'Playboy' Hefner Opens up in Candid Biography

Bill Eichenberger - The Columbus Dispatch

When "Mr. Playboy" Hugh Hefner decided to authorize a biography, he understood that along with praise for his career, the book would have to include an airing of his addiction to Dexedrine, his pathological infidelities and his business blunders.

But Hefner, with nary a second thought, sanctioned historian Steven Watts' biography.

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"I figured that, by and large, my life has been an open book -- with illustrations," Hefner said. "When I was approached by Mr. Watts, I felt it a great compliment. After all, his first two biographies were of Henry Ford and Walt Disney. I'm in pretty good company."

Ford, writes Watts, "pioneered a compelling ideology of consumer values, abundance, and self-fulfillment" that was "built upon" by Disney, who "helped forge the American way of life." Hefner, according to Watts, "brought the trend to a culmination."

Hefner, 82, spoke recently by phone with The Dispatch.

Q: What did you like about Watts' approach to your story?

A: He put my life in the context of the changing social and sexual values of the 20th century, which was something I welcome.

Q: Do you find his parallels to Disney appropriate?

A: Well, yes, I'd say I do. Like Disney, I was a dreamer. I was breaking away from a typical Midwestern Methodist home and living in a dream world of my own making.

I'd create penny newspapers, write stories and cartoons for the school papers, write short stories. Everything I was doing was a rehearsal for . . . (Playboy magazine). Of course, no one could have imagined what it would turn into. At the beginning, I literally had no money. I borrowed $600 and used furniture in our apartment as collateral to publish the first issue (in 1953).

The success and response to that first issue caught the attention of a distributor, and then the second issue sold better than the first.

Q: You sold 1 million copies of Playboy a month in 1959, and by 1972, you were up to 7 million per issue. What a whirlwind.

A: I am by nature a very romantic guy, and I have a tremendous nostalgia for the launch and for the 1960s. During the '60s, I was obsessed with the magazine and the growth of the company. In the latter part of the '60s and the early part of the '70s, I was more into celebrating that success. That's when I started splitting my time between L.A. and Chicago.

Q: What did you think of the election of Barack Obama on Nov. 4?

A: Playboy played a very real part in the civil-rights movement. We had Alex Haley interview the head of the American Nazi Party. We broke down the color barrier at our Playboy Clubs and in our magazine and on our television shows. . . . A black president -- I'm just glad I lived long enough because that's what America's all about.

Q: Was Barbi Benton your one true love?

A: I loved her very much. In fact, on a (recent) episode of The Girls Next Door, the girls and I go to visit Barbi and her husband. Barbi and I remain close friends.

But is she my true love? No, other loves have surpassed that, although it's difficult to compare time frames.

Q: Is it hard to believe you were married to Kimberly Conrad for more than a decade?

A: At the end of my marriage 10 years ago, a whole new life opened up for me. I met and had a long-term relationship with Holly Madison, who was on the first Girls Next Door show. Then I met the twins (Kristina and Karissa Shannon) unexpectedly in the middle of the summer. . . . I mean, I was roadkill in a minute and a half. I'm a very happy cat right now.

Q: What advice do you have on the institution of marriage?

A: Marriage works for some people, but it didn't work for me. I think it's helpful going into a marriage to recognize that nothing lasts forever. . . . I think, in reality, human beings are best-suited to sequential monogamy, having one partner after another. There was a time when we didn't live such a long time when marriages really made more sense.

Q: You've been accused of encouraging people to be selfish to the detriment of the common good. Is that fair?

A: Well, I've never believed that what is pleasurable has to be by definition somehow separate from the common good. The equation is more complex than simply doing what feels good -- though I must say, we are essentially selfish beings. The trick is to take that into account and to try to use that selfishness, to live as rewarding a life as is possible, but to leave a little something behind, to leave the world a better place than you found it.

Q: If there's one thing you could do over, what would it be?

A: That's a dangerous game to play. Ray Bradbury had a story (A Sound of Thunder) in which he introduces the notion of "the butterfly effect," where if you change one thing it can change everything else.

I've lost dear friends, and maybe if I'd have been paying closer attention I could have helped them. I've seen some business decisions go awry.

But to change any one thing at the risk of losing other things? My life has been such a blessing, and I've been so fortunate -- really fortunate beyond words. So, no, I wouldn't change a thing.

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