Hugh Hefner's cousin. Hugh Hefner - biography, information, personal life. The feeling that she was being sold for a beautiful life made the girl feel very bad.
January 1953 Chicago.
A chilly, icy wind from Lake Michigan blew through every crack in the ramshackle Hefners' house on Fullerton Avenue, but Hugh's heart was even colder. It's been a year since he lost his job, doing odd jobs. Family savings were melting, and hopelessness loomed ahead. Today he failed another interview - no one needs journalists and failed artists today. Apparently, again I will have to go as a loader to the port, even though they pay mere pennies there ...
Suddenly he heard the words of his wife, Millie, who was cradling her little daughter Christina in her arms.
This is very unfair, - Millie threw expressive look towards Hugh, who was sitting at the table. - I say, my beauty, that it is very unfair that such a princess has a daddy who is a complete loser ...
Anger hit Hugo in the head.
Don't you dare say such nonsense to my child!
He jumped to his feet and took the baby away from her mother.
Don't listen to her, my dear. You'll see, your father will still succeed! You will still be proud of me when your dad becomes the king of an entire empire. You'll see, dear, everything will work out with you ...
And suddenly he realized what he really should do. He remembered his army past and the sailors' barracks in Honolulu. Sailors and soldiers did not read "gentleman's" magazines, they preferred to look at photos of half-naked beauties with revealing cleavages, and for the sake of these photos they were ready for anything ...
To hell with journalism! To hell with articles about cigars and thoroughbred horses!
From now on, Hugh Hefner will release his own magazine for men - chic, frank, uninhibited and sexy. And instead of photos of luxury cars, there will be photos of a naked female body.
Chicago's Last Virgin
Many years later, Hugh Hefner admitted that his parents gave him the money to publish the first issue of his own magazine. Recognition is worth a lot: Hefner was born into one of the most God-fearing families in America. His father, Glen Lucius Hefner, was a school teacher of the Law of God and an ardent member of the Methodist Church in the town of Coldridge, Nebraska, which is famous as the real capital of the New World Puritans. Hefner's grandfather, Reverend James Marston Hefner, also lived in this city, who on every Sunday spent denounced lustful debauchees and voluptuaries. James Hefner himself described sex only as a forced and unpleasant event, which he had to do solely for the sake of procreation.
No less militant Puritan was Hugh's mother, Grace Caroline Swanson, who also worked as a school teacher of literature.
True, soon after the wedding, the newlyweds had to leave the quiet and comfortable Coldridge - the farming economy of America after the end of the First World War was going through difficult times. The school where Glen and Grace Hefner worked closed, and the family of the future multibillionaire had to travel all over America in search of a better life. The Hefners eventually settled in Chicago, America's business capital, with a decent church and a large Nebraska community.
In Chicago on April 9, 1926, their first child, Hugh Marston Hefner, was born. A little later, his younger brother Keith was born.
“We had a typical family from the Midwest, very puritanical,” Hefner himself later recalled. “I grew up under the vigilant control of my parents, who tracked my every step at school and at home. influence, I was not allowed to play outside, and to all my questions "why?" there was only one answer: "because God wants it!". I sat at home and dreamed of spending at least a day the way I wanted it. even go to the cinema: a cinema, parents thought, is a sinful thing ... "
Chicago of those years was considered the criminal capital of America - in the city there were daily shootouts between gangs of gangsters, and in the Hefner family, Hugh's unauthorized trip to the cinema was considered the most serious crime. And then books became a window to the world for Hefner.
“My parents made sure that I didn’t read other books that were not part of the school curriculum,” Hefner recalled. “But I secretly brought books by Edagar Alan Poe to the house, which I read at night with a flashlight under the covers. I still do many things today I know by heart."
At school, Hugo also met his future wife, classmate Mildred Williams, an exemplary daughter of the parishioners of the Methodist Church. They were engaged before prom, but Hef and Millie did not really get married until seven years after graduation, in 1949.
“Of course, I didn’t want to get married right after school,” Hef recalled. “I felt that I still needed to study, that I needed to see adulthood and become a real man.”
Theologian, sailor, artist
The future editor of Playboy, having given Millie a solemn oath to refrain from sexual activity before marriage, after school entered the Art Institute of Chicago at the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology. Glen Hefner had already seen Hugh as the new pastor of their church, but then in 1944 the newly minted theologian was called to serve in the army - straight to the war with Japan.
Hugh served as a war correspondent at the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet, sending home victorious reports about victorious battles with the Japanese. However, the future sex revolutionary did not really like to remember the years of army service, repeating that in the life of young men there are a lot of things that are much more interesting than war.
After demobilization, Hefner returned home and entered the University of Illinois, where he studied the basics of design. In the evenings, he moonlighted as an artist in a comic book studio. He even drew his own comic book about Chicago called That Town Toddlin. However, the publication of comics did not bring him money, and then he got a job drawing labels in one of the local factories for the production of packaging containers. A stable income allowed Hefner to finally feel "adult" enough, and at the end of 1949 he kept his marriage vow and married Mildred.
Call me Hef
Hefner with Cynthia Maddox in 1962 Photo: © wikipedia.org
The Hefners' stable life ended in 1952 when Hugo was offered a promotion to move to New York, where the main editorial office of the magazine was located. Hefner refused, simply asking for a raise in his salary. And then he was fired - the authorities did not forgive failures.
True, when Hefner caught the eye of a cover with a photograph of the then little-known actress, who performed under the pseudonym Marilyn Monroe, he realized that the magazine should be called briefly and capaciously - Playboy. And the symbol of the magazine is a rabbit, the same white rabbit, behind which Alice fell into the rabbit hole leading to wonderful world Wonderland.
I grabbed a brush and in one minute drew a new logo for the magazine, Hefner recalled. - And when I finished, at the same moment it seemed to me that Marilyn seemed to wink at me from the photo ...
Employees of the children's magazine became the first staff of the editorial board of the new magazine, having collected more than eight thousand dollars for the authorized capital of the enterprise.
However, there is nothing surprising in such a "reorientation": in fact, the entire American "sexual revolution" was a rebellion of Puritan children against church education. Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine, and Bob Guccione, publisher of Penthouse, and even Louise Veronica Ciccone, better known as Madonna, came from Puritan families in her time as an exemplary and God-fearing pupil of the Catholic school of St. Frederica.
Hefner also rebelled - for example, he defiantly changed his name to a short nickname Hef.
The price of success
In December 1953, the first issue of Playboy with Marilyn Monroe was published. The magazine, as Hef predicted, went like hot cakes and caused a huge scandal - it came to the point that public burnings of the magazine were arranged in several cities.
Hef especially got it for the "Girl of the Month" section, where photos of the most ordinary girls were published. As Hef himself later admitted, the new column appeared from lack of money, when, during the preparation of the second issue, the editorial box office ran out of all funds to pay for the services of models. And then Hugh asked his secretary Charlene Drain to undress in front of the photographers, promising to give her a machine for sticking addresses on envelopes as a fee. A month later, dozens of girls came to the doorstep of the editorial office, dreaming of showing themselves to the world.
L!FE collage. Photo: flickr/AbrilSicairos twitter.com/RetroNewsNow
The first issue of "Playboy" with Marilyn Monroe on the cover. December 1953
But for the success of the publication, Hef had to pay dearly with his family well-being - in 1957, Millie left him, already famous throughout America, taking her daughter and son with her. And not only did she leave, but Millie also denounced her husband throughout the country, telling the newspapers that the creator of the most scandalous magazine is in fact a bore, a petty squabbler and a domestic tyrant. Only many years later it turned out that the real reason for the divorce was Hef's desire to have group sex with his brother Keith and his wife Ray. As Brother Keith himself recalled, Hef, who had turned away from the church in those years, seemed to have broken the chain: yesterday's convinced virgin dragged literally all the women he knew into his bed.
The divorce was a hard blow for Hef.
“In a certain sense, I still haven’t recovered from Millie’s departure,” Hef himself recalled. “Yes, lately we weren’t particularly close, our relationship was more based on the romance of the first years of communication. But if Mili hadn’t left me my whole life would have gone very differently."
To spite his departed wife, Hef decided to turn himself into the greatest womanizer of all time of the peoples - into the symbol of his magazine.
First of all, he built a real sexodrome in his villa - a round bed with a diameter of nine meters, on which he began to arrange his famous parties with porn stars dressed in the style of "bunnies" - bunnies - or rather, from the clothes on the girls there were only bunny ears and panties with fluffy rabbit tail. And crowds of photojournalists. The bunny swimsuit also became the uniform of the waitresses of the first Playboy Club nightclub in Chicago, which opened in 1959. Literally in a year, this institution became the most popular in the city - everyone dreamed of getting into the realm of debauchery and vice.
However, Hef also had political ambitions - it was not for nothing that he was a bachelor of philosophy. For fame, he did not spare money - he paid the largest fees to such writers as Nabokov and Hemingway, Arthur Miller and Jean-Paul Sartre for the right to be the first to publish their stories on the pages of his obscene magazine, which only fueled interest in the publication.
In his autobiographical book The Playboy Book: Forty Years, Hefner wrote: "I first realized that Playboy was developing into something more than a magazine when I read sales reports with our rabbit. Our readers bought everything from socks and car window decals , which they proudly displayed as a mark of their fraternity's identity, and that's when I thought we could go in that direction and change America's morale towards greater freedoms."
Pajamas - like overalls
Hef's era of permissiveness ended on June 4, 1963, when he was arrested on charges of publishing obscenities. The reason for the lawsuit was photos of model Jayne Mansfield - or rather, pictures from the filming of the film "Promises! Promises!". As a result, Hef was acquitted and the judge declared the case a miscarriage of justice. But in the wake of the newspaper hype, hundreds of statements and accusations of a variety of crimes rained down on the Playboy editor - from propaganda of debauchery to working for the KGB in order to morally undermine American values.
As a result, Hef was forced to spend several years literally under "house arrest" in his mansion in Los Angeles.
But even the persecution of the authorities, he managed to turn in his favor. Well, Hef decided, if he was not allowed to go out, then let the light come to him. And he began to throw such Homeric parties, at which all the stars of that turbulent era considered it their duty to mark themselves.
It was then that he created his classic image of a resilient playboy in a silk pajama jacket. So he appeared on all the pages of magazines and in movies - for example, in the series "Sex and the City", where Hef played himself.
I never wore pajamas in my life,” he confessed many years later to his biographer Stephen Watts. “But I've started wearing this stupid foppish jacket every time I have to go out in public. This is the most important detail of my image, like a martini glass or a smoking pipe, although all my life I could not stand the smell of tobacco smoke and almost never got drunk. All this works for my image and for the image of the entire magazine.
In 1974, a new stage of persecution of Hef began. On the personal instructions of President Nixon, the police begin to arrest one by one of his employees, demanding to confess to the boss: they say that he distributes cocaine to all guests at his private parties. The most striking was the story of Hef's assistant - a certain student Bobbi Arnstein, who really got caught with drugs. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but offered her freedom if she says that Hefner supplied her with drugs. She refused, and in January 1975, unable to withstand the pressure of the investigators, she committed suicide by taking a bunch of sleeping pills. In response, Hef, shocked by the death of his devoted girlfriend, ensured that all charges against Arnstein were dropped posthumously.
Next, a specially created Commission for Combating Pornography under the Ministry of Justice took up arms against Hef. As a result, by order of the Minister of Justice, Playboy was expelled from wide sale (now it could be bought only in specialized stores).
Again into battle
In 1985, Hefa suffered a stroke. The best doctors in the world worked on his rehabilitation, but as soon as Hef got to his feet, he immediately announced his desire to retire. He soon married Model of the Year Kimberley Conrad, who bore him sons Marston and Cooper.
Family happiness did not last long - in 1998, Kimberly left Hef, accusing him of impotence. However, according to other sources, the reason for the divorce was his eldest daughter Christine, who became the main heiress and right hand of her father - since the mid-90s, it was Christine Hefner who ruled the entire Playboy empire.
Hef was quick to respond in his trademark style: he defiantly reopened the doors of his Playboy Mansion and bought a box of Viagra, saying that after his wife left, he let three 18-year-old models into the house at once.
For the past five years, only purely economic news has come from the Playboy Mansion - mainly about the sale of regular blocks of shares in a slowly collapsing corporation, forced to pay its debts.
Fate laughed at the reckless Hef, making him a witness to the collapse of the brand he created. Even his legendary Los Angeles mansion was sold for $100 million.
All the relatives also turned their backs on Hef. His daughter Christine left the management of the company, even his beloved son Marston turned away from him, publishing a book about how difficult it was for him to survive on his father's estate. "Everyone perceived the Playboy Mansion as a nest of debauchery, but for me it was native home I didn't have another one. During noisy parties, I tried to walk unnoticed between the guests, all the time bumping into copulating couples who could not even think that someone could live here ... "
Not so long ago, his last mistress Holly Madison published the book "Falling down the rabbit hole", in which she clearly indicated main problem Hefa - his complete loneliness. It is in loneliness, Madison believes, that the reason for all Hefner's actions lies, his desire to surround himself with a crowd of friends, buddies, drinking buddies and lovers - so that even for a second he could not feel abandoned.
Fans at the Playboy Mansion. Photo: © REUTERS/Kyle Grillot
Hugh Hefner died all alone - according to American tabloids, at the time of his death there was no one in the house except servants (although the official press release from Playboy Enterprises says that Hefner died "as a result of natural causes, being in a circle family and friends").
In fact, the only valuable asset Hef has left is a site in Los Angeles' Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery, next to Marilyn Monroe's grave. Hef had bought the place almost immediately after Marilyn's funeral, wishing at least after death to connect with the one woman to whom he owed his luck.
Biography
Mother - Grace Caroline Swanson, father - Glenn Lucius Hefner. He graduated from high school in Chicago, after which he joined the army in 1944, fought in the last months of World War II.
After the army, Hugh Hefner graduated in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ideas for Playboy appeared in his student years, he became interested in publishing. Worked as a magazine editor Shaft, drew cartoons for magazines.
In 1952 their daughter Christy was born, in 1955 their son David Paul was born.
Later, Hefner works in the advertising department of Esquire magazine, but soon quits due to being denied a raise. From that moment on, Hefner begins to raise money to create his own magazine. He earns $600 in loans, borrows $8,000 from investors and $1,000 from his own mother, and gets started. The working title of the journal was "Stag Party"("Bachelor Party"), but Hefner refused this name so as not to conflict with the then existing "men's magazine" "Stag Magazine", and did not lose. In December 1953, the first issue of Playboy magazine was published with Marilyn Monroe on the cover with a circulation of 70,000 copies. Hugh Hefner strongly doubted that the first issue would be followed by a second, and even decided not to put the number on the cover of his magazine. But things went on. Three-quarters of the circulation was sold in the first week. The sexual revolution had begun.
In 1959, Hugh divorced Mildred Williams and lived as a bachelor for 30 years, although he had ongoing relationships with many girls. And only in 1989 he marries model Kimberly Conrad, with whom he will also live for 10 years.
Since 2000, Hugh Hefner has lived in his mansion with 7 girls aged 18 to 28.
In December 2010, the engagement of Hefner and 25-year-old Playboy model Crystal Harris was announced. The wedding was to take place on June 18, 2011. However, on June 14, Hefner announced on his microblog on Twitter that the wedding was cancelled. "Krystal has changed her mind," Hugh wrote, without elaborating on the reasons why his now ex-fiancee called off the wedding. In turn, the website TMZ.com, which specializes in news from the life of celebrities, reported, citing sources in the Playboy Mansion Hefner's mansion, that the couple had a violent quarrel over the phone. After that, according to TMZ.com sources, Crystal Harris left the Hefner mansion, where she lived since December 2009.
Hugh Hefner raised the prestige of his offspring to such a height that John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Clancy agreed to publish their works in it, Dennis Rodman, Tommy Hilfiger, Kevin Spacey, John Travolta and Bill Gates were among the interviewees, and they were easily allowed to be photographed for the magazine consent Katarina Witt, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Sharon Stone and many other stars.
In August 2009, Hefner found a buyer for his family mansion, which he had been trying to sell since March 2009 in connection with the move of his sons Marston and Cooper to university residences. The buyer was 25-year-old millionaire Daren Metropoulos, who offered $18 million for the property. The family mansion is located next to another building owned by Hefner, which houses the offices of Playboy magazine. The mansion, built in 1929, includes five bedrooms, seven toilets and a huge garden with a swimming pool.
Hugh Hefner photo
Received a degree in psychology
Publishing was not Hefner's first passion. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in psychology. He also excelled in writing and art, which influenced his later studies in one way or another.
His IQ was very high
He reportedly had an IQ of 152 while in school.
Helped save the Hollywood icon twice
When the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce decided in 1978 that the famous sign needed restoration, Hefner supported the decision. He hosted a fundraising gala at the Playboy Mansion where each letter was auctioned off for $27,700. In 2010, the owners of the site on which the inscription was installed (a group of investors from Chicago) intended to dismantle the sign and give the area for residential development. They were ready to give up this venture for $12.5 million. After Hefner donated $90,000 to an initiative group to save the Hollywood symbol, the required amount was raised.
Served in the US Army during World War II
In 1944, Hefner served in an infantry regiment as a military clerk. He was engaged in drawing cartoons and illustrations for the army newspaper. He remained in the army until 1946 and was sent to the reserve with honors.
He suffered a lot
While he was in the army, he found out that his first wife, Mildred, had been cheating on him. He admitted: "It was the saddest moment of my life."
Worked for Esquire magazine
In 1951, Hefner worked in the advertising department of Esquire magazine. He did not last long and left after 12 months. The reason, allegedly, was the refusal of management to raise his salary. Shortly thereafter, he created Playboy, a magazine now sold in 20 countries.
Created the first issue of Playboy on the kitchen table
The first issue of the magazine was published in 1953. In Hefner's own words, "All it took was a desk, a typewriter, and myself." There was no date on the cover of the issue, which flaunted the famous Marilyn Monroe, because it was not known whether the next issue of the magazine would be published.
Endangered rabbit species named after him
The Lower Keys rabbit found in Florida has been endangered since the 1990s. The study of the species was undertaken by James D. Lazell, and the creator of Playboy kindly agreed to fund the study. In turn, the Latin name Sylvilagus palustris hefneri, the breed of these rabbits received in honor of Hefner in gratitude for his support.
Distant cousin of John Kerry and George W. Bush
Hefner was a distant cousin of former Secretary of State John Kerry and an equally distant cousin of former president George Bush.
He holds two world records
His first world record was that only he could boast of the longest career as editor-in-chief of the same magazine. Another record was given to him for having the largest collection of personal clippings (2400 volumes).
Experimented with bisexuality
After his first marriage ended in the early 1960s, Hefner reportedly experimented with his sexuality. In 1971, he admitted that he had had a bisexual experience. At the time, such recognition was something unheard of.
hearing problems
In old age, Hefner began to abuse "Viagra" to feel like a man in the bedroom. Because of this, his hearing deteriorated. It is said that towards the end of his life he heard almost nothing, but this did not bother him too much. One of his former mistresses said: "Sex for him was more important than hearing."
He didn't own the Playboy Mansion
In 2016, Hefner sold his luxury home to his neighbor Daren Methopoulos for $100 million "on the condition that Hefner be allowed to live there for the rest of his days."
He was buried next to Marilyn Monroe
Hefner found his last refuge next to the woman who stood at the origins of his successful career - Marilyn Monroe. The crypt, located near the resting place of the actress, was bought back in 1992 for $75,000.
Hugh Hefner is a man who has long been called the father of world erotica. As the founder and head of the legendary Playboy magazine, he revolutionized the world of glossy journalism and gave food for thought to millions of imitators around the world.Early years, childhood and Hugh Hefner's family
Our today's hero was born in the city of Chicago in the family of Grace Caroline Swanson and Glenn Lucius Hefner. As a child, Hugh Hefner was the most ordinary guy, and therefore it is quite difficult to tell something interesting about his youth. He, like all other guys, loved sports, beautiful cars and beautiful girls. Due to his athletic physique, he was always popular with the opposite sex, but it was difficult to call him a real womanizer in the full sense of the word.After graduating from Chicago high school, our today's hero went to the army and very soon was sent to Europe. In 1944, he participated in the fighting in France and Germany, thus catching the last months of World War II.
Hugh Hefner had a chance to return to his homeland only in 1946. During this period, he moved to the town of Urban-Champaign, where he began to study at the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois. According to some biographers, it was during his student years during dashing parties that the idea of Playboy magazine first came to the future publisher. It was then that he began to engage in publishing for the first time.
Hugh Hefner first came into contact with the world of glossy journalism while working for Shaft magazine, for which he drew cartoons for several years.
Subsequently, our today's hero also worked in another major print publication - Esquire magazine. Having managed to feel all the subtleties of big journalism, Hugh Hefner finally established himself in the idea that he could create his own magazine, and some time later he began to implement his old idea.
Hugh Hefner's Star Trek: Playboy and its Success
In the early fifties, Hugh Hefner began to raise money to create his own magazine. He made about $600 in loans, borrowed $8,000 from several interested investors, and borrowed another $1,000 from his mother. Having collected the necessary amount, "Hef" set to work.Model Harris reveals why she dumped Hugh Hefner
The basic name for the new edition was Stag Party (“Bachelor's Party”), but subsequently Hefner abandoned this brand, rightly believing that it could create unnecessary associations with the already existing men's magazine Stag Magazine. From that moment, work began on a new brand, which very soon formed into a simple and concise name Playboy.
In December 1953, the first issues of the magazine appeared in all newspaper shops in the United States. The Marilyn Monroe nude edition was released in 70,000 copies, three-quarters of which were sold out within the first week. Hugh Hefner did not even count on such a stunning success.
Some time later, a new issue followed, followed by another. Thus, already in the mid-fifties, Playboy magazine became very famous among American buyers.
The erotic, flamboyant and provocative magazine appealed to the local public, who had been living in anticipation of a real sexual revolution for several years. The grains fell into fertile ground, and a few years later, Hugh Hefner's edition acquired a truly legendary status.
Hugh Hefner is 85
The popularity of the magazine was strengthened by the publication of photographs of many American celebrities - Cindy Crawford, Sharon Stone, Naomi Campbell and others. Many lesser-known representatives of American show business even offered their erotic photos to Hugh Hefner in order to raise their rating in the eyes of American men in this way.
In the seventies and eighties, Playboy magazine became not just an erotic publication, but a real symbol beautiful life. Hugh Hefner himself tried with all his might to strengthen the popularity of his offspring. Creating an aura of a mysterious womanizer around himself, he excited the public with news of sexual parties in his mansion, as well as many high-profile novels. They tried to imitate him, and therefore the brilliance and attractiveness of Playboy magazine did not fade over time. In the seventies, regional editions of the magazine began to appear in different parts of the world. Currently, Playboy has its own publications in most countries of the world, including Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Georgia, Estonia and many other states of Eastern Europe.
Over the years, erotic photographs of many representatives of the Ukrainian and Russian stage appeared in Playboy magazine.
Hugh Hefner's personal life, girls and Playboy today
Even before the formation of the legendary magazine, Hugh Hefner was married to a girl named Mildred Williams. Together they lived for about ten years, during which the daughter Christy and son David Paul were born.This couple broke up in 1959. After that, our today's hero cohabited with various models for thirty years, and also often held famous sex parties in his mansion. It is known for certain that for several years he took place in a love relationship with seven models at the same time.
Only thirty years after the dissolution of his first marriage, Hugh Hefner married again. His second wife was model Kimberly Conrad. The famous playboy lived with her for ten years. Subsequently, he returned to his usual way of life. However, on December 31, 2012, he married again. The third wife of 87-year-old Hugh Hefner was the model Krystal Haris.
