Playboy founder and American icon, Hugh Hefner, has died aged 91.
A statement was released by Playboy Enterprises Inc yesterday (27 September). He passed away in the Playboy Mansion, surrounded by loved ones. The cause of death was natural causes.
Hefner, who started his editorial career at Esquire, started Playboy from his kitchen table in 1953. The magazine became the most sold men's magazine in the world. A remarkable turnaround after starting it in 1953 with $600 of his own money and $6 - 10,000 from investors.
The first issue featured nude photographs of Marilyn Monroe that Hefner had bought for $200 and this issue sold for 50 cents.
It was the first lifestyle magazine for single men with a liberal attitude towards sexuality. Its transgressive approach was wildly controversial and "reflected hip, urban dissatisfaction with the stodgy conformism of the Eisenhower era,” wrote Steven Watts in the biography Mr Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream. The book Bachelors of Bunnies argues a strong record of support for women’s rights and the modernization of sexual and gender roles.”
Aside from making nudity acceptable in the mainstream, Playboy combined thought-provoking interviews, literature, and in-depth articles. Some of the most lauded interviews he published were in the 60s, and include The Beatles, the longest interview Martin Luther King Jr ever gave in a publication, and Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.
Playboy was already progressive in the work it was publishing before those above as it published Jack Kerouac's 'Origin Of The Beat article in 1959, Hunter S Thompson's 'The Great Shark Hunt' was among other greats that followed. And work by other legendary authors; including, Ian Fleming, Joseph Heller,and Margaret Atwood made it on to the pages.
In addition to the magazine, the businessman would open the Playboy mansion, club and host the TV show Playboy Penthouse. The series was the first program to feature mixed groups of black and white audience members together. He also fought against racist Jim Crow laws by integrating Playboy Clubs in Miami and New Orleans.
Of his legacy, Hugh's son Cooper Hefner said in the statement released yesterday: "My father lived an exceptional and impactful life as a media and cultural pioneer and a leading voice behind some of the most significant social and cultural movements of our time in advocating free speech, civil rights and sexual freedom."
His lifestyle and business - which currently drive more thatn $1 billion in sales annually - have never been short of contrversy..Gloria Steinmen's undercover account as a Playboy Bunny is the most well known and criticised the tightness of the costumes and "a pointlessly invasive pelvic exam."
Aside from changing society and being a philanthropist - or being challenged in the public eye - Hefner will always be known for his indefatigable sexual appetite: he claims to have slept with over 1,000 women. He used the drug viagra so much that it affected his hearing yet his former twin lovers Kristina and Karissa Shannon told The Sun: "He said he would rather have sex than have his hearing."
Hefner - or 'Hef' as he was known for short - lived a happy man until his time came yesterday. In 2011 he told the Hollywood Reporter: "Could I be in a better place and happier than I am today? I don't think so. In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined a sweeter life.”
He was born in Chicago, Illnois, 1926 to Grace Caroline (née Swanson; 1895–1997) and Glenn Lucius Hefner (1896–1976), who both worked as teachers. He has a younger brother, Keith (1929–2016) and is survived his wife Crystal Harris and his four children from previous relationships. RIP.
