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INTRODUCTION
THE PLAYBOY 'LIFESTYLE'
PLAYBOY IN BRITAIN
BUNNY TRAINING
FINANCIAL MISCONDUCT
RESOURCES
GALLERY OF
BRITISH BUNNIES
THE HISTORY OF THE PLAYBOY
BUNNY
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THE PLAYBOY 'LIFESTYLE'
Planet
Hefner was created in the early 1950s, when 'Hef' founded the Playboy
empire. What Hefner sold were aspirations, a vision of the world
according to his Playboy magazine. It was peopled by smart and
rising young executives, speeding from boardroom to boardroom in crisp
shirts and European sports cars, and then at night swapping their snappy
three-piece Italian suits for tuxedos and what 'Hef' identified as an
'adult' lifestyle - the gaming tables at a Playboy club and Martinis
proffered by Bunny Girls. In Hefner's dream of 'sophistication', this
world was full of gadgets, golf clubs and executive toys - and one of
those toys was a beautiful woman.
In truth, the Playboy lifestyle was not so much adult as the fantasy of
an eternal adolescent. It made Hefner rich, and his wealth bought him
the fantasy. But Hefner's was a lifestyle which few would chose and even
fewer would enjoy for any length of time. He once described an average
day in his life: 'Get up in the early morning, have a meeting, there's a
regular buffet, a couple of movies, go upstairs round about 1am with
girlfriend or whoever, make love, then have a meal, watch a movie or
two.'
In an interview with Hugh Hefner in the Sunday Times (22
September 1985), the British writer Martin Amis observed that the Hefner
lifestyle - turning night into day, and spent almost entirely in
slippers and dressing gown - seemed like a case study in terminal
depression. It was a control freak's life, banishing the possibility of
the unexpected or the outside world thrusting itself messily into the
ordered Playboy universe. Hefner was famous for never venturing outside
his Playboy fortress in Chicago. He later moved to Los Angeles, itself a
kind of huge controlled environment in which the sun shines all day long
and young women are browner and bustier than those in the Windy City.
Determined not to be thought a mere smut peddler, Hefner filled the
space on either side of the centrefolds in Playboy magazine with
highly paid pieces fashioned by America's literary lions. So the
Playmate of the Month rubbed shoulders with the likes of Norman Mailer.
Hefner saw Playboy as a literary magazine with tits, but how many
of Hefner's readers lingered over Norman Mailer before thumbing their
way quickly to the centrefold?
Next:
PLAYBOY IN BRITAIN
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Hugh Hefner
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