Hugh Hefner

Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of ''Playboy'' magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles which provoked charges of obscenity. The first issue of ''Playboy'' was published in 1953, featuring Marilyn Monroe in a nude calendar shoot; it sold over 50,000 copies.

Hefner extended the Playboy brand into a world network of Playboy Clubs. He also resided in luxury mansions where ''Playboy'' playmates shared his wild partying life, fueling keen media interest. He was a political activist in the Democratic Party and for the causes of First Amendment rights, animal rescue, and the restoration of the Hollywood Sign.

Early life

Hefner was born in Chicago on April 9, 1926, the first child of Glenn Lucius Hefner (1896–1976), an accountant, and his wife Grace Caroline (Swanson) Hefner (1895–1997) who worked as a teacher. His parents were from Nebraska. He had a younger brother, Keith (1929–2016). His mother was of Swedish ancestry, and his father was German and English.

Through his father's line, Hefner was a descendant of Plymouth governor William Bradford. He described his family as "conservative, Midwestern, ndMethodist". His mother had wanted him to become a missionary.

He attended Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School, then served from 1944 to 1946 as a U.S. Army writer for a military newspaper. Hefner graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a double minor in Creative Writing and Art, having earned his degree in two and a half years. After graduation, he took a semester of graduate courses in Sociology at Northwestern University, but dropped out soon after.

Career

In January 1952, Hefner left his job as a copywriter for ''Esquire'' after he was denied a $5 raise. In 1953, he took out a mortgage loan of $600 and raised $8,000 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'', which was initially going to be called ''Stag Party''. The first issue was published in December 1953 and featured Marilyn Monroe from a 1949 nude calendar shoot she did under a pseudonym. That first issue sold more than 50,000 copies. (Hefner never met Monroe, but he bought the crypt next to hers at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in 1992 for $75,000.)

''Esquire'' magazine rejected Charles Beaumont's science fiction story "The Crooked Man" in 1955, so Hefner agreed to publish it in ''Playboy.'' The story highlighted straight men being persecuted in a world where homosexuality was the norm. The magazine received angry letters, so Hefner responded, "If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society then the reverse was wrong, too." In 1961, Hefner watched Dick Gregory perform at the Herman Roberts Show Bar in Chicago, and he hired Gregory to work at the Chicago Playboy Club. Gregory attributed the launch of his career to that night.

Hefner promoted a ''bon vivant'' lifestyle in his magazine and in the television shows that he hosted ''Playboy's Penthouse'' (1959–1960) and ''Playboy After Dark'' (1969–1970). He was also the chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises, the publishing group which operates the magazine.

On June 4, 1963, Hefner was arrested for promoting obscene literature after he published an issue of ''Playboy'' featuring nude shots of Jayne Mansfield in bed with a man present. The case went to trial and resulted in a hung jury.

In the 1960s, Hefner created "private key" clubs that were racially diverse. During the civil rights movement in 1966, Hefner sent Alex Haley to interview American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell, much to Rockwell's shock because Haley was black. Rockwell agreed to meet with Haley only after gaining assurance that he was not Jewish, although Rockwell kept a handgun on the table throughout the interview. In '' Roots: The Next Generations'' (1979), the interview was recreated 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 the newly established 1962 "playboy interview".

In 1970, Hefner stated that "militant feminists" are "unalterably opposed to the romantic boy-girl society that ''Playboy'' promotes" and ordered an article in his magazine against them.

In his later years, Hefner's star dimmed, but he remained a well-known personality, often appearing in cameo roles. In the 1993 ''The Simpsons'' episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled", Hefner voiced himself. In 1999, Hefner financed the Clara Bow documentary ''Discovering the It Girl''. "Nobody has what Clara had," he said. "She defined an era and made her mark on the nation". Hefner guest-starred as himself in the 2000 ''Sex and the City'' episode "Sex and Another City". In 2005, he guest-starred on the HBO shows '' Curb Your Enthusiasm'' and ''Entourage''. He guest-starred as himself in a 2006 episode of Seth Green's '' Robot Chicken'' on the late-night programming block Adult Swim. In the 2007 ''Family Guy'' episode "Airport '07", he voiced himself. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television and made several movie appearances as himself. In 2009, he received a "worst supporting actor" nomination for a Razzie award for his performance as himself in '' Miss March''. On his official Twitter account, he joked about this nomination: "Maybe I didn't understand the character."

Brigitte Berman's documentary '' Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel'' was released on July 30, 2010. He had previously granted full access to documentary filmmaker and television producer Kevin Burns for the A&E ''Biography'' special ''Hugh Hefner: American Playboy'' in 1996. Hefner and Burns later collaborated on numerous other television projects, most notably on ''The Girls Next Door'', a reality series that ran for six seasons (2005–2009) and 90 episodes. Hefner also made a voice-only appearance as himself in the 2011 film '' Hop''.

In 2012, Hefner announced that his youngest son Cooper would succeed him as the public face of ''Playboy''.

Personal life

Hefner was known to friends and family simply as "Hef". He married Northwestern University student Mildred ("Millie") Williams in 1949. They had a daughter named Christie (b. 1952) and a son, David (b. 1955).E! True Hollywood Story