Hugh Hefner

Hugh Marston Hefner, born in Chicago on April 9, 1926, was an American magazine publisher and businessman. He created and ran Playboy magazine, which featured nude or semi-nude photographs of women alongside articles, fiction, and in-depth interviews with figures from politics, music, art, and literature. Hefner built the Playboy brand into a global chain of Playboy Clubs. He also lived in lavish mansions where Playboy Playmates joined his party lifestyle, drawing constant media attention. Hefner was the first child of accountant Glenn Lucius Hefner and teacher Grace Caroline Swanson Hefner, both from Nebraska. His younger brother Keith was born in 1929. His mother had Swedish ancestry; his father was of German and English descent. Through his father’s line, Hefner was a descendant of Plymouth governor William Bradford. He described his upbringing as conservative, Midwestern, and Methodist, and his mother had hoped he would become a missionary. He attended Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School in Chicago. From 1944 to 1946, he served in the U.S. Army as a writer for a military newspaper. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1949, with double minors in creative writing and art, completing the degree in two and a half years. In spring 1950, he took graduate sociology courses at Northwestern University but dropped out soon after. In January 1952, Hefner quit his job as a copywriter at Esquire after being denied a $5 raise. The following year, he secured a $600 mortgage loan and raised $8,000 from 45 investors—including $1,000 from his mother, who later said she believed in her son, not necessarily the venture—to launch Playboy, originally to be called Stag Party. The first issue, published in December 1953, featured Marilyn Monroe from a 1949 nude calendar shoot done under a pseudonym. It sold over 50,000 copies, but Monroe received no payment from Hefner or Playboy. Hefner never met Monroe, but in 1992 he bought the crypt next to hers at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery for $75,000. In 1955, Esquire rejected Charles Beaumont’s science fiction story “The Crooked Man,” which depicted straight men being persecuted in a world where homosexuality was the norm. Hefner published it in Playboy, and after receiving angry letters, he responded that if persecuting heterosexuals in a homosexual society was wrong, the reverse was also wrong. In 1961, Hefner saw Dick Gregory perform at the Herman Roberts Show Bar in Chicago and hired him to work at the Chicago Playboy Club; Gregory credited that night with launching his career. Hefner promoted a bon vivant lifestyle through his magazine and the television shows he hosted: Playboy’s Penthouse (1959–1960) and Playboy After Dark (1969–1970). He also served as chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises, the publishing group that runs the magazine. On June 4, 1963, he was arrested for promoting obscene literature after publishing an issue with nude photos of Jayne Mansfield in bed with a man present. The trial ended in a hung jury. During the 1960s, Hefner created “private key” clubs that were racially integrated. In 1966, during the civil rights movement, he sent Alex Haley to interview American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell. Rockwell was shocked that Haley was black and agreed to meet only after being assured Haley was not Jewish, keeping a handgun on the table throughout. The interview was later recreated in the 1979 miniseries Roots: The Next Generations, with James Earl Jones as Haley and Marlon Brando as Rockwell. Haley had also interviewed Malcolm X in 1963 and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966 for Playboy’s interview series, which began in 1962. In 1970, Hefner called “militant feminists” unalterably opposed to the romantic boy-girl society Playboy promoted, and he ordered an article in the magazine against them. In later years, his prominence faded, but he remained a recognizable figure, often appearing in cameo roles. He voiced himself in the 1993 Simpsons episode “Krusty Gets Kancelled.” In 1999, he financed the Clara Bow documentary Discovering the It Girl, saying she defined an era and made her mark on the nation. He guest-starred as himself in the 2000 Sex and the City episode “Sex and Another City,” and in 2005 on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. He voiced himself in a 2006 Robot Chicken episode and in the 2007 Family Guy episode “Airport ’07.” He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television and appeared in several movies as himself. In 2009, he was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor for his role as himself in Miss March; he joked on Twitter that maybe he didn’t understand the character. Brigitte Berman’s documentary Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel was released on July 30, 2010. Hefner had previously given full access to documentary filmmaker Kevin Burns for the 1996 A&E Biography special Hugh Hefner: American Playboy. They later collaborated on other television projects, most notably The Girls Next Door, a reality series that ran for six seasons and 90 episodes from 2005 to 2009. Hefner also made a voice-only appearance as himself in the 2011 film Hop.