himself to the extent ent that we couldn’t get him to relax. At the beginning of the show he would say, ‘Good evening. I’m Hugh Hefner.’ It always came out as, ‘Good evening [snuffle]. ‘I’m [snuffle] Hugh Hefner. I said, ‘Maybe it would help if you pause a little bit between ‘Good evening’ and ‘I’m Hugh Hefner.’ I had to write a cue card that said, ‘Good evening. [Pause.] I’m Hugh Hefner. “We had to script everything he said. Even when he was talking to Barbi he wanted to have it on cue cards,” Hendra says, referring to Hef’s then-main squeeze, Barbi Benton.
“It was a very lavish-looking show, but there was something artificial about it,” he says. “The idea was that if you depict fantasy properly, it looks real on the pages of a magazine or on TV. Yet Hef didn’t seem to be able to translate that into doing the sort of sexy, epicurean show he wanted to do. You got the impression from him that he was a loner — quite contrary to the image he was trying to project of this pipe-smoking, pajama-wearing nightbird.”