American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story (2017) s01e02 Episode Script
Birth of the Centerfold: The Girl Next Door
1 [Hugh Hefner.]
1953 was a year of all-American values.
"I Love Lucy" was the number one show on television.
Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in as the country's 34th President.
And suburban culture was a way of life.
But under the surface, society was as repressed as ever.
It was a very culturally and sexually conservative time.
Men and women were expected to go to college, get a job, get married, settle down, and raise a family.
It was the new American dream, the white picket fence out in the suburbs.
And that's exactly the life that Hefner was living, but he found it deeply unsatisfying and boring.
[Hefner.]
It was clear to me that America needed a change, so I decided I was going to create a magazine that would challenge conformity.
A modern men's magazine about lifestyle, art, culture, and sex, and I'd call it Stag Party.
But I knew the first issue needed the perfect cover girl, and after months of searching, I had finally found her.
[door opening.]
[door closing.]
Hey, Hef, I got some more girls here for you.
- What do you think about that? - Good.
I have an option myself.
What do you think of this? Um that's Marilyn Monroe.
That's her.
She's our pin-up girl.
[laughing.]
[Hefner.]
In the spring of 1953, I bought the rights to nude photos of one of the most famous women in the world, Marilyn Monroe.
Now that we had our model, I worked around the clock, creating every single aspect of the magazine what would be in it, how it would look.
He put the first issue out singlehandedly.
He went over all the material, he did some of the drawings himself.
[Hefner.]
I was determined to create the perfect first issue.
There was a section with party jokes, another on designs for the modern office.
We would even publish classic literature from some of the most well known authors in the world.
[Jason Buhrmester.]
The boldest thing Hef did with the magazine is that he really dismantled the idea of the 1950s masculinity.
In the first issue, in the editor's letter, Hef very plainly says, other men's magazines focus on hunting and fishing and sports.
We're not doing any of that.
We're gonna talk about jazz and cocktails and Picasso.
[Hefner.]
We'd talk about culture, but we'd also focus on sex.
[Hefner.]
When people raised questions about why we included sex in the magazine, my response always was, how could you put together a men's magazine and not include the primary thing that men are interested in? The whole idea from the beginning was to incorporate sex as one, normal and logical and healthy part of a total package that appealed to a male audience.
We featured articles on modern dating and married life and instructions for how to play a provocative new party game called "Strip Quiz.
" I think that we have it very, very engrained in our heads to be very uncomfortable with sex, but that's the reason I'm here.
That's the reason why you're here.
That's the reason why we're all here.
[Hefner.]
My hope was that my magazine would bring sex to the mainstream.
[Hefner.]
But just as we were putting the final touches on the magazine, everything came to a standstill.
It turns out, there was a hunting magazine already on the market called Stag, and as soon as Stag got wind of Stag Party, they threatened to sue us for copyright infringement.
Now, with only a week before our deadline, we had to completely re-edit the magazine and come up with a brand new title.
Every little movement Every little thing you do Is it sleight of hand That commands my heart to love you? Every little movement Every little movement [Hefner.]
Facing a potential lawsuit, I gathered my staff to try and come up with a new name for the magazine.
Bachelor.
[Art Paul.]
Ah, it makes it sound like we're not for married men.
We'd be cutting out a whole reader base.
What about something like Sir or Gentlemen? [Hefner.]
No, no, it's too literal.
It has to be fun.
What does the name Jaguar have to do with a car company? Nothing, but it sounds cool, right? Oh, oh! What was the name of that car company my mom used to work for? Playboy.
Playboy.
[Eldon Sellers.]
We spent many, many hours talking about names.
Finally, I remembered that my mother had worked for an automobile company in Detroit called Playboy Automobile, and it was a very sporty looking automobile, a nice looking automobile, and that's what made me mention Playboy as a possibility.
[David Eisenbach.]
Playboy.
Perfect.
It isn't aggressive.
It isn't hyper-masculine.
Yeah, okay, you're doing nudie magazines, but there's a sophistication to it.
[Hefner.]
We had our new name.
Now we had to quickly revise the cover and remove all references to Stag Party throughout the magazine.
Back then, when you're literally pasting print onto a page, somebody would have to take a knife, a little X-Acto knife, and cut out every Stag Party on every page of the magazine and replace it with Playboy.
Even today, with desktop publishing and all that kind of stuff, that would be an incredible amount of work.
[Hefner.]
Even our cartoon mascot of a deer would have to change to something else, and we chose a bunny.
The rabbit captures the sophistication, the silliness of the brand.
There is the sort of sexual connotation of a rabbit that comes through.
[Hefner.]
I had no idea at the time, but that one little change would come to define the magazine for decades.
We had our mascot in place, and with Marilyn on the cover, we were ready to go.
Soon, almost 70,000 copies of Playboy would be heading to major cities across the country.
The only question was, would it sell? In December of 1953, my magazine hit the newsstands.
[man.]
Thank you.
[Sellers.]
Hef got up and lurked around newsstands in Chicago and waited to see if anyone would pick up the copy and has talked about how excited he was the first time he saw someone buy it.
And I imagine he was elated to know there were other people out there who felt like he did, because he was taking this gamble.
[Hefner.]
I was excited, but I was also nervous, so nervous I didn't put my name or issue number on our first publication.
I felt at the time, even if there was never going to be another issue that I'd had my chance, and indeed, at that point, I was not sure there would be a second issue.
That's why it had no date on it.
Whether I succeeded or not, I'd had the chance to try.
[Hefner.]
And then, the numbers came in.
In its first two weeks on the newsstands, nearly 80% of the 70, 000 issues we printed were sold across the country.
Don't you know you gotta be strong? Leave all the other guys alone [Richard Rosenzweig.]
It was virtually sold out.
He edited this magazine for himself, and he was betting that other young men were interested in the same things he was interested in, and he won that bet.
You're gonna be lonely So let it shine [Hefner.]
It was enough for me to pay back everyone I owed, get our furniture back, and still have enough left over to replace my 12-year-old Chevy with a brand-new Studebaker sports car.
"May I congratulate you on your initial issue of Playboy magazine.
" [Hefner.]
And it wasn't long before fan mail started pouring in.
Don't you know you gotta be strong? Leave all the other guys alone [Hefner.]
Readers in Oklahoma, Colorado, and Illinois were raving about Marilyn and the magazine.
Whoa [Hefner.]
Even the press gave us positive reviews.
The magazine started from nothing and was a success from its very first issue.
It was as if it was a moment and an event that was waiting to happen.
- Just back to back.
- Good.
Yeah, with a little explanation and, uh.
[Hefner.]
We were so surprised by the magazine's success that we hadn't even thought about a second issue, and now we had only a week to put one together.
To make our lives easier, we stuck to what made the magazine work the first time, adding more party jokes, comics, and literature, but this time, we were missing one key component.
No.
There's nothing good here.
Well, this is all we have to choose from, so one of them has to be good enough.
I'm sorry, but none of these girls are right.
None of these girls are Marilyn, Hef.
They're just not.
But if you want to print a second issue, you need to pick one of them.
[Hefner.]
Putting Marilyn Monroe on the cover had drawn in readers for the first issue, but I knew I wasn't going to find another Marilyn.
If Playboy was going to last I had to find another hook, and that's when it hit me.
Let the sunshine in Come on right away Let the sunshine in, brighten up my day [Hefner.]
Remember back in my college days when I started a column in the school magazine called "Co-Ed of the Month" that featured female students? I realized Playboy could do the same thing, only we'd call her the Playmate of the Month.
[Hefner.]
I had completely forgotten that the cover of Shaft Magazine and the feature inside it was called the Co-Ed of the Month.
It was a revelation.
And let the sunshine in, come on right away [Hefner.]
So, a calendar girl named Margie Harrison became Miss January.
Send those clouds away, let the sunshine in [Buhrmester.]
Publishing photos of naked women, that was nothing new.
It was Hef's personalized approach to that, where they were called Playmates.
This was someone, your partner in crime.
This was someone you did things with.
Girl, you've done me wrong, that's right [Hefner.]
Was it our best issue? No.
Yeah, but I really need you right now [Hefner.]
But I was confident enough this time to put my name and issue number on it.
Come back to me right now And let the sunshine in [Hefner.]
And believe it or not, the second issue outsold the first by 2,000 copies.
Brighten up my day Send those clouds away Let the sunshine in Yeah [Hefner.]
Now that our magazine was a success, I knew my staff of three wasn't enough.
[Hefner.]
What do you think of Playboy? I think your fiction section could use a little work.
Oh, really? [Hefner.]
When I met Ray Russell, he was just an unpublished science fiction writer, but he'd submitted a few pieces to the magazine and I really liked his style.
Although his only experience was writing for Walgreens circulars, I made Ray my associate editor.
My next focus was the visuals.
I had worked with a guy named Vince Tajiri during my publishing house days, whose talent I felt was never fully recognized.
These days, he was stuck taking wedding photos to pay the bills, so he was more than happy to accept the position as Playboy's photo editor.
The little magazine that I had started with a couple of friends was suddenly outgrowing my kitchen table, so in the spring of 1954, with the money we had earned from the first two issues, Playboy moved into its own offices.
- Good morning, Mr.
Hefner.
- Good morning, Julie.
[Hefner.]
With our new headquarters Eldon.
my staff was ready to get to work.
Can I talk to you in my office? Five minutes? [Cooper Hefner.]
My dad's success very much has to do with the fact that he surrounded himself with the right people, and that comes down to his gut.
His gut allowed him to figure out who he could trust, who he couldn't also to bring out the best in his team.
[Hefner.]
With our sales growing, we needed someone to take care of the subscription requests that came pouring in.
Hello? No, of course.
I can do that for you right now if you like.
[Hefner.]
So, I hired Charlaine Karalus, a smart, determined young woman with meticulous attention to detail.
Perfect.
That won't be a problem.
I can get a copy over to him.
Bye.
[Charlaine Karalus.]
I had a friend that told me about Playboy wanting help, so we decided we would go for an interview.
Well, we stopped at a newsstand and we bought the magazine.
She took it real quick and hid it under her jacket so no one would see it.
Turned out, my friend backed out of the interview.
She chickened out and I didn't.
I had hoped to get on the ground floor with this magazine and grow with them.
These various employees that we're talking about, one could say that Hef lucked out with these guys, because one never really knows, but Hefner's gut told him these were the right people for the right jobs.
Okay, great, so what's your turnaround time on that? [Hefner.]
I'd assembled a team of promising, if unproven, talent but I knew I needed someone on staff who could lend a little credibility to the magazine, so I hired a guy who had been an editor at The New Yorker.
His name was Auguste Comte Spectorsky, or as we'd soon call him, Spec.
Hiring Spectorsky was a brilliant move on Hefner's part.
Spectorsky gave the magazine a maturity it wasn't going to have, and it's to Hefner's credit that he understood the magazine needed that maturity.
Well, rock-a-bye, baby [Hefner.]
I finally had a team in place and it was time to see what we could accomplish.
Rock-a-bye, baby Mama's gonna rock you by and by [Hefner.]
The staff worked like crazy to get the magazine together every month.
To this little lullaby You don't need any whiskey [Hefner.]
Day in, day out, we clocked long hours and worked weekends.
[Richard Rosenzweig.]
Playboy was one of the most exciting places one could work.
Very different from most of the other companies that were around in Chicago or New York or Los Angeles.
[Hefner.]
I even bought a pullout couch for my office so I could work overnight.
I started spending most of my time at work, away from my family.
He spent the majority of his time in that office.
He had a small little bed, he had a small little kitchenette, and he just worked, and unfortunately, his marriage suffered from that.
[Hefner.]
In the marriage, I was already missing emotionally.
I'm the product of the way I was raised.
While my father was absent emotionally, I was soon absent.
In point of fact, I wasn't there.
[Millie Gunn Williams.]
That physical change occurred because of the success of the magazine.
It was easier for him to set up living quarters somewhere else, and that's when he said, "I'm gonna start staying living down at the office a couple of days a week.
" [Hefner.]
The team at Playboy became my other family.
We worked hard, but we also partied.
And with the magazine's growing success, we were getting invited to some of the best parties in town.
Let me love you [Hefner.]
And that's where I was introduced to a man named Victor Lownes.
Victor, this is the friend I was telling you about, Hugh Hefner.
There you are.
Hi, how are you? Hef runs the magazine.
Oh, Mr.
Playboy.
I like your look.
Nice and casual.
Thank you.
Is this your place? Yeah, sure is.
[Victor Lownes.]
When I met Hef, I thought he was terrific.
Hefner was a very ambitious businessman, a very clever businessman.
I mean, anybody who could start their own magazine, I was very impressed.
If you lend me your ear [Lownes.]
It was great to meet you, Hef, but I have some business to attend to.
Um, how about we grab some drinks at Walton Walk on Friday? Sure.
That sounds good.
Good.
I'll bring along some friends.
Okay.
[Hefner.]
For almost a year, I'd been creating a magazine called Playboy.
But then one night at a party, I actually met one.
By 1954, Victor Lownes was the ultimate bachelor.
He came from a wealthy family in New York and was given anything he wanted.
By the age of 26, he had moved to Chicago and was living the bachelor's dream.
He had the cool apartment, suave attitude, and the women.
Victor was leader of the pack.
Everyone wanted to be with him, men and women.
He just has this gift of life.
He had great style, he had great flair.
There was never a dull moment with Victor Lownes.
[Hefner.]
I knew Victor could add something to the magazine, so I brought him on board as manager of promotions and he fit right in.
[Lownes.]
So, we got two girls, right? One of 'em puts her leg across me, right? Hand underneath.
[Arthur Kretchmer.]
Victor Lownes played a great role at the company.
He was something that Hefner was not bold, brash.
He was the complement to Hef, who was, after all, a little bit shy and cerebral.
Meanwhile, I'm at the front, here.
[Hefner.]
Victor lived the life most guys dreamed of All the way at the front.
Yeah! [laughter.]
[Hefner.]
and I wanted to be a part of it.
She is magic [Lownes.]
Not even kidding.
No socks, no necktie, nothing.
[Hefner.]
I was out with Victor almost every night of the week.
The guy could get into any club in Chicago and always managed to bring along some incredible company.
[Lownes.]
I had a very good bond with Hefner himself.
The two of us worked late at night and then we would go out and have drinks together, and that became a regular pattern.
[clears throat.]
Well, we're dancing.
Fish got to swim and birds got to fly [Christie Hefner.]
Victor, in some ways, was more the image of the editor/publisher of Playboy than my father was, because Victor was someone who loved good food and wine, who loved to travel, who was more gregarious and sociable.
So, are you gonna ask me to dance or what? Oh, of course.
Tell me he's slow [Patty Farmer.]
Hef really did not have the example or the sophistication growing up to be what everyone now thinks of as a playboy.
Lovin' that man of mine [Farmer.]
It wasn't until his association with Victor Lownes that they almost became a whole.
He can come home As late as can be Can't help lovin' that man The way I do Lovin' that man [Hefner.]
Partying with Victor opened my eyes to a completely different world and I jumped right in.
Hey [Hefner.]
The beginning of Playboy introduced me to a bachelor lifestyle that has much of the upside and very few of the downside.
I want to tell you a story Every man ought to know [Hefner.]
I felt no guilt in that context.
I felt that I was exploring the outer limits of what it meant to really be moral.
But the truth of the matter is, I was running away, I think, from my traditional values.
Hey hey hey [Hefner.]
You have to remember, this was the 1950s.
You were supposed to get married and start a family right after school.
But times were changing.
[Christie Hefner.]
My father had a sense that he wanted more out of life than he had seen his father get out of life, and that a part of that was the idea of having a period of time before you got married and settled down.
And he got married young, and I think, too young, and he would say that.
Hey Hey hey hey [Hefner.]
As I began spending more of my time living the life of a single man, I realized it was time to update the magazine's message.
Oh work it now, work that [Hefner.]
When I started Playboy, it was filled with topics that met my interests.
Hey Oh, work it now [Hefner.]
But now I wanted to do more.
I wanted to turn the magazine into a guide for how to become the ultimate playboy.
[Hefner.]
What is a playboy? Just toss out a word.
A bachelor.
[Hefner.]
What else? [Sellers.]
Suave.
[Russell.]
Sophisticated.
- Intelligent.
- Urbane.
[Hefner.]
Right.
Every time someone picks up a copy of Playboy, I don't want him to just imagine himself as the type of guy who can get the girl he wants.
I want to teach him how.
How to buy the right suit, select the right bottle of wine, put on the right music when a girl comes over.
I don't want to follow trends.
I want to create them.
And that is why every article, every picture, every page must be specifically tailored to promote this one, singular vision the Playboy lifestyle.
[Hefner.]
The message was very clear.
We were talking about how to live as a single male.
And nobody had done that before.
My sugar is so [Hefner.]
My staff had their marching orders, and we worked around the clock, redefining every section of the magazine to promote the Playboy lifestyle.
She goes to see [Hefner.]
Tajiri translated his slick photographic style into how-to guides [camera shutter snapping.]
teaching our readers to select the finest in fashion, mix the perfect cocktail, outfit the most cutting-edge bachelor pad and orchestrate the perfect date.
She says "toh-mah-toh" instead of "toh-may-toh" [Buhrmester.]
There's a generation of men who said, "I'm not gonna marry the girl down the street and I'm gonna move to a major city.
" That really shook up America and I think that bred the ground for Hef to come out and invent the idea of the bachelor.
We'll be married soon [Hefner.]
I think the thing that made Playboy so special was that we managed to mix the lifestyle and the sexual content with a mix of contemporary values that were not really getting expression in other mass media.
[phone ringing.]
[Hefner.]
Our readership continued to expand Yeah, it's nice, it's nice.
[Hefner.]
and I realized that we were no longer just a magazine.
We were becoming a brand.
But there was still one thing missing.
Playboy needed a logo.
So I gave Art Paul the task of designing it.
Talk to me, baby, whisper in my ear [Hefner.]
Four minutes later, he had sketched the perfect symbol Talk to me, baby, whisper in my ear [Hefner.]
an image so flawless that even 60 years later, it remains completely unchanged.
Don't have no fear Don't you know I love you so The Playboy rabbit head is iconic.
It is one of a handful of symbols that, from very early on, became phenomenally recognizable.
Holler hey, hey Kokomo [Hefner.]
Our famous mascot became a part of every issue, with Art Paul turning it into a game, challenging our readers to find the rabbit hidden on every cover.
There's dimples on her elbows [Brett Ratner.]
The best comparison I have for Hef, I would say Hefner is Walt Disney and the bunny is his Mickey Mouse.
Dimples on her knees [Ratner.]
It's branding.
It's marketing.
It's brilliance.
She chills and thrills me With just a little squeeze I like the sleigh ride, I like the sleigh ride Jingle bells, jingle bells Jingle all the way Pass these around, gentlemen.
[Hefner.]
Looking back, 1954 had been an incredible year.
The magazine I'd started with a staff of three had taken over four floors of a Chicago office building, hired over 25 employees, and grown monthly sales to nearly 185,000 copies, more than doubling the print-run of our first issue.
It's really remarkable the magazine was profitable in its first year.
Nobody does that.
Sports Illustrated, for a frame of reference, started about the same time as Playboy, and they didn't turn a profit until the early '60s.
I like the sleigh ride Silent night Holy night All is calm All is bright Round yon virgin Mother and child [Christie Hefner.]
My father wasn't around a lot when I was growing up.
Putting the magazine first, which Hef clearly did, meant, by definition, that he wasn't gonna have the same kind of family life that he would have if he hadn't done that.
[Millie Gunn Williams.]
He was so busy with the company, he didn't have a lot of time, but he was Daddy, and Daddy was good, and Daddy was caring.
But he was fairly non-existent.
[Hefner.]
I knew I should have been home with my family to be the father Christie needed, but there was always something at the office that pulled me away.
[Art Paul.]
All right, so you can see we're going for a beach theme here.
We're incorporating an image of the bunny in the sand, making use of the bathing suit, and you can see there's just a pair of legs walking into the distance, suggesting that it may be her suit that we're seeing, which of course would mean that she's not wearing anything at all.
Uh, it was just an idea.
I can come up with a couple other options if you're not happy with it, Hef.
No, no.
It's a good cover.
It's a great cover.
It's better than the centerfold.
This is inspired.
This is just awkward, right? Why don't we take our own photographs? [men groaning.]
Why not? She has a point.
Why don't we? See if you can find out where the calendar companies are getting their girls from.
Yeah, I'll get on it.
Thank you, everyone.
[Karalus.]
At the time, Playboy was using calendar pictures for their centerfolds.
They were professional models, and they were not exclusive pictures, Hefner was very unhappy with the quality and the caliber.
He wanted something different, something new, something unique, and something, you know, special that Playboy would have.
Charlaine, if you ever have any ideas, my door's always open.
This time [Hefner.]
Charlaine was a talented, beautiful woman.
Can change my mind [Hefner.]
The more we worked together, the closer we got.
And keep my heart from yearning inside [Hefner.]
And it wasn't long before we became more than just coworkers.
Right this time I'm gonna get a glass of water.
Do you want one? Sure.
Can't keep my heart from yearning inside I know love is right This time Why are you looking at me like that? Have you ever thought about being in the magazine? Doing what, exactly? Miss July.
[laughing.]
No, I'm serious.
Wouldn't you like to be pictured in a magazine? I'm sure there are plenty of girls out there who would be more than happy to pose for you.
I don't want those girls.
I want you.
Why? Because you're not the type of girl you'd expect.
[Hefner.]
I had sent my team out looking for the perfect girl.
And I realized she had been in front of me all along.
I really did the Playmate picture as sort of a lark.
It seemed like a fun thing to do.
It was out of loyalty to the magazine, and it was just super fun.
[Hefner.]
Charlaine's one condition was that we didn't use her real name so I came up with an alias, Janet Pilgrim, and wrote a short blurb to go along with the photo, explaining that she wasn't like the models we'd used in the past.
She was plucked right from our own office, and to Playboy's readers, she would simply be the girl next door.
You look great.
If I only had a second chance How I'd love you If you'll only take a second chance with your heart Darling, this time I swear At least a lifetime we'd share No one could tear our love apart Our love apart If I only had a second chance [Karalus.]
When I did my first Playmate picture, I was very nervous about it because I knew hundreds of men would be opening that magazine and seeing me like that, but I wasn't really showing much of anything.
Then you'll see [camera shutter clicking.]
[Hefner.]
With that issue, our subscription manager became the magazine's most popular Playmate yet.
Letters poured in from across the country, and I realized the girl next door was a hit.
[Art Paul.]
That looks great.
Here.
You know what? Just come forward a little bit.
Listen to me, baby The idea that then evolved was to use, when we talk about the girl next door, in other words, to use an office girl or somebody going to college or someone working as a clerk in a shop.
Every boy wants a girl [Hefner.]
And what we didn't know was that it was gonna cause such a sensation.
But I've seen lips bigger to be kissed Stop I can't stop And it caused a sensation.
Lightning striking again Lightning striking again [Buhrmester.]
She's not unapproachable.
Hef wanted to capture the girl-next-door essence of a flirtiness but also an approachability.
I can't stop I can't stop myself lightning [Hefner.]
We had gone from the most famous woman on the planet to the girls right there in front of us, and I knew, from that moment on, we were never going back.
Every little movement Every motion of your hips I feel the compulsion To pull you to my sweet lips Is it a black magic spell you put me under? This miracle moment Never let it end Every little movement Is beyond improvement You are the magician I've been wishing for forever Every little movement Every little movement
1953 was a year of all-American values.
"I Love Lucy" was the number one show on television.
Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in as the country's 34th President.
And suburban culture was a way of life.
But under the surface, society was as repressed as ever.
It was a very culturally and sexually conservative time.
Men and women were expected to go to college, get a job, get married, settle down, and raise a family.
It was the new American dream, the white picket fence out in the suburbs.
And that's exactly the life that Hefner was living, but he found it deeply unsatisfying and boring.
[Hefner.]
It was clear to me that America needed a change, so I decided I was going to create a magazine that would challenge conformity.
A modern men's magazine about lifestyle, art, culture, and sex, and I'd call it Stag Party.
But I knew the first issue needed the perfect cover girl, and after months of searching, I had finally found her.
[door opening.]
[door closing.]
Hey, Hef, I got some more girls here for you.
- What do you think about that? - Good.
I have an option myself.
What do you think of this? Um that's Marilyn Monroe.
That's her.
She's our pin-up girl.
[laughing.]
[Hefner.]
In the spring of 1953, I bought the rights to nude photos of one of the most famous women in the world, Marilyn Monroe.
Now that we had our model, I worked around the clock, creating every single aspect of the magazine what would be in it, how it would look.
He put the first issue out singlehandedly.
He went over all the material, he did some of the drawings himself.
[Hefner.]
I was determined to create the perfect first issue.
There was a section with party jokes, another on designs for the modern office.
We would even publish classic literature from some of the most well known authors in the world.
[Jason Buhrmester.]
The boldest thing Hef did with the magazine is that he really dismantled the idea of the 1950s masculinity.
In the first issue, in the editor's letter, Hef very plainly says, other men's magazines focus on hunting and fishing and sports.
We're not doing any of that.
We're gonna talk about jazz and cocktails and Picasso.
[Hefner.]
We'd talk about culture, but we'd also focus on sex.
[Hefner.]
When people raised questions about why we included sex in the magazine, my response always was, how could you put together a men's magazine and not include the primary thing that men are interested in? The whole idea from the beginning was to incorporate sex as one, normal and logical and healthy part of a total package that appealed to a male audience.
We featured articles on modern dating and married life and instructions for how to play a provocative new party game called "Strip Quiz.
" I think that we have it very, very engrained in our heads to be very uncomfortable with sex, but that's the reason I'm here.
That's the reason why you're here.
That's the reason why we're all here.
[Hefner.]
My hope was that my magazine would bring sex to the mainstream.
[Hefner.]
But just as we were putting the final touches on the magazine, everything came to a standstill.
It turns out, there was a hunting magazine already on the market called Stag, and as soon as Stag got wind of Stag Party, they threatened to sue us for copyright infringement.
Now, with only a week before our deadline, we had to completely re-edit the magazine and come up with a brand new title.
Every little movement Every little thing you do Is it sleight of hand That commands my heart to love you? Every little movement Every little movement [Hefner.]
Facing a potential lawsuit, I gathered my staff to try and come up with a new name for the magazine.
Bachelor.
[Art Paul.]
Ah, it makes it sound like we're not for married men.
We'd be cutting out a whole reader base.
What about something like Sir or Gentlemen? [Hefner.]
No, no, it's too literal.
It has to be fun.
What does the name Jaguar have to do with a car company? Nothing, but it sounds cool, right? Oh, oh! What was the name of that car company my mom used to work for? Playboy.
Playboy.
[Eldon Sellers.]
We spent many, many hours talking about names.
Finally, I remembered that my mother had worked for an automobile company in Detroit called Playboy Automobile, and it was a very sporty looking automobile, a nice looking automobile, and that's what made me mention Playboy as a possibility.
[David Eisenbach.]
Playboy.
Perfect.
It isn't aggressive.
It isn't hyper-masculine.
Yeah, okay, you're doing nudie magazines, but there's a sophistication to it.
[Hefner.]
We had our new name.
Now we had to quickly revise the cover and remove all references to Stag Party throughout the magazine.
Back then, when you're literally pasting print onto a page, somebody would have to take a knife, a little X-Acto knife, and cut out every Stag Party on every page of the magazine and replace it with Playboy.
Even today, with desktop publishing and all that kind of stuff, that would be an incredible amount of work.
[Hefner.]
Even our cartoon mascot of a deer would have to change to something else, and we chose a bunny.
The rabbit captures the sophistication, the silliness of the brand.
There is the sort of sexual connotation of a rabbit that comes through.
[Hefner.]
I had no idea at the time, but that one little change would come to define the magazine for decades.
We had our mascot in place, and with Marilyn on the cover, we were ready to go.
Soon, almost 70,000 copies of Playboy would be heading to major cities across the country.
The only question was, would it sell? In December of 1953, my magazine hit the newsstands.
[man.]
Thank you.
[Sellers.]
Hef got up and lurked around newsstands in Chicago and waited to see if anyone would pick up the copy and has talked about how excited he was the first time he saw someone buy it.
And I imagine he was elated to know there were other people out there who felt like he did, because he was taking this gamble.
[Hefner.]
I was excited, but I was also nervous, so nervous I didn't put my name or issue number on our first publication.
I felt at the time, even if there was never going to be another issue that I'd had my chance, and indeed, at that point, I was not sure there would be a second issue.
That's why it had no date on it.
Whether I succeeded or not, I'd had the chance to try.
[Hefner.]
And then, the numbers came in.
In its first two weeks on the newsstands, nearly 80% of the 70, 000 issues we printed were sold across the country.
Don't you know you gotta be strong? Leave all the other guys alone [Richard Rosenzweig.]
It was virtually sold out.
He edited this magazine for himself, and he was betting that other young men were interested in the same things he was interested in, and he won that bet.
You're gonna be lonely So let it shine [Hefner.]
It was enough for me to pay back everyone I owed, get our furniture back, and still have enough left over to replace my 12-year-old Chevy with a brand-new Studebaker sports car.
"May I congratulate you on your initial issue of Playboy magazine.
" [Hefner.]
And it wasn't long before fan mail started pouring in.
Don't you know you gotta be strong? Leave all the other guys alone [Hefner.]
Readers in Oklahoma, Colorado, and Illinois were raving about Marilyn and the magazine.
Whoa [Hefner.]
Even the press gave us positive reviews.
The magazine started from nothing and was a success from its very first issue.
It was as if it was a moment and an event that was waiting to happen.
- Just back to back.
- Good.
Yeah, with a little explanation and, uh.
[Hefner.]
We were so surprised by the magazine's success that we hadn't even thought about a second issue, and now we had only a week to put one together.
To make our lives easier, we stuck to what made the magazine work the first time, adding more party jokes, comics, and literature, but this time, we were missing one key component.
No.
There's nothing good here.
Well, this is all we have to choose from, so one of them has to be good enough.
I'm sorry, but none of these girls are right.
None of these girls are Marilyn, Hef.
They're just not.
But if you want to print a second issue, you need to pick one of them.
[Hefner.]
Putting Marilyn Monroe on the cover had drawn in readers for the first issue, but I knew I wasn't going to find another Marilyn.
If Playboy was going to last I had to find another hook, and that's when it hit me.
Let the sunshine in Come on right away Let the sunshine in, brighten up my day [Hefner.]
Remember back in my college days when I started a column in the school magazine called "Co-Ed of the Month" that featured female students? I realized Playboy could do the same thing, only we'd call her the Playmate of the Month.
[Hefner.]
I had completely forgotten that the cover of Shaft Magazine and the feature inside it was called the Co-Ed of the Month.
It was a revelation.
And let the sunshine in, come on right away [Hefner.]
So, a calendar girl named Margie Harrison became Miss January.
Send those clouds away, let the sunshine in [Buhrmester.]
Publishing photos of naked women, that was nothing new.
It was Hef's personalized approach to that, where they were called Playmates.
This was someone, your partner in crime.
This was someone you did things with.
Girl, you've done me wrong, that's right [Hefner.]
Was it our best issue? No.
Yeah, but I really need you right now [Hefner.]
But I was confident enough this time to put my name and issue number on it.
Come back to me right now And let the sunshine in [Hefner.]
And believe it or not, the second issue outsold the first by 2,000 copies.
Brighten up my day Send those clouds away Let the sunshine in Yeah [Hefner.]
Now that our magazine was a success, I knew my staff of three wasn't enough.
[Hefner.]
What do you think of Playboy? I think your fiction section could use a little work.
Oh, really? [Hefner.]
When I met Ray Russell, he was just an unpublished science fiction writer, but he'd submitted a few pieces to the magazine and I really liked his style.
Although his only experience was writing for Walgreens circulars, I made Ray my associate editor.
My next focus was the visuals.
I had worked with a guy named Vince Tajiri during my publishing house days, whose talent I felt was never fully recognized.
These days, he was stuck taking wedding photos to pay the bills, so he was more than happy to accept the position as Playboy's photo editor.
The little magazine that I had started with a couple of friends was suddenly outgrowing my kitchen table, so in the spring of 1954, with the money we had earned from the first two issues, Playboy moved into its own offices.
- Good morning, Mr.
Hefner.
- Good morning, Julie.
[Hefner.]
With our new headquarters Eldon.
my staff was ready to get to work.
Can I talk to you in my office? Five minutes? [Cooper Hefner.]
My dad's success very much has to do with the fact that he surrounded himself with the right people, and that comes down to his gut.
His gut allowed him to figure out who he could trust, who he couldn't also to bring out the best in his team.
[Hefner.]
With our sales growing, we needed someone to take care of the subscription requests that came pouring in.
Hello? No, of course.
I can do that for you right now if you like.
[Hefner.]
So, I hired Charlaine Karalus, a smart, determined young woman with meticulous attention to detail.
Perfect.
That won't be a problem.
I can get a copy over to him.
Bye.
[Charlaine Karalus.]
I had a friend that told me about Playboy wanting help, so we decided we would go for an interview.
Well, we stopped at a newsstand and we bought the magazine.
She took it real quick and hid it under her jacket so no one would see it.
Turned out, my friend backed out of the interview.
She chickened out and I didn't.
I had hoped to get on the ground floor with this magazine and grow with them.
These various employees that we're talking about, one could say that Hef lucked out with these guys, because one never really knows, but Hefner's gut told him these were the right people for the right jobs.
Okay, great, so what's your turnaround time on that? [Hefner.]
I'd assembled a team of promising, if unproven, talent but I knew I needed someone on staff who could lend a little credibility to the magazine, so I hired a guy who had been an editor at The New Yorker.
His name was Auguste Comte Spectorsky, or as we'd soon call him, Spec.
Hiring Spectorsky was a brilliant move on Hefner's part.
Spectorsky gave the magazine a maturity it wasn't going to have, and it's to Hefner's credit that he understood the magazine needed that maturity.
Well, rock-a-bye, baby [Hefner.]
I finally had a team in place and it was time to see what we could accomplish.
Rock-a-bye, baby Mama's gonna rock you by and by [Hefner.]
The staff worked like crazy to get the magazine together every month.
To this little lullaby You don't need any whiskey [Hefner.]
Day in, day out, we clocked long hours and worked weekends.
[Richard Rosenzweig.]
Playboy was one of the most exciting places one could work.
Very different from most of the other companies that were around in Chicago or New York or Los Angeles.
[Hefner.]
I even bought a pullout couch for my office so I could work overnight.
I started spending most of my time at work, away from my family.
He spent the majority of his time in that office.
He had a small little bed, he had a small little kitchenette, and he just worked, and unfortunately, his marriage suffered from that.
[Hefner.]
In the marriage, I was already missing emotionally.
I'm the product of the way I was raised.
While my father was absent emotionally, I was soon absent.
In point of fact, I wasn't there.
[Millie Gunn Williams.]
That physical change occurred because of the success of the magazine.
It was easier for him to set up living quarters somewhere else, and that's when he said, "I'm gonna start staying living down at the office a couple of days a week.
" [Hefner.]
The team at Playboy became my other family.
We worked hard, but we also partied.
And with the magazine's growing success, we were getting invited to some of the best parties in town.
Let me love you [Hefner.]
And that's where I was introduced to a man named Victor Lownes.
Victor, this is the friend I was telling you about, Hugh Hefner.
There you are.
Hi, how are you? Hef runs the magazine.
Oh, Mr.
Playboy.
I like your look.
Nice and casual.
Thank you.
Is this your place? Yeah, sure is.
[Victor Lownes.]
When I met Hef, I thought he was terrific.
Hefner was a very ambitious businessman, a very clever businessman.
I mean, anybody who could start their own magazine, I was very impressed.
If you lend me your ear [Lownes.]
It was great to meet you, Hef, but I have some business to attend to.
Um, how about we grab some drinks at Walton Walk on Friday? Sure.
That sounds good.
Good.
I'll bring along some friends.
Okay.
[Hefner.]
For almost a year, I'd been creating a magazine called Playboy.
But then one night at a party, I actually met one.
By 1954, Victor Lownes was the ultimate bachelor.
He came from a wealthy family in New York and was given anything he wanted.
By the age of 26, he had moved to Chicago and was living the bachelor's dream.
He had the cool apartment, suave attitude, and the women.
Victor was leader of the pack.
Everyone wanted to be with him, men and women.
He just has this gift of life.
He had great style, he had great flair.
There was never a dull moment with Victor Lownes.
[Hefner.]
I knew Victor could add something to the magazine, so I brought him on board as manager of promotions and he fit right in.
[Lownes.]
So, we got two girls, right? One of 'em puts her leg across me, right? Hand underneath.
[Arthur Kretchmer.]
Victor Lownes played a great role at the company.
He was something that Hefner was not bold, brash.
He was the complement to Hef, who was, after all, a little bit shy and cerebral.
Meanwhile, I'm at the front, here.
[Hefner.]
Victor lived the life most guys dreamed of All the way at the front.
Yeah! [laughter.]
[Hefner.]
and I wanted to be a part of it.
She is magic [Lownes.]
Not even kidding.
No socks, no necktie, nothing.
[Hefner.]
I was out with Victor almost every night of the week.
The guy could get into any club in Chicago and always managed to bring along some incredible company.
[Lownes.]
I had a very good bond with Hefner himself.
The two of us worked late at night and then we would go out and have drinks together, and that became a regular pattern.
[clears throat.]
Well, we're dancing.
Fish got to swim and birds got to fly [Christie Hefner.]
Victor, in some ways, was more the image of the editor/publisher of Playboy than my father was, because Victor was someone who loved good food and wine, who loved to travel, who was more gregarious and sociable.
So, are you gonna ask me to dance or what? Oh, of course.
Tell me he's slow [Patty Farmer.]
Hef really did not have the example or the sophistication growing up to be what everyone now thinks of as a playboy.
Lovin' that man of mine [Farmer.]
It wasn't until his association with Victor Lownes that they almost became a whole.
He can come home As late as can be Can't help lovin' that man The way I do Lovin' that man [Hefner.]
Partying with Victor opened my eyes to a completely different world and I jumped right in.
Hey [Hefner.]
The beginning of Playboy introduced me to a bachelor lifestyle that has much of the upside and very few of the downside.
I want to tell you a story Every man ought to know [Hefner.]
I felt no guilt in that context.
I felt that I was exploring the outer limits of what it meant to really be moral.
But the truth of the matter is, I was running away, I think, from my traditional values.
Hey hey hey [Hefner.]
You have to remember, this was the 1950s.
You were supposed to get married and start a family right after school.
But times were changing.
[Christie Hefner.]
My father had a sense that he wanted more out of life than he had seen his father get out of life, and that a part of that was the idea of having a period of time before you got married and settled down.
And he got married young, and I think, too young, and he would say that.
Hey Hey hey hey [Hefner.]
As I began spending more of my time living the life of a single man, I realized it was time to update the magazine's message.
Oh work it now, work that [Hefner.]
When I started Playboy, it was filled with topics that met my interests.
Hey Oh, work it now [Hefner.]
But now I wanted to do more.
I wanted to turn the magazine into a guide for how to become the ultimate playboy.
[Hefner.]
What is a playboy? Just toss out a word.
A bachelor.
[Hefner.]
What else? [Sellers.]
Suave.
[Russell.]
Sophisticated.
- Intelligent.
- Urbane.
[Hefner.]
Right.
Every time someone picks up a copy of Playboy, I don't want him to just imagine himself as the type of guy who can get the girl he wants.
I want to teach him how.
How to buy the right suit, select the right bottle of wine, put on the right music when a girl comes over.
I don't want to follow trends.
I want to create them.
And that is why every article, every picture, every page must be specifically tailored to promote this one, singular vision the Playboy lifestyle.
[Hefner.]
The message was very clear.
We were talking about how to live as a single male.
And nobody had done that before.
My sugar is so [Hefner.]
My staff had their marching orders, and we worked around the clock, redefining every section of the magazine to promote the Playboy lifestyle.
She goes to see [Hefner.]
Tajiri translated his slick photographic style into how-to guides [camera shutter snapping.]
teaching our readers to select the finest in fashion, mix the perfect cocktail, outfit the most cutting-edge bachelor pad and orchestrate the perfect date.
She says "toh-mah-toh" instead of "toh-may-toh" [Buhrmester.]
There's a generation of men who said, "I'm not gonna marry the girl down the street and I'm gonna move to a major city.
" That really shook up America and I think that bred the ground for Hef to come out and invent the idea of the bachelor.
We'll be married soon [Hefner.]
I think the thing that made Playboy so special was that we managed to mix the lifestyle and the sexual content with a mix of contemporary values that were not really getting expression in other mass media.
[phone ringing.]
[Hefner.]
Our readership continued to expand Yeah, it's nice, it's nice.
[Hefner.]
and I realized that we were no longer just a magazine.
We were becoming a brand.
But there was still one thing missing.
Playboy needed a logo.
So I gave Art Paul the task of designing it.
Talk to me, baby, whisper in my ear [Hefner.]
Four minutes later, he had sketched the perfect symbol Talk to me, baby, whisper in my ear [Hefner.]
an image so flawless that even 60 years later, it remains completely unchanged.
Don't have no fear Don't you know I love you so The Playboy rabbit head is iconic.
It is one of a handful of symbols that, from very early on, became phenomenally recognizable.
Holler hey, hey Kokomo [Hefner.]
Our famous mascot became a part of every issue, with Art Paul turning it into a game, challenging our readers to find the rabbit hidden on every cover.
There's dimples on her elbows [Brett Ratner.]
The best comparison I have for Hef, I would say Hefner is Walt Disney and the bunny is his Mickey Mouse.
Dimples on her knees [Ratner.]
It's branding.
It's marketing.
It's brilliance.
She chills and thrills me With just a little squeeze I like the sleigh ride, I like the sleigh ride Jingle bells, jingle bells Jingle all the way Pass these around, gentlemen.
[Hefner.]
Looking back, 1954 had been an incredible year.
The magazine I'd started with a staff of three had taken over four floors of a Chicago office building, hired over 25 employees, and grown monthly sales to nearly 185,000 copies, more than doubling the print-run of our first issue.
It's really remarkable the magazine was profitable in its first year.
Nobody does that.
Sports Illustrated, for a frame of reference, started about the same time as Playboy, and they didn't turn a profit until the early '60s.
I like the sleigh ride Silent night Holy night All is calm All is bright Round yon virgin Mother and child [Christie Hefner.]
My father wasn't around a lot when I was growing up.
Putting the magazine first, which Hef clearly did, meant, by definition, that he wasn't gonna have the same kind of family life that he would have if he hadn't done that.
[Millie Gunn Williams.]
He was so busy with the company, he didn't have a lot of time, but he was Daddy, and Daddy was good, and Daddy was caring.
But he was fairly non-existent.
[Hefner.]
I knew I should have been home with my family to be the father Christie needed, but there was always something at the office that pulled me away.
[Art Paul.]
All right, so you can see we're going for a beach theme here.
We're incorporating an image of the bunny in the sand, making use of the bathing suit, and you can see there's just a pair of legs walking into the distance, suggesting that it may be her suit that we're seeing, which of course would mean that she's not wearing anything at all.
Uh, it was just an idea.
I can come up with a couple other options if you're not happy with it, Hef.
No, no.
It's a good cover.
It's a great cover.
It's better than the centerfold.
This is inspired.
This is just awkward, right? Why don't we take our own photographs? [men groaning.]
Why not? She has a point.
Why don't we? See if you can find out where the calendar companies are getting their girls from.
Yeah, I'll get on it.
Thank you, everyone.
[Karalus.]
At the time, Playboy was using calendar pictures for their centerfolds.
They were professional models, and they were not exclusive pictures, Hefner was very unhappy with the quality and the caliber.
He wanted something different, something new, something unique, and something, you know, special that Playboy would have.
Charlaine, if you ever have any ideas, my door's always open.
This time [Hefner.]
Charlaine was a talented, beautiful woman.
Can change my mind [Hefner.]
The more we worked together, the closer we got.
And keep my heart from yearning inside [Hefner.]
And it wasn't long before we became more than just coworkers.
Right this time I'm gonna get a glass of water.
Do you want one? Sure.
Can't keep my heart from yearning inside I know love is right This time Why are you looking at me like that? Have you ever thought about being in the magazine? Doing what, exactly? Miss July.
[laughing.]
No, I'm serious.
Wouldn't you like to be pictured in a magazine? I'm sure there are plenty of girls out there who would be more than happy to pose for you.
I don't want those girls.
I want you.
Why? Because you're not the type of girl you'd expect.
[Hefner.]
I had sent my team out looking for the perfect girl.
And I realized she had been in front of me all along.
I really did the Playmate picture as sort of a lark.
It seemed like a fun thing to do.
It was out of loyalty to the magazine, and it was just super fun.
[Hefner.]
Charlaine's one condition was that we didn't use her real name so I came up with an alias, Janet Pilgrim, and wrote a short blurb to go along with the photo, explaining that she wasn't like the models we'd used in the past.
She was plucked right from our own office, and to Playboy's readers, she would simply be the girl next door.
You look great.
If I only had a second chance How I'd love you If you'll only take a second chance with your heart Darling, this time I swear At least a lifetime we'd share No one could tear our love apart Our love apart If I only had a second chance [Karalus.]
When I did my first Playmate picture, I was very nervous about it because I knew hundreds of men would be opening that magazine and seeing me like that, but I wasn't really showing much of anything.
Then you'll see [camera shutter clicking.]
[Hefner.]
With that issue, our subscription manager became the magazine's most popular Playmate yet.
Letters poured in from across the country, and I realized the girl next door was a hit.
[Art Paul.]
That looks great.
Here.
You know what? Just come forward a little bit.
Listen to me, baby The idea that then evolved was to use, when we talk about the girl next door, in other words, to use an office girl or somebody going to college or someone working as a clerk in a shop.
Every boy wants a girl [Hefner.]
And what we didn't know was that it was gonna cause such a sensation.
But I've seen lips bigger to be kissed Stop I can't stop And it caused a sensation.
Lightning striking again Lightning striking again [Buhrmester.]
She's not unapproachable.
Hef wanted to capture the girl-next-door essence of a flirtiness but also an approachability.
I can't stop I can't stop myself lightning [Hefner.]
We had gone from the most famous woman on the planet to the girls right there in front of us, and I knew, from that moment on, we were never going back.
Every little movement Every motion of your hips I feel the compulsion To pull you to my sweet lips Is it a black magic spell you put me under? This miracle moment Never let it end Every little movement Is beyond improvement You are the magician I've been wishing for forever Every little movement Every little movement