Hugh Hefner's mistress spoke about the hell that was going on in his harem. Playboy magazine: Founder. Biography of Hugh Hefner, interesting facts Creator of playboy magazine

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 an expressive glance 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 cleavage, 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, the Reverend James Marston Hefner, also lived in this city, who on every Sunday spent denounced lustful lechers 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 the wonderful world of 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 Kimberly 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 my home, I had no other. During noisy parties, I tried to quietly walk between the guests, all the time bumping into copulating couples who could not even think what could be here someone to live...

Not so long ago, his last mistress Holly Madison published the book "Falling down the rabbit hole", in which she clearly identified Hef's main problem - 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.

No one is surprised by the fact that the creator of the world's most popular erotic publication never suffered from a lack of female attention and enjoyed tremendous popularity among the opposite sex. Despite his occupation and the environment of thousands of beauties, Hef, as Hugh liked to call himself, was a good husband, family man and father, who even spent the last minutes of his life in the company of relatives.

Mildred Williams

The first legal wife of the conqueror of women's hearts was his classmate named Mildred Williams. The marriage of Hefner and his wife was concluded in 1949, it lasted a long 10 years, during which Millie gave birth to two children for a young journalist: daughter Christy and son David Paul. Unfortunately, the couple could not get along - Mildred filed for divorce, took the children and gave the press a reason for the scandal, saying that Hugh turned out to be a real tyrant and raised his hand to her more than once.

Hefner's 30 years of bachelorhood after divorcing his first wife ends in 1989, when the now middle-aged publisher marries a model named Kimberly Conrad. This marriage of the founder of Playboy lasted exactly twice as long as the previous one, but in fact the couple had not been together since 1999. The reason was Hef's hot temper and Kimberly's jealousy. During the marriage, two more children were born in the Hefner family: Marston and Cooper. Later, in one of his interviews, Hugh will emphasize that in none of his marriages he has ever cheated on any of his wives.

In 2010, rumors spread in the press that the world's main playboy was preparing for his third wedding with model Crystal Harris, but the blonde changed her mind and the celebration fell through. Crystal admitted that intimacy with the elderly Hugh did not suit her, and she was afraid of responsibility.

Two years later, the insatiable ladies' man still won the hand of a young beauty. At the time of the wedding, Hugh was 86 years old, and his wife was already 60 years younger. As a wedding gift, the bride received a huge country house with an area of ​​​​557 square meters. m. worth more than $ 5 million. Also during the marriage, the couple signed an agreement that Harris would not be included in her husband's will, and his inheritance would be divided among the children, and some would go to charity.

Hugh Hefner's Favorite Bunnies

In addition to three wives in the life of a man like Hef, of course, there was a colossal number of women whom he affectionately called bunnies in honor of the main symbol of his magazine. They accompanied Hugh during various periods of his bachelor life, brightening up Hefner's loneliness between marriages.

Tina is a classic Playboy beauty who was involved with Hugh in the early 2000s. The girl became the model of the year in 2002 and is considered one of the canonical female images of the magazine.

Sitting alongside Tina, Kendra is one of Mr. Playboy's three most famous bunnies. Barely an adult busty blonde with a snow-white smile appeared in Hefner's mansion in 2004 to celebrate his birthday, as he immediately spotted the beauty. On the offer to stay and live with the king of erotic journalism, Wilkinson agreed without hesitation. Later, when the girl left the mansion with several friends, she admitted to the press that she had long dreamed of returning to normal life.

The three reference “bunnies” are closed by Holly Madison, who was brought to Hefner’s bedroom at that time by the main girl in his mansion, Tina Jordan. Platinum hair color, huge breasts and a pretty face, which plastic surgeons later worked on - all the standards of the classic Playboy model were met, and Holly became part of the community until 2008.

Bridget was the most public of all the residents of the Hefner mansion. In the company of this charming blonde, Hugh took part in a reality show that told the viewer about the secrets of life in a mysterious mansion of debauchery. The girl left Hef's possessions in the company of her friend Holly Madison in 2009.

One of the few girls in Hugh Hefner's army of brunettes, Ukrainian model Daria Astafieva, has always been the reason for the jealousy of his bride Krystal. The girl received an invitation to the Playboy mansion personally from the owner when he saw her photo shoot in one of the magazines. Daria left Hef's "family" after Hugh announced her engagement to Harris.

Twins Carissa and Christina arrived at Hef's house in late 2008 and immediately became one of the hottest contestants on the show, which skyrocketed in ratings with the arrival of the girls.

What a colorful and full of charming women the life of a journalist who has devoted many years to working on his favorite business can be. Despite the fact that Hugh himself is no longer alive, his magazine will leave the memory of this man in the hearts of fans and ordinary men who are not indifferent to female beauty.

Hugh Hefner, legendary founder of Playboy magazine, passed away on September 27 at the age of 91. His life is covered with legends and secrets. Most of the mysteries are associated with the famous mansion, where the elderly Hugh lived surrounded by beautiful young girls.

What happened behind the closed doors of this luxurious villa, which Americans call the "house of debauchery"?

Hefner personally selected the inhabitants of his house

Usually these were pretty, inexperienced girls under 28 from poor families and small towns. Hefner met them at parties and beauty contests and invited them to visit. Often they had no idea what was in store for them. At least that's what they say now.

Life in the mansion was subject to a strict routine

For example, on Mondays, guests came to Hefner, whom the girls were supposed to entertain, on Wednesdays and Fridays there were nightly orgies, and on Sundays, the playboy and his girls organized a pool party.

Girls had to strictly obey the rules

It was forbidden to return to the mansion later than 9 pm, and also to bring guests there. In addition, girls were forbidden to have boyfriends on the side. Hugh was very strict in enforcing these rules. The most severe sanctions were applied to the girl who violated them, up to expulsion from the "magic paradise".

All girls received a weekly salary of a thousand dollars.

However, according to the recollections of the girls, Hugh was very reluctant to part with the money. Every Friday, the girls had to remind him that it was time to pay, and then he would go to the safe with displeased grumbling and hand out money to them. If the girl was guilty of something, he could easily deprive her of her weekly allowance.

Girls must always look good.

They used the services of a beauty salon, as well as a plastic surgeon. Most often, Hefner's wards resorted to rhinoplasty, liposuction and breast augmentation. If a girl appeared in a public place without makeup, and then her photographs got into the newspapers, this was regarded as a serious offense. The girl could be deprived of her salary and even banished from the mansion forever.

Hefner wasn't particularly clean

Hugh's girlfriends recalled that the mansion was quite dirty: stale bedding, dusty carpets, stains on the curtains ... Hefner loved dogs, and four-legged pets were allowed to relieve themselves right on the snow-white carpets ...

Every night, the girls had to change into pink pajamas and show up in Hefner's bedroom.

It doesn't matter that they took off their pajamas almost as soon as they crossed the threshold of the bedroom.

Hefner loved group orgies

The main playboy of the planet preferred to arrange dates with several girls at the same time. Hefner himself spoke about this:

“Each of the girls has her own bedroom. And they go to their rooms when everything is finished in my bedroom.

Some of the girls were at first shocked by the addictions of their patron, but were in no hurry to leave the mansion.

Hefner took Viagra

Due to the excessive passion for drugs that increase potency, in the last years of his life, he began to have health problems, but he was in no hurry to give up the miraculous pills.

Rumor has it that Hugh Hefner gave his girlfriends drugs

Some ex-girlfriends recalled that Hefner gave them drugs, which, in his opinion, had a stimulating effect.

Hugh Hefner is the founder of Playboy, the first erotic magazine in the world. In view of this, he is called the godfather of world erotica. Having founded and headed this legendary magazine, one can say that he made a real revolution in the world of gloss. And today the great Hefner is rightfully considered a legend in his genre. He has many imitators, yet no one is able to achieve such skill. What helped him to reach such heights in his difficult work? Let's find out the details of his life.

Biography: childhood, family

Hugh Hefner, the future founder of Playboy magazine, whose photo is presented in the article, was born in April 1926 in Chicago. From early childhood, his parents, Grace Caroline Swanson and Glenn Lucius Hefner, brought him up in strictness. He was not allowed to go to any places of entertainment, not even to the cinema.

At school, he was not the best student and often received remarks both for his behavior and for not doing his homework diligently. In high school, he began to enjoy writing articles for the school newspaper, he also liked to draw cartoons. In a word, the young man was creatively gifted, and this was recognized by all the teachers who believed that a career as a journalist was shining on him.

Youth

The legendary founder of Playboy magazine in his youth, like most American boys, was fond of sports, beautiful cars and sexy girls. He had a beautiful toned figure, good looks, and thanks to this he was always in the center of female attention. However, he was not a true womanizer in his youth.

After graduating from high school, Hugh was drafted into the army. It was 1944, there were still about 2 years before the end of World War II, and now his unit was sent to Europe. Thus, he happened to take part in the hostilities in France and Germany. He returned to the States only after the end of the war, that is, in 1946.

The beginning of a journalistic career

In the same 1946, Hugh moved to the small town of Urban-Champaign in Illinois and entered the main state university in the psychology department. In parallel with his studies, he begins to earn money at Shaft magazine as an editor. Along with this, Hugh draws cartoons for other magazines. In his student years, he was a lover of dashing parties, and it was during this period that he had the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcreating an erotic magazine for bachelors. Hefner was well versed in the publishing business. However, before creating his own magazine, he still managed to work in one of the authoritative glossy publications for men called Esquire.

Here he gained invaluable experience, as well as the confidence that he could create his own magazine - Playboy. The founder originally wanted to call his brainchild Stag Party (“Bachelor Party”), but abandoned this idea, since Stag Magazine already existed on the market. And then the name Playboy popped up in his mind. He liked it for its brevity and beautiful sound.

Playboy: the founder releases the first circulation

After the name of the magazine was thought up, Hugh began to look for funds to realize his dream. He found several investors whom he could interest in his idea, and his mother lent him $1,000. So, by the time the Playboy magazine was created, the founder had 9,000 conventional units in his assets. This was enough for him to publish the first issue. At the very end of 1953, the erotic magazine Playboy appeared in all the kiosks of printed matter in the United States, on the cover of which there was a naked photograph of Marilyn Monroe, America's sex symbol.

Three quarters of the circulation were sold in the first week. Even the founder of Playboy did not expect such a stunning success. Photos of him began to flicker every now and then in the gossip column. After that, Hef had accumulated the necessary amount for the periodic release of the magazine, and all the men of America were looking forward to the release of a new issue of Playboy.

Sex revolution

In the mid-1950s, Playboy became one of the best-selling magazines in all of America. He made a real sexual revolution in the country. Many were interested: who is the founder of Playboy? This became known when a TV show appeared on television - the Playboy's Penthous show. By the 80s, the magazine had risen to the level that it began to publish photographs of such famous models as Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Sharon Stone and others.

Since then, a woman who appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine, the founder of which himself conducted a thorough selection, has become a sex symbol of the country. Over time, the publication changed its concept, and now it was not just an erotic magazine, but a symbol of a rich and beautiful life.

Magazine Popularity

Every year the publication gained new readers and became popular for several generations of men. Hef himself played to strengthen his image, creating an aura of success around him, as well as a great connoisseur and connoisseur of women. To men, he seemed endowed with a special sexual power, and a darling of fate, because all these beautiful girls passed through his “hands”. On a television show, he demonstrated how the sex parties are held in his posh mansion. Everyone was talking about his high-profile novels and hobbies. Many wealthy men in their hearts dreamed of being in his place and spontaneously imitated him. Gradually, versions of the magazine in different languages ​​began to be published in almost all countries of the world.

After the collapse of the USSR, photographs of Russian and Ukrainian beauties began to appear on the cover, as well as on the internal pages of Playboy. And after the articles of such well-known journalists as Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Clancy, John Updike began to be published in the magazine, such celebrities as Tom Hilfiger, D. Rodman, K. Spacey, Bill Gates, John Travolta began to give consent to interviews and others.

Creation of a corporation

How did the founder of Playboy magazine become famous? How many years did he work on creating a positive image? In fact, this print publication was first positioned only as an erotic magazine with candid photographs of beautiful, but unknown women - owners of seductive forms. However, after a while, only stars became them.

In 1971, Hef decided to expand the boundaries of his activities and created the Playboy Enterprises Corporation. This included chains of hotels, casinos, clubs, which were located in the most prestigious resorts and entertainment centers. The corporation also included a modeling agency, a television company, a limousine rental service, and a recording studio. Of course, the main income came from gambling establishments. However, by the end of the 70s, Hugh's empire suffered a number of losses, some of the establishments had to be closed, and then he decided to transfer the management of the corporation to his daughter Christie. Perhaps Hefner realized that he was not as successful in managing it as he was in publishing. So, by 1998, the profit from the sale of Playboy magazine was 320 million US dollars.

Founder of Playboy and his wife

Throughout his long life (and Hugh Hefner is already 90 years old), he was officially married twice. Even before the formation of the legendary magazine, he married Mildred Williams, with whom they lived for about ten years. Christie and David Paul were born from the marriage. Hugh divorced Mildred in 1959. After that, for 30 years he did not formalize a formal marriage with any of his cohabiting models, of which he had a myriad. It was during this period that he organized sex parties famous throughout the country.

There is information that for some time Hugh, like a Muslim sultan, kept a harem of 7 model concubines. The second time he married in 1989, and his wife was Kimberly Conrad - a model with a great figure. This marriage also lasted about 10 years. In 2010, he announced his engagement to another Playboy model, Crystal Harris. The wedding day was already announced, but suddenly Hefner told the press that there would be no celebration, since Krystal had changed her mind about marrying him. But in 2012 they still got married.

• Hugh Hefner has extraordinary intellectual abilities. His IQ is 158.
• After divorcing his second wife, Hef decided to sell his 1929 mansion. It was bought by Greek billionaire Daren Metropoulos for $18 million.
• In 1963, Hef was arrested and sent to prison for unauthorized publication of nude photographs of Jayne Mansfield.
• Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The main playboy of the world is gone! Hugh Hefner, the iconic American publisher who founded the legendary Playboy tabloid, has died in the United States at the age of 92. This was written on Twitter on the official page of the magazine.

Information about death

American icon and founder of Playboy, Hugh Hefner, passed away today. He was 91 years old."

Hefner surrounded by Playboy models

Details of his death and the date of the funeral will be announced later. In 2012, for $75,000, Hugh purchased a site in the Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery next to the crypt where the ashes of Marilyn Monroe rest.

In the meantime, a press statement from the Playboy Enterprise says he passed away from natural causes on September 27 at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, surrounded by loved ones.

Hefner's son, Cooper Hefner, who is also the chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises, told People magazine:

“My father lived an extraordinary and influential life as a media and cultural pioneer, the main voice of some of the most important social and cultural movements of our time promoting free speech and civil rights, freedom in sex. He defined the style and image that underpins the Playboy brand, one of the most recognizable and iconic in history."

Legendary person

After working as a war correspondent on the margins of World War II and for Esquire, Hefner, who was born in 1926, produced a pilot issue of Playboy in 1953 with Marilyn Monroe on the cover. An innovative approach to creating a new magazine for men, which contained not only erotic pictures, but also articles about sports, politics, fashion, hobbies, made the gloss extremely popular, bringing millions to its founder.

In the last years of his life, Hugh experienced back problems and moved with the help of a walker, rarely appearing in public, not wanting people to see him old and infirm.

The only shot of Hefner in 2017