Hugh Hefner liked people to address him as 'Hef' and hence, the heading of my post. He passed into the mist of time yesterday, at his home, the Playboy Mansion near Beverly Hills, California. He was all of 91 years. He'll be buried in Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, where he'd bought the mausoleum drawer(Crypt) next to Marilyn Monroe's 25 years ago.
Fact file.
(a) Founded Playboy magazine in 1953, using a picture of a nude Marilyn Monroe, a $600 loan
against his furniture and investments from family members to launch the magazine with a total
of $8,000. He'd earlier bought the rights for a nude calendar photo of Marylin Monroe for $500.
(b) Playboy's circulation reached 1 million in 1960 and peaked at about 7 million in the 1970s.
(c) Playboy was born more in fun than in anger. Hef's first publisher's message was, "We don't
expect to solve any world problems or prove any great moral truths".
(d) He wielded fierce resentment against his era's sexual strictures which he said had choked off
his own youth. He was a virgin until he was 22.
(e) The magazine was a forum for serious interviews, the subjects including Jimmy Carter(Who'd
famously confessed, "I've committed adultery in my heart many times!"), Bertrand Russel, Jean
Paul Sartre and malcolm X in addition to the many glossy photographs of beautiful, nude
women.
(f) His company branched into movie, cable and digital production, sold its own line of clothing
and jewellery and opened clubs, resorts and casinos.
(g) Its rabbit logo was recognised all over the world. In the Playboy Clubs, the waitresses, called
bunnies, were dressed in brief satin suits with cotton fluffs fastened to their derrieres.
(h) He'll be remembered as an ageless sophisticate in silk pajamas and a smoking jacket, hosting
a never-ending party for famous and fascinating people.
An appropriate quote from a popular daily.
"Hugh Hefner turned silk pajamas into a work uniform, women into centerfolds and
sexual desire into a worldwide multimedia empire. With Playboy, he helped slip sex
out of the confines of plain brown wrappers and into mainstream conversation. In '53,
a time when in the US, the states could legally ban contraceptives and the word 'Pregnant'
was not allowed on 'I love Lucy', Hefner published the first issue of Playboy, featuring
naked photos of Marilyn Monroe.
My take.
I remember my first tryst with the Playboy magazine in the early '70s, while I was in Class X at school. A classmate of mine, who used to go abroad to Dubai during vacations, had lent me his copy to browse and I was fascinated with the magazine instantaneously! It used to be read in the lonely corner of the study hall/common room when no one was around because Prefect Rajeev - the good boy(?) - to be seen with such 'sleaze'(?) would have been blasphemous!! I remember having jotted down the experience in my diary too!!! Since then, I'd collected quite a few copies while I was on board various ships and one fine day, handed over the collection to a few juniors who wanted them!
RIP Hef! Salute to a revolutionary!! May your near and dear ones have the strength to tide over these difficult times.
Tailpiece.
It was another quiet day. Was reminded of the Pooja holidays of old, when we used to have our books placed in the pooja room and during those two days our parents never insisted on us to study. We, further, used to be on the prowl to catch erring cousins who happened to read anything, accidentally.
Fact file.
(a) Founded Playboy magazine in 1953, using a picture of a nude Marilyn Monroe, a $600 loan
against his furniture and investments from family members to launch the magazine with a total
of $8,000. He'd earlier bought the rights for a nude calendar photo of Marylin Monroe for $500.
(b) Playboy's circulation reached 1 million in 1960 and peaked at about 7 million in the 1970s.
(c) Playboy was born more in fun than in anger. Hef's first publisher's message was, "We don't
expect to solve any world problems or prove any great moral truths".
(d) He wielded fierce resentment against his era's sexual strictures which he said had choked off
his own youth. He was a virgin until he was 22.
(e) The magazine was a forum for serious interviews, the subjects including Jimmy Carter(Who'd
famously confessed, "I've committed adultery in my heart many times!"), Bertrand Russel, Jean
Paul Sartre and malcolm X in addition to the many glossy photographs of beautiful, nude
women.
(f) His company branched into movie, cable and digital production, sold its own line of clothing
and jewellery and opened clubs, resorts and casinos.
(g) Its rabbit logo was recognised all over the world. In the Playboy Clubs, the waitresses, called
bunnies, were dressed in brief satin suits with cotton fluffs fastened to their derrieres.
(h) He'll be remembered as an ageless sophisticate in silk pajamas and a smoking jacket, hosting
a never-ending party for famous and fascinating people.
An appropriate quote from a popular daily.
"Hugh Hefner turned silk pajamas into a work uniform, women into centerfolds and
sexual desire into a worldwide multimedia empire. With Playboy, he helped slip sex
out of the confines of plain brown wrappers and into mainstream conversation. In '53,
a time when in the US, the states could legally ban contraceptives and the word 'Pregnant'
was not allowed on 'I love Lucy', Hefner published the first issue of Playboy, featuring
naked photos of Marilyn Monroe.
My take.
I remember my first tryst with the Playboy magazine in the early '70s, while I was in Class X at school. A classmate of mine, who used to go abroad to Dubai during vacations, had lent me his copy to browse and I was fascinated with the magazine instantaneously! It used to be read in the lonely corner of the study hall/common room when no one was around because Prefect Rajeev - the good boy(?) - to be seen with such 'sleaze'(?) would have been blasphemous!! I remember having jotted down the experience in my diary too!!! Since then, I'd collected quite a few copies while I was on board various ships and one fine day, handed over the collection to a few juniors who wanted them!
RIP Hef! Salute to a revolutionary!! May your near and dear ones have the strength to tide over these difficult times.
Tailpiece.
It was another quiet day. Was reminded of the Pooja holidays of old, when we used to have our books placed in the pooja room and during those two days our parents never insisted on us to study. We, further, used to be on the prowl to catch erring cousins who happened to read anything, accidentally.
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