Hefner’s umbrella organization of Playboy Enterprises grew to include television shows, jazz festivals, book publishing and an international chain of Playboy clubs, where cocktail waitresses, known as bunnies, wore revealing satin outfits with fluffy white tails. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.”Įach month, Hefner wrote an editorial in which he sought to define the “Playboy Philosophy.” In his view, sexual freedom was part of a larger spirit of liberty, including free speech, relaxed drug laws and civil rights, including gay marriage.

One of the magazines’s most newsworthy revelations came in 1976, when presidential nominee Jimmy Carter admitted in a Playboy interview, “I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. The magazine’s in-depth interviews with leading figures from politics, sports and entertainment - including Muhammad Ali, Fidel Castro and Steve Jobs - often made news. King’s “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” Cameron Crowe’s “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” John Irving’s “The World According to Garp” and Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s “All the President’s Men.” Among the works that first appeared in Playboy were excerpts from Alex Haley’s “Roots,” Larry L. He commissioned articles by some of the world’s most celebrated writers - Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, James Baldwin and Joyce Carol Oates, to name a few.

For many years, the magazine was produced in his hometown of Chicago.īefore he turned 50, Hefner was, as Esquire magazine once decreed, “the most famous magazine editor in the history of the world.” He hired a large staff of editors and artists who brought literary sophistication and visual dash to the pages of Playboy, but there was never any doubt that the guiding vision behind Playboy was Hefner’s, and his alone. “Hef,” as he was widely known, was in charge of editorial operations from the beginning and was known to work on the magazine for 40 hours without a break, driven by the deadline buzz of amphetamines, Pepsi-Cola and his ever-present pipe.

Playboy april 1998 value