MU historian writes Hefner bio

Playboy founder changes American culture with niche publication

In 1953, Hugh Hefner borrowed about $8,000 from his mother, his brother and some friends to fund a new magazine, which he developed on a card table in his home.

The target audience was young professional men, and the advertising and articles sang the praises of fashionable clothing and furnishings, fine liquor and wines and, of course, beautiful women.

The first issue came out in December, but Hefner wasn’t certain that it would be popular enough to warrant a second. “He was so unsure it would succeed that he didn’t put a date on it,” said Steven Watts, a professor of history at the University of Missouri.

“But the response was overwhelming,” Watts said. “The first issue (revenue) gave him the working capital to go on.”

Hefner went on to become one of the most controversial figures of the past half century. From his highly publicized lifestyle to his risqué magazine, to his multi-million dollar company, Hefner has played a leading role in reshaping America’s social values.

Watts examined the publisher’s life in his latest biography, Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream. He spent four years doing research for the book and found that Hefner had a profound impact on American culture, in the areas of advertising, business, politics, consumer values and sexual openness.

“The first time I arrived at the Playboy Mansion was like parachuting onto a new planet,” Watts said. “Hefner is one of the smartest people I ever met and a genuine romantic. For him, the glass is not only half full, it’s completely full.”

Watts was given unprecedented access to Hefner and the Playboy archives. Watts interviewed Hefner for more than 40 hours and searched over 1,800 scrapbooks about his life.

As a historian who also has written biographies of Walt Disney and Henry Ford, Watts tried to discover the real person behind the flamboyant public persona. He found that Hefner pursued a dream of “personal, political and economic freedom” and viewed his pursuit of fun not as immature, but as a happy embodiment of childhood optimism in a cynical world.

“Whether for good or bad, Hefner deserves considerable credit for the sexual openness that has become so characteristic of modern America. We often forget that even in the 1960s, married characters in television sitcoms slept in twin beds,” Watts said. “Following the Great Depression and World War II, which had slowed the surge of consumer capitalism, Americans stood ready to resume their love affair with material affluence and Hefner captured this yearning.”

Hefner offered in Playboy a stylish model for the modern male, presenting fine stereo equipment, good wine and progressive ideas in advertisements while urging a standard of urbane, gentlemanly behavior. Although some accused Hefner of degrading women as sexual objects, Watts notes that Playboy overturned traditional gender standards by advocating economic opportunity, social equality and abortion rights for women.

“Ironically, Hefner and Playboy became a symbol of women’s freedom to make choices. More than any other single figure in his era, he symbolized the combination of sexual liberation, material affluence and personal self-fulfillment that characterizes the modern American dream,” Watts said.

To explore Hefner’s personal life, Watts interviewed many close friends, girlfriends, ex-wives and family members. The book describes Hefner as an obsessive movie fan, hosting moving screenings in his house almost every night. Like clockwork, Hefner strictly regulates his schedule, having a set meal and activity for each day of the week.

“With the exception of maybe one person, everyone I talked to – from past wives to people that work for Hefner – seemed to adore him,” Watts said. “Every time he made his grand entrance at a party, his face would glow, and he would turn 10 years younger. He is truly happy being Hugh Hefner.”

Watts’s biography offers a chronological story of Hefner’s life and career, as well as a searching analysis of modern American values. It is scheduled to be published Oct. 1.

-Story courtesy of MU News Bureau