American Playboy : The Hugh Hefner Story (Prime Originals) - Review - Schmoozing Over Coffee
- February 21, 2019
- By Samriddha Bhattacharya
- 1 Comments
I have always held the much celebrated magazine Playboy, as an ancient yet popular version of visual sexual content, that was held in high regard by men of all ages, beginning right from the pimply, gangly, hormonal teenage boys to middle-aged paunchy bald men. It IS so, but fortunately it doesn't just end at being that.
Playboy was and is essentially a lifestyle magazine. And when I discovered that, I was jolly surprised! It may be a known fact to many, but it is quite an unknown fact among several as well.
As a person who has only heard of the Playboy magazine and never seen it in real life, I thought all it ever contained was images of young beautiful women in various stages of undress. But it isn't what Playboy consisted of entirely.
The Reason Behind Playboy:
Hugh Hefner wanted class, refinement, sophistication, fashion, literature, political views, fun and sex as well, 'cause he believed that men were very very interested in sex and it was time that people knew it and acknowledged it. He himself was massively interested in all of this. It was his belief that there were many more young men who would be interested in these as well, and there was no one magazine catering to all of these topics at once. Thus, Playboy magazine was born.
The Man Hugh Hefner:
Profession:
Hefner had a strong love for culture and youth. He portrayed that through both his magazine and his TV show Playboy Penthouse. He had a great taste in music and stand-up comedy. Race, caste or creed was never something he let himself be bothered with. He invited a lot of Black comedians and musicians in his show and his clubs, because he believed in their talent and not colour.
His dream for the magazine was to be the ultimate bundle of pages that had the best content to provide to the brains of his readers. Till the end, he worked day and night to curate the perfect content. He got addicted to a prescribed drug that didn't let him sleep for hours at a stretch, all so that he could pay attention to each and every detail of what was going to be printed on his dream magazine. When it came to beating his deadlines, Hef even put aside a romp between the sheets. He overlooked every single detail, read through every piece of material and personally selected every image that was printed. In fact, when it came to topics that were very close to his heart, he penned them down himself. He believed in uncensored content and unabashed truth to be there in his magazine.
His dedication was proved when he left no page unturned to find the perfect pinup girl for his first magazine.
Plus he was a man with unshakable beliefs. Socialism and Civic Rights was something he supported fervently. Low readership, fewer advertisements, nothing posed as a fearful obstacle for him to overcome. And he always managed to bounce back no matter what. Nothing could deter him from providing unrelenting support to the Blacks. Even when he faced strong rebellions from Southern America regarding his show Penthouse hosting Black artists, he never backed out.
Hugh always stood by whatever he published. He defended his beliefs. He never went back on what he said and printed.
Personal:
On a personal front, Hugh Hefner was not aware of what the word 'Fidelity' meant. Had you thrown that word at him, he would have thrown a bizarre look and shrieked 'What?' right at your face. It wasn't something that he could really practice any control over. Apart from the innumerable number of physical relationships, he had, love was something that he had actually come by. He was married but given his lifestyle, it is a no brainer that it didn't survive. But apart from that he had quite a few serious relationships. The most serious being the one with Barbi Benton. He was head over heels in love with her. When he was in love with her, he led an almost monogamous relationship with her. But once Barbi's singing career took off, and she went off on tours without him, Hef started to fill in her gap with women of such a massive number, that if you took count of the women you knew or would know in your lifetime, it would fall short. Now Hef was never a man of monogamous relationships. His massive flaw was that he never dated just one girl. He had one girl whom he claimed as The Girlfriend and had a primary relationship with, along with several subordinate relationships. This is where his double standards came in. While he would not be chained down to one woman, he would vehemently detest The Girlfriend from having any more affairs. He was supposed to be the one and only for her, which of course none of the women in his life ever accepted. Due to this habit of his, unfortunately, a stable relationship was something he never enjoyed. Also, even though his age kept increasing on the number line, the age of the women he dated were always on the decreasing side. The age at which he had children for the second time, they could be qualified as his grandchildren and the wife who bore them, was no elder than his first daughter if not the same. There is a scene in the series when Barbi says she told Hef that she had never dated anyone beyond the age of 24. Boy was she surprised when Hef said neither did he!
Despite leading an enviable life, Hef didn't always have things easy. He functioned with a very close knit group of a handful people and when each one of them faced terrible turns of fate, Hef always had the vexation of choosing between them and his magazine. But Hugh Hefner always put his company ahead of those people. Loss of them was always a massive blow to him, but whatever he would do, would always reflect on his brand and this is why each and every time his friends took a blow, his hands were tied up with an invisible rope. It is a saying that the 20s are your selfish years, but for Hugh it started on his 20s, went on to 30s 40s 50s and ended in his 60s.
My Impression of Hugh Hefner:
What I think is outrageously amazing, is that the man who took a white collar job in order to support his family, to becoming the man who owned his own damn black plane with a white Bunny on its tail, his success was mind boggling to say the least. He was a firm believer of having extravagance at the highest notch! He was a man who earned it and lived it. He didn't know what modest was, both in terms of feminine clothing and lifestyle.
Keeping aside my views of his amorous lifestyle, and his obsession with female skin, I think he was a man full of passion for creativity. And if here is anything I have come to admire in the man himself, it is this. He was crazy when it came to take creativity to new heights. His ambition doesn't go unadmired by me definitely.
My interest in the Playboy magazine got piqued by the fact that it was also a Lifestyle and Entertainment magazine, in contrast to the idea that it was just a sex magazine. There is an episode which focuses on a particular issue of Playboy in the month of June, that had Hef arrested due to charges of obscenity. The issue in concern, had an entirely nude woman and a fully dressed man, complete with a tie and pipe right in the same frame. So according to my observations, it could be any of the following options or as a matter of fact, all of them:
1. Hugh Hefner was conservative about men and held reservations against men being shown naked.
2. Maybe he thought that nude men would be absolutely repulsive and untasteful
3. He objectified that female body and wanted to create a jerk-off poster
Playboy:
What essentially started off as a magazine, rapidly grew on to become a brand that turned popular worldwide.
Playboy was the outcome of Hugh Hefner's beliefs and interests. Initially magazines contained material only for women, because reading was associated with women only. The common notion was that men didn't read. Playboy brought about to change to that. He read, and he wanted more men to read.
a. Fashion
It was a magazine that told men how to groom themselves, taught them the difference between dinner jackets and a bomber jacket. It spoke of Men's fashion,a first of its kind. Different kinds of hats, the style of trousers that were in trend, how to wear a tie, how to trim your hair and beard.
b. Literature
Playboy was a constant publisher of good classic literature. Renowned authors published stories, articles and even novels in the form of series. Some of them include Norman Mailer, Margaret Atwood, Ray Bradbury and Roald Dahl even.
c. Politics
Playboy always printed articles on politics. It heavily published different socio-political articles during the time of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy. Hugh had a close association with Martin Luther and on his demise, he was deeply aggravated. However, he always tried to echo the voice of the public and coin his personal opinions unexpurgated.
d. Comics and Party Jokes
Hugh himself was a talented cartoonist and he loved cartoons. Initially it was he who used to draw the comics for his magazine and it was an incredibly favourite part of the magazine for him.
e. Interviews
The Playboy Interviews were serious business. They would span over pages in print and over hours in conversation. Playboy went to the most famous celebrities that existed in those times, and the celebs considered it an honour to be interviewed by Playboy. Which is why, the renowned men and women went on to give full disclosures. These interviews were greatly popular among the readers.
f. Playmates
Playboy had a Cover Girl in the nude. There was a centerfold with an stark naked lady. And there were more suggestive pictures of lovely looking ladies. The women who modeled for the magazine were known as Playmates. Every month, sleepless nights would be spent by Hefner and his core team to find the perfect girl for the centerfold and the cover, for nothing less than an absolute beauty would be enough to satisfy Hef.
g. Sex
Hugh believed that sex is good and he wanted people to accept sex as a beautiful and natural part of life. He didn't show this portrayal with just pinups and cover girls. He published whatever current researches were going on regarding sex. When the world was first introduced to the disease of AIDS, he even published research articles on what the disease was, how was it caused, what were the medical advances made in the domain and so on. He tried to normalise sex for the public.
g. Advertisements
The most prestigious brands would advertise in this magazine, catering to the aristocratic needs. It was a matter of pride for Playboy to feature the top notch brands in the magazine and Hef would never let any brand which wasn't of fame to feature in it.
h. Editor's column and Letters
Hefner always paid tremendous attention to his words in the editor's column. They were used to voice his ideas, opinions and feelings. He would talk about his passion for change and creativity as well. There would also be several letters from the readers which he would publish, to show the soaring popularity of his magazine.
i. Culture
Hugh had a certain obsession of culture. He embraced it with open arms and displayed it as barefaced as possible. I was able to see the change in culture from the uptight dinner jacket 50s, to the more relaxed and love engrossed 60s through his magazine. He adapted the magazine according to the current mood and time.
Whatever his mood was, he reflected it on different parts of the magazine. When he wanted to revolutionise the world of sex, he put in researched articles, when he wanted to show the world that racism needed to be eradicated, he put in their first African American Playmate in the magazine along with the politically engaged articles.
Penthouse - Playboys's topmost competitor in the world of print:
There was no one like Playboy, and men all over the world looked at Hef and his magazine with gooey eyes. But up came a new magazine called Penthouse which caught Playboy by its neck. It was a ripoff with a lot of extras. It stole the name from Playboy Penthouse, the show. It stole the concept of the magazine. But made it a lot more raunchier. They went on full steam ahead and photographed full frontal nudity for men along with women in the same frame, engaging in physical intimacy. Penthouse all in all, turned into a pornographic magazine. And Playboy realised that Penthouse was photographing sex whereas they photographed pinups. And that was were Hefner was adamant about. He wanted the Playboy photos to be enticing and leave something to the imagination, but when compelled with the reduction in readership, he took the leap.
Whenever he faced competition with the Penthouse magazine regarding who could release raunchier pictures of girls, as Penthouse was increasing their sales manifold with all the super revealing nudes, Hef decided to push the limit. Turns out irrespective of however much you talk about politics, violence, leaders, nationalism and all that, a naked women is of utmost importance to a man amidst all the other silly distractions such as racism and freedom and so on.
Penthouse and Playboy often went at each other's necks, and Penthouse always tried to deal a lower blow. But Playboy always managed to come up to the surface.
Playboy Mansions, Playboy Clubs and most importantly the Playboy Bunnies:
When the success of Playboy, the magazine started spreading, Hugh started venturing into other business'. Casino's, clubs, production houses, merchandise and many more. The Playboy Clubs and especially their Bunnies, are a different story altogether which the series covers extensively. The entire arduous process of finding bunnies, designing their costume and so much more went behind the development of the Clubs. Obscene sums of money were spent to establish each of these clubs.
The infamous Playboy Mansion is what Hugh Hefner claimed as his bachelor pad. But this Mansion was also host to some of the wildest parties his generation had ever seen.
The Series:
Basically the series is divided into parts:
1.His passion for creativity and top notch lifestyle
2.His affinity for women and nudes, sex and bunnies and playmates and lastly wives and girlfriends
3.His fight for Black artists and his choice of entertainment
4.His fight for Civic Rights
5.His Playboy Club
6.His development of the Playboy brand
7.People in his life and the choices he had to make
8.The end of his life
American Playboy is a 10 episode series which aims to be a documentary in a revamped style. It covers the entire life of HH in a very compact yet detailed manner. The series focuses on each part at a time, though it keeps mentioning the rest to maintain fluidity.
Sometimes, you may think that was this all really as clean as Hefner said and they showed in the series. Well it is something that only the past knows, although they tried to make it as authentic as possible with the excerpts from his interviews and documents.
Also I think that Introduction song is beautifully designed, and the fact that it is a short one, just makes it all the more lovelier. It is chic, classy, sophisticated, bright but vintage.
Now, for you to atleast like the man or vehemently love the man Hugh Hefner, or despise him, or even choose to be inspired by him, you have got to see the series American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story. It promises to show a lot more than what I just said.
Watch it on Amazon Prime right now!
