Sexy Beast: Hugh Hefner

For Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner, work and play are one and the same.

As figurehead of the men’s magazine since its launch in 1953, Hefner has embodied the publication’s spirit with his silk-pajama lifestyle and revolving cast of simultaneous girlfriends. At the same time, Hefner has established Playboy as a cultural juggernaut, a brand at once iconic and controversial.

But while most perceive the 84-year-old magazine mogul as a man living out a never-ending fantasy of girls, parties and luxury, there’s another side to Hefner that has remained understated throughout his career: that of the social activist.

Ask him why America may not have noticed this facet, and he'll tell you that the answer is straightforward.

"I think it's fairly obvious — It's because they're distracted by the pretty ladies, both in the magazine and in my life," he said. "Ray Bradbury, in commenting about the magazine a number of years ago, said, 'People don't see the force because of the tease.'"

Academy Award-winning director Brigitte Berman's new documentary, "Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, and Rebel" — opening Friday at Landmark's E Street Cinema — goes beyond "the tease" and examines Hefner's history of defying and re-defining social norms. The film paints a portrait of a man who was interested in putting out much more than just a magazine filled with attractive, nude women.

From the start, Hefner has been something of a trailblazer. His 1959 television series, "'Playboy''s Penthouse," was one of the first to show black and white Americans comingling. At a time when racial tensions ran high throughout the country, Hefner wanted "Playboy" to be an integrated brand, and bought back franchised clubs in the south that refused to serve African-American customers.

It was at this time in the early 1960s, when the magazine had reached more than a million in circulation and beaten out competitors like "Esquire," that the ideology of "Playboy" truly began to shift.

"Then I realized I could include in the magazine the other half of what I was all about," Hefner said. "That's when I started doing 'The Playboy Philosophy.' We introduced 'The Playboy Interview,' and the other nonfiction pieces that helped to change the way of things."


With this shift, "Playboy" was reinvented from a men's magazine directed toward single men "with an appropriate interest for the opposite sex" to a cultural platform that railed against such subjects as the Vietnam War, police brutality and gay discrimination.

"Playboy" has always been a lightning rod for controversy, and the documentary presents a diverse collection of perspectives on the magazine, from Christian activist and singer Pat Boone to notorious KISS bassist and frontman Gene Simmons.

In the face of decades of criticism from a wide rage of fronts — religious institutions, the United States government — Hefner has stood strong. Every time he has been presented with a legal battle, he has emerged the victor. Still, there was one group whose dissent he found "troubling" at the onset of Playboy.
                           
"When it [criticism] came from neo-feminists — early feminists — I was initially blindsided," he said. "I didn't know what they were talking about. As far I was concerned, there was certainly nothing exploitive about 'Playboy.' 'Playboy' was a celebration of our sexuality."

"Nowhere did you find a more positive view of female beauty and sexuality then in 'Playboy.' It took me time to realize that the women and the people who did have a problem with it were having problems with the whole notion of sexuality. That shouldn't have been a surprise, but it was," he said. "And the reason that it shouldn't have been is, in thinking about it historically, there's a Puritan element within everything in America. So the fact that there would be some anti-sexual, Puritan elements within the women's movement is understandable."

For better or for worse, "Playboy" has had a lasting influence on America's social climate. And while controversy continues to swirl around the magazine, Hefner is confident that, in the end, history will look favorably upon his legacy.

"I would like to be remembered as someone who had some positive impact on the changing social and sexual values of my time," he said. "And I think my position is pretty secure in terms of that."

Landmark's E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW; opens Fri., $10.

Written by Express contributor Topher Forhecz