# RIP Hugh Hefner **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2017, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-hefner/797484 "2017-09-28T03:37:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2017, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-hefner/797484/61 "2017-09-30T06:23:05Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > When I bought Playboy, I loved both the articles and the girls. It was a perfect magazine. Intelligent and witty and of course the beautiful girls. I read a comment by another publisher years ago to the effect that while Hef was famous for the playboy lifestyle and all the girls and everything, what he really was, was the best magazine editor who ever lived. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2017, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-hefner/797484/62 "2017-09-30T06:33:39Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > He was a virgin when he married at 22. His wife then cheated on him. It destroyed him. > > It’s extremely simplistic to say that the rest of his life was the most elaborate revenge against a cheating spouse in the history of mankind, but it does seem to explain a lot. Actually, the incident of unfaithfulness and his loss of virginity occurred just _before_ his first marriage. NPR rebroadcast part of Terry Gross’ 1999 interview of Hefner today and he relayed the story there. Incidentally, Hefner also put out a publication called **SBI (Show Business Illustrated)** in the early 1960s that can be best desribed as a monthly precursor of **Entertainment Weekly**. I would not have been aware of this were it not for the fact my parents had a March 1962 edition of the magazine that they stuck away in their dresser drawer for 40 years before rediscovering it. I now have it and it’s a real time capsule. A young Paul Anka is on the cover and there’s a profile of Ray Charles and his drug problems by Nat Hentoff. I’ve sometimes thought of scanning the magazine into my hard drive and posting it on-line but I don’t want to incur the wrath of Playboy’s attorneys. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2017, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-hefner/797484/63 "2017-09-30T16:53:28Z")
> [@Poysyn](#): > > I guess it depends who you listen to/believe - some of the “Bunny Tell-Alls” accuse him of some pretty abusive (if not criminal) behaviour. It’s not completely far-fetched when you take into consideration he is from a different generation, when maybe slipping someone a Quaalude wasn’t considered as evil. :dubious: Would a Bunny Tell all that said “Hef was a great guy and a total gentleman” sell any books? Met Hef once, briefly, seemed like a cool dude. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2017, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-hefner/797484/64 "2017-09-30T17:24:33Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Met Hef once, briefly, seemed like a cool dude. Believe it or not, I had dinner with him and Cynthia Maddox when I was eight or nine (1963 or '64). I didn’t know who he was at the time, and I didn’t find out until many years later. But I remember that occasion well. I was visiting my dad in Joliet at the time; it must have been during Easter vacation, because it wasn’t summer but the weather was nice. My dad was dating a woman I assume worked for _ **Playboy** _, and we spent the afternoon and evening at her home in Chicago. Which is where the aforementioned dinner took place. I sat across the table from Hefner. **This** is Cynthia Maddox: [![](https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lorrz2rhzE1r03xwpo1_500.jpg) ](https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lorrz2rhzE1r03xwpo1_500.jpg) Kind of a cool memory, actually. :o ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-hefner/797484/65 "2017-09-30T17:51:23Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > A question was brought up while discussing this with Ms. Cups: Other than the argument that porn is “bad”, did Hefner ever do anything bad? > > I can’t think of any drunk and disorderlies, or problems with drugs, or money laundering or anything else that he was a part of. He seemed, overall, to just be a decent dude and a savvy business man Well, Marilyn’s nudes were acquired and published without her permission and from what I understand, she was pretty annoyed about it. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2017, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-hefner/797484/66 "2017-09-30T18:19:13Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Not that it matters a great deal, but for the sake of fact Millie (Hef’s first wife) cheated on him prior to their marriage while he was away in the service. Nor was Hef a virgin, though he almost was. He and Millie had sex for the first time shortly before their marriage and it was after this that she confessed to him that she’d been unfaithful. You are correct as to the impact it had on him. He later described that revelation as having been the most devastating moment of his life. (I know all this from a book on Hefner I read in the 70s. The title escapes me, but I’m sure the information is easy to find with Google should anyone doubt the chronology.) Yeah, I was going from a vague memory and didn’t bother to look up the facts. I hate when other people do that, so mea maxima culpa. > [@Guinastasia](#): > > Well, Marilyn’s nudes were acquired and published without her permission and from what I understand, she was pretty annoyed about it. Photographers normally have models sign releases relinquishing all further control over the photos. That happened here. Marilyn might have been annoyed but both the photographer and Hef were legally completely in the right when he licensed the use of the picture. Hef wasn’t even the first to print the picture. He actually saw it at the Chicago printer who was using it as part of a calendar. The interesting story behind the picture is in the link below. I’m spoilering it because it has several Marilyn nudes. [The Story Behind the Photograph That Made Marilyn Monroe a Star](https://www.highsnobiety.com/2015/08/27/story-behind-photograph-made-marilyn-monroe-star/) ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2017, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-hefner/797484/67 "2017-09-30T19:15:53Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > :dubious: > > Would a Bunny Tell all that said “Hef was a great guy and a total gentleman” sell any books? > > Met Hef once, briefly, seemed like a cool dude. That’s why I clarified that it depended on who you believed. Personally, I found the descriptions of the “club nights” beyond nauseating, and that a young, beautiful woman who may have finally found a place to stay, may not have felt she had a lot of options. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-hefner/797484/68 "2017-09-30T21:11:22Z")
There was a videogame called [Playboy: The Mansion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy:_The_Mansion) that gave you a small taste of what it was like to be Hef. It was a _Sims_-style game that let you build Hefner’s empire from scratch. You had to hire writers and photographers and put out a monthly _Playboy_ issue. You had to build relationships with models and celebrities. You got to take topless pictures of the models, and the better your relationship with them, the sexier they would pose. You could even boink them if the relationship was just right. The better quality of the magazine you put out, the more profit you earned, and you could make improvements to the mansion and unlock key areas such as the grotto and the clubhouse. And you got to throw swinging parties. There were a few (B-list) celebs such as Tom Arnold, Carmen Electra, and José Canseco, who allowed their likenesses to be licensed for the game. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-hefner/797484/69 "2017-10-01T00:17:17Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > He was a virgin when he married at 22. His wife then cheated on him. It destroyed him. > > It’s extremely simplistic to say that the rest of his life was the most elaborate revenge against a cheating spouse in the history of mankind, but it does seem to explain a lot. You know what they say: The best revenge is to live well. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-hefner/797484/70 "2017-10-03T01:55:00Z")
Who inherits all that? The daughter is the only one I’ve ever read anything about (the one who took over for a while and refused to show the world her tits). There is an older son I have never read a single thing about, probably a bald old man living in Des Moines under a fake name, and a pair of younger ones who are supposedly severely autistic but run around spending millions on anything, anywhere, any time, like Trump spawn. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-hefner/797484.md?page=3)