Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner dies

Hugh Hefner. File

Playboy founder Hugh M. Hefner, the pipe-smoking hedonist who revved up the sexual revolution in the 1950s, has died at 91.

Hefner helped slip sex out of the confines of plain brown wrappers and into mainstream conversation. In 1953, a time when states could legally ban contraceptives, when the word “pregnant” was not allowed on sitcom “I Love Lucy,” Hefner published the first issue of Playboy , featuring naked photos of Marilyn Monroe (taken years earlier) and an editorial promise of “humour, sophistication and spice.”

Playboy soon became forbidden fruit for teenagers and men with time and money. Within a year, circulation neared 2,00,000. Within five years, it had topped one million.

By the 1970s, the magazine had more than 7 million readers and had inspired raunchier imitations such as Penthouse and Hustler. Competition and the internet reduced circulation to less than three million by the 21st century. But Hefner and Playboy remained brand names worldwide.

American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises, Hugh Hefner, passed away on Sept. 27, 2017.

“If there hadn’t been a Hefner, we’d still have sex. But maybe we wouldn’t be enjoying it as much.” With Playboy, Hefner helped slip sex out of the confines of plain brown wrappers and into mainstream conversation.

“Part of the reason that I am who I am is my Puritan roots run deep... And I think I saw the hurtful and hypocritical side of that from very early on.” In 1953, a time when the word “pregnant” was not allowed on sitcoms, Hefner published the first issue of Playboy, featuring naked photos of Marilyn Monroe and an editorial promise of “humour, sophistication and spice.”

Women were warned from the first issue: “If you’re somebody’s sister, wife, or mother-in-law,” the magazine declared, “and picked us up by mistake, please pass us along to the man in your life and get back to Ladies Home Companion.” In this June 2, 2006 photo, Hefner is seen with his girlfriends Bridget Marquardt (L) and Holly Madison (R) to celebrate his 80th birthday at Villa Miani in Rome.

In this 2008 photo, Hefner poses ahead of a news conference announcing the Playboy Jazz Festival, which is being continuously held every year since 1979. Hefner turned the magazine into a multimillion-dollar entertainment empire that at its 1970s peak included TV shows, a jazz festival and a string of Playboy Clubs whose cocktail waitresses, known as ‘bunnies’ wore bunny ears and cottontails.

“I’ve had a bachelor party for 30 years. Why do I need one now?” Hefner said on the eve of his marriage in 1989. The Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, where Hefner would hold lavish parties was sold out in 2016 for $100 million.

“Women are the major beneficiaries of getting rid of the hypocritical old notions about sex.” Hefner’s response to his feminist critics. By the 1970s, the Playboy magazine had more than seven million readers and had inspired such raunchier imitations

Drew Barrymore, Farrah Fawcett and Linda Evans are among those who have posed for the magazine. Several bunnies became celebrities, too, singer Deborah Harry and model Lauren Hutton, to name a few.

After a stroke, Hefner handed control of his empire to his daughter Christie. He continued to choose every month’s Playmate and cover shot. A 2001 photo of Hefner with his likeness in wax at the Hollywood Wax Museum.

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Asked by The New York Times in 1992 of what he was proudest, Hefner responded- “That I changed attitudes toward sex. That nice people can live together now.”

“Part of the reason that I am who I am is my Puritan roots run deep,” he told the AP in 2011. “My folks are Puritan. My folks are prohibitionists. There was no drinking in my home. No discussion of sex. And I think I saw the hurtful and hypocritical side of that from very early on. ”

In the 21st century, he was back on television in a cable reality show “The Girls Next Door” with three live-in girlfriends in the Los Angeles Playboy mansion.

In 2012, Hefner was married third time, to Crystal Harris, an American model and Playmate who was 60 years younger to him.

After a stroke, Hefner handed control of his empire to his feminist daughter, Christie, although he owned 70 percent of Playboy stock and continued to choose every month’s Playmate and cover shot. Christie Hefner continued as CEO until 2009. The enterprise is now taken care by his son Cooper.