9.28.17 Hero of the Day: Hugh Hefner

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.

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A SPECIAL HERO OF THE DAY!

Name: Hugh Hefner
Age: was 91
Occupation: founder of the Playboy empire
Last Seen: in the great beyond
Awarded For: making sex an OK topic

   

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The year was 1953. Rock music wasn't born yet. You couldn't say the word "pregnant" on TV. Movies weren't allowed to have sex, excessive violence or even profanity.

But one man was going to change all that.

With a $1,000 loan from his mother, former Esquire copywriter Hugh Marston Hefner started a revolution all because of one photo that he obtained: a nude of Marilyn Monroe, one of Hollywood's biggest stars at the time. He was going to call his little empire "Stag Party", but a hunting magazine gave him a cease and desist order. So, he named it Playboy after an old car. The first issue sold over 50,000 copies and prompted Hef to make Playboy a monthly nude magazine.

Because of Hugh Hefner, the sexual revolution was in full swing. By the end of the 1950s, Playboy sold over a million copies per month. By the 70s, it was seven million. Of course, there were the folks who all proclaimed that they only read the magazine for the articles. Nothing was ever off limits for Playboy. It was where Fahrenheit 451 was published by controversial Ray Bradbury. It was where Jimmy Carter proclaimed in an interview that he had lust in his heart. Oh, yes, there were the Playboy Party Jokes. One of my all time favorites was "what's the difference between Michael Jackson and a plastic bag? One is made from plastic and harms children and the other is used to carry groceries."

But yes, the centerfolds were always the bread and butter of Playboy. For years, the magazine had issues being delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. Hef tried to keep the magazine sexy, yet classy. For instance, shots of models' pubic regions were a no-no for many years. That was until 1969 when rival Penthouse started taking some readers away with their full-frontal shots. So, Playboy countered with a distant shot of Paula Kelly fully-nude in a 1969 article regarding the Broadway musical "Hair". While more-hardcore publications like Hustler arrived on the scene, Playboy kept things not-quite X-rated.

But Playboy had its struggles in the 1980s. The Religious Right pushed to have stores ban the magazine and others (they won in 1986 with 7-Eleven) and the shooting death of Playmate Dorothy Stratten tarnished the magazine's image. In 1986, Hefner had a stroke which he recovered from.

He married former Playmate Kimberly Conrad in 1988 and had two sons with her. It seemed that Playboy had somewhat of a renaissance in the 1990s thanks to two Playmates, Jenny McCarthy and Pamela Anderson becoming huge stars. Several celebs even disrobed for the pages of the magazine including Drew Barrymore, Elle MacPherson and a 50-something Nancy Sinatra. However, that little thing called "the internet" was going to be a thorn in Playboy's future.

By the 2010s, Playboy's future was in doubt. Its circulation fell to 700,000 and things only got worse when Hugh's son, Cooper was fired from the magazine when management decided to cut nudity from the pages in 2015. However, he returned to the mag after they reversed their decision due to public outcry.

Now with Hugh's passing last night, Cooper will definitely become the face of the empire his father founded in 1953. An empire that's sadly a shadow of what it once was. The Playboy Clubs are all gone and the infamous mansion, complete with the grotto has been sold off now that Hugh has passed.

But in the end, Hef left an empire one could truly appreciate. He took a risk and ran off with it. He turned the word "sex", once a four-letter word into something we could all talk about without shame. He was a champion for human rights, gay rights and especially the 1st Amendment. And he all did it with ink, paper and staples.

Most of all, Playboy helped me through a tough time. When I was 12, my parents divorced. My Mom moved to a town that had everything my Dad's place did not. Since my parents had half and half custody of me, I dreaded staying with Dad. However, he made up for it. Why? Simple: he often bought me Playboys. And yes, I still have all the issues he bought me, including the first issue, featuring fired New York cop Carol Shayda.

True, one could put Hef on blast for using women and treating them like eye candy, but the truth is, I think most women who are like that probably can't get a good man in her life and it sucks to be them. Playboy has always been about respect not just towards women, but an outlook on life.

Thanks for the mammaries, Hugh.
    
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