To get a glimpse into the luxurious life of media mogul and notorious womanizer Hugh Hefner, one only has to turn on E!, the cable entertainment channel. Here, amidst the grottos of the Playboy Mansion, he can be seen doddering around benignly with his three young live-in girlfriends for a reality show called The Girls Next Door . As far as reality programming is concerned, the show is fairly innocent: octogenarian Hef is shown attending classic movie nights with the girls, having tame holiday celebrations and heading to bed early. The effect is a far cry from the Hefner of a few decades ago, who had a reputation for being a hard-partying swinger. Yet it is also to Hefner’s credit that the show, which portrays a polygamous living situation as normal, healthy, and enjoyable for all involved, is even on the air. Were it not for Hefner’s 50-plus years of working to change perceptions of sex in the media, no such openly sexual programming would ever grace the airwaves. In a new biography, Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream (2008, John Wiley & Sons, 529 pages, U.S.$29.95), author Steven Watts takes an in-depth look at the man behind Playboy magazine and numerous other Playboy Media endeavors that helped to reshape the world’s perception of sex. Though the topic would seem to lend itself to a light, frivolous approach, Watts, a professor of the cultural history of the U.S., takes on Hef ’s life story with a sense of gravitas befitting George Washington, and succeeds in painting a picture of a greatly ambitious, deeply flawed man who could easily be termed a marketing genius. Throughout his half-century-long (and still counting) career, Hefner has taken on just about every media job title possible at one time or another, including writer, editor, publisher, television producer, and on two separate occasions, TV personality. The first question that comes to mind (after what is it like to live with three women at once?) is how did an ordinary guy from the Midwest with no formal business training achieve such wild success? Watts has an answer: timing, marketing and naked women. These three factors, combined with Hef ’s almost maniacal work ethic, helped to make Hugh Hefner a household name and usher in the era of Playboy. One of the book’s greatest strengths is its access to the still-living Hefner. With Hef ’s approval and cooperation, Watts was able to get a wealth of first-hand commentary in addition to the many interviews he has given over the course of his life. Hefner was born in Chicago in 1926 into what he describes as a “repressed Midwestern Methodist home.” In interviews throughout his adult life, Hefner has pointed to his rigid “Puritanical upbringing” as one of the major factors contributing to his later rebellion through the salacious pages of Playboy. However, as Watts points out, Hefner’s insistence that his parents were unyieldingly moral and cold may in fact be a myth he created to explain his fascination with sex. Indeed, much of Hefner’s persona is a self-styled marketing device designed to help move magazines. The Hefner America knows is a suave ladies man, so devoted to leisure and “the good life” that he spends the entire day in his pajamas and iconic smoking jacket. However the real Hefner, the dissatisfied family man who founded Playboyin the 1950s from his tiny living room, is far different. Playboywas born out of Hefner’s general discontent with his life. After a brief stint in the military during World War II (he never saw battle), Hefner was, as Watts puts it, “at loose ends.” He longed to be at the center of a fast-paced and exciting scene, but he was hindered by his natural shyness and the mid-century emphasis on family values, which he found stifling. After a few failed attempts to make a splash in publishing, Hefner decided to start his own magazine that would cater to the fantasies he had for his own life. He described the initial concept for Playboy thus, in a letter to a potential investor: “I’d like to produce an entertainment magazine for the citybred guy — breezy, sophisticated. The girly features would guarantee the initial sale — but the magazine would have quality too.” Remarkably, after a laborintensive few months of work funded by the meager contributions of friends, Hefner was able to do just that. The Playboy success story is an incredible one. The magazine took off immediately and orders from distributors doubled and tripled from one month to the next. Though the editorial content was good, it was the scantily clad cover girls and centerfolds that moved magazines. Watts points out that while much of Playboy ’s success can be attributed to Hefner and his team’s round-the-clock work and dedication to content and promotion, the magazine’s timing also had much to do with making it a hit. Writes Watts, “The magazine offered an exciting vision of the good life for a society that, without totally being aware of the fact, was yearning to lead it. Playboybegan bringing a submerged collective social fantasy to the surface.” A large part of this fantasy was a more liberal approach to sexuality. Hefner’s pin-up girls (dubbed “playmates,” and later “bunnies” to complement the mag’s rabbit logo) hit newsstands on the verge of the sexual revolution and the “free love” movement. While images of sexuality were, up to this point, regarded with shame and guilt, Playboypresented sex as something normal and healthy. Additionally, a large part of the Playboy ethos was devoted to consumerism and the joys of buying. This coincided with America’s newfound wealth and leisure time in the wake of World War II. With a successful publishing operation in place, Hefner turned his attention to other projects. He began selling branded merchandise as early as the mid-’50s, an enterprise that is still going strong. The V I D E O • A G E JA N U A R Y 2 0 0 9 6 B o o k R e v i e w The Man Behind the Bunnies: Dissecting Hugh Hefner ’60s brought Playboy Penthouse , a TV series produced and hosted by Hef that took place at a weekly staged cocktail party on a set designed to look like a chic bachelor pad. Made up of hip musical acts and interviews with figures from the art world, the show’s purpose was to distinguish the Playboy brand from pornography, and associate it more with culture and “the good life.” Playboy Penthousewas just one example of the effort Hefner and his team made to establish a brand. Over the years, Hefner himself became a marketing tool. Though Hefner had always been something of an “average Joe,” he devoted himself to becoming the poster boy for the Playboy lifestyle. Divorcing his wife in 1959, he began to date women in droves, cultivated his signature pajamas and smoking jacket look and started throwing lavish parties at the brand-new Playboy Mansion. As the personification of his magazine, he gave readers something to aspire to, which proved to be a brilliant marketing tool. In 1988, Hefner stepped down as CEO of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. Christie Hefner, his daughter (of four total children) from his first marriage, took the helm. Though Watts spends little time describing Christie’s tenure as Playboy’s head honcho, he does note that she has proven to have a head for business and is responsible for the revival of the Playboy brand in recent years. While one of the book’s small failings is that it neglects to address the specifics of Playboy Enterprise’s international business dealings (especially an $80 million investment in Playboy TV by Venezuela’s Cisneros Group in 2000), Watts does mention that Christie has succeeded in spreading the Playboy gospel to far-flung corners of the globe. Operations at Playboy Inc. under Christie’s watch have no doubt lost some of the pizzazz of the early years, when Hef and his bachelor employees worked hard and played harder, but she and her father are in accordance on most business decisions. Plus, the antics that took place at the Playboy office in the early days would hardly fly in today’s PC world. Relieved of his CEO duties, Hef was free to become a full-time man of leisure. With an ample (but undisclosed) monthly allowance from the company, Hef could now soak up the good life on a full-time basis. However, Watts stresses throughout the book that Hef ’s commitment to the swinging lifestyle often took a toll on his personal life. With two ex-wives, children who grew up virtually fatherless and a years-long pharmaceutical speed addiction under his belt, Hef’s personal life has not always been happy. Nevertheless, Hefner seems to have achieved his fantasy, as proven by The Girls Next Door . He began taping the show in 2005 at age 79, easily making him the oldest bachelor on television. Now at 82, recent entertainment industry rumors have hinted that he has dumped his harem for a set of 19 year-old twins. No matter what can be said about Hefner as a businessman or womanizer one thing is for sure: he’s still got it. ES
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