Day 99: The Playboy Incarnate

     The year is 1620, and the Pilgrims have just landed on Plymouth Rock after a long, arduous journey from England. They had their freedom, they had their prosperity, and 350 years later, one of their descendants would be revolutionizing the face of pornography as the world knew it.

     Hugh Hefner was born in Chicago on April 9, 1926(16 years after Abe Drexler, the inventor of another Chicago classic), and was purportedly a distant descendant of Plymouth colonist William Bradford. After a 2-year stint in the army writing for a military newspaper, he acquired a degree from the University of Illinois in Creative Writing. After graduation, Hefner served as a copywriter for Esquire magazine. In January 1952, he was denied a $5 raise. This action prompted him to leave the company. The next year he assembled $8,000 from 45 investors to start a new venture called Playboy(which was originally going to be called Stag Party). The first issue hit shelves in December of 1953 and featured nude photos of Marilyn Monroe taken for a 1949 calendar shoot. The issue sold 50,000 copies and was Playboy's coming out party(even though the two never did meet, Hefner later bought the burial plot next to Monroe's).

     In 1955, Hefner published the sci-fi short story "The Crooked Man", which postulated an alternate reality in which homosexuality was the norm ans straight people were persecuted. Needless to say, the piece was HIGHLY controversial(in fact, the piece had previously been turned down by Esquire). When he faced the inevitable firestorm of controversy, Hefner stood by his decision. In 1963, Hefner faced legal trouble when he was booked on obscenity charges upon the publication of nude pictures of Jayne Mansfield. The jury was unable to reach a verdict, and Hefner beat the rap.

     The 1960s was also the time when Hefner truly began to live the Playboy lifestyle that his magazine advocated. His man about town lifestyle was displayed in two short-lived television shows, his all-night ragers at the Playboy Mansion, and oh yeah, his side habit of sleeping with eleven out of twelve playmates in several years there in his heyday(which he freely admitted to.) After suffering a stroke in 1985, he decided to tone down his lifestyle a bit, cutting out the all-night debauchery and handing over day-to-day operations of the Playboy Empire to his daughter(but he was still fit enough to carry on numerous sexual relationships at a time with women less than a third of his age)

     Hefner has been quite philanthropic over the years, including in 2010 when he donated $900,000 to help fund a land purchase that put a stop to the development of the vista of the Hollywood Sign. Also in 2010, the then 84 year old Hefner announced his engagement to the then 24 year old Crystal Harris, whom he would wed 2 years later. In 2013, Hefner announced that his youngest son would be taking over operation of Playboy once he stepped down, to guide Playboy to the next 60 years of success.