Original subtitles

- Synced and corrected by chamallow - - www.addic7ed.com -

[Hugh Hefner] It was 1962 and America was changing.

The space program was in full swing,

and John Glenn became the first person to orbit the earth.

Johnny Carson was named the new host of The Tonight Show,

and the Cuban Missile Crisis,

which had kept the country on edge for 13 days,

came to an end.

While American culture was shifting,

the world of Playboy had exploded.

Our magazine had over one and a half million readers each month.

[man] The little girl she looks so...

And the Playboy Club had become the biggest party in Chicago

with over 100,000 key holders.

Talk a while

Yeah, I was looking back to see

If she was looking back to see if I...

With the mounting success of the Chicago Club,

it was time to take our party national.

And I knew the perfect location for the next Playboy Club...

New York City.

But the competition was tough.

New York was home to the some of the world's hottest

and most iconic nightlife.

So I sent Victor Lownes to get a better feel for the market.

[Victor Lownes] I found a perfect location

on East 59th Street.

I was staying at the Plaza Hotel,

and I noticed a "for rent" sign on a building

that I could see out of my window at the Plaza.

Central Park here.

Cartier, Tiffany's.

And you see these picture windows here?

That's all the advertising we'll need.

When people walk by and see that spiral staircase

filled with a rainbow of Bunnies...

We got 'em.

When can renovations begin?

We should be cleared to start in two weeks.

I'm finalizing everything

with the Department of Buildings today.

[Bob Preuss] Which reminds me, Victor.

Preliminary budgeting has us at 2.5 million.

Right now we're overextended by a lot.

We're pre-selling memberships, that'll help.

No, it will help, you're right, but...

Bob, it's New York.

I know it's New York, but it doesn't hurt to limit risk.

[Hefner] This is what I want.

This design, at this address.

To me, that's worth the risk.

[Patty Farmer] They put $7 million into renovations,

and that was a huge amount at that time.

And that did not even take into account the advertising budget.

So Victor really had high hopes for this Club

being really the jewel in the Playboy Club chain.

[Hugh Hefner] With our plans in place,

we started construction.

And at seven stories high, the Club would have twice

the capacity of our Chicago location.

But I soon realized that doing business in New York

had risks I hadn't anticipated.

To open a club, you needed a liquor license.

And to get a liquor license,

you had to go through the state's licensing board.

But no state government was more corrupt than New York's.

Albany was since the 19th century

and continuesto this day, a cesspool of corruption.

If you want to get anything done in New York State,

you gotta pay somebody.

You've got to pay some elected official, right,

to get the go-ahead.

That is how things are done in New York.

[Hugh Hefner] Soon enough, we were informed

that in order to open our Club,

we had to pay a corrupt government official

a bribe of $100,000.

[Hefner] This is blackmail.

That's how it works.

Well, we're not paying him.

We need to open the Club now

and we can't do that without a liquor license.

Plus, we've already started selling memberships.

We have over 10,000 customers who already paid.

How would they react if we canceled the opening?

[Hugh Hefner] Arnie insisted that pay-offs were the cost of doing business.

But paying a bribe went against everything I stood for.

[Victor Lownes] Hefner's an extremely moral person.

You had to be, and there were so many trumped-up charges,

and efforts to indict us for things that we didn't do wrong

that we had to keep our nose clean.

[Hugh Hefner] I knew it was a risk

to involve Playboy in any illegal activity.

But if we wanted to get our liquor license to open our club,

I had no choice.

So I paid the bribe.

What I didn't know then was that

in going against my conscience,

I was making a decision that would haunt Playboy

for years to come.

[woman] Every little movement

Every little thing you do

Is it sleight of hand

That commands my heart to love you?

Every little movement

Every little movement

[Hugh Hefner] On December 8, 1962,

after a rocky start,

our biggest venture yet, the Playboy Club New York

finally opened its doors.

[man] Don't cry no more

Wipe away your tears

Don't cry no more baby

Wipe away your tears

With its spiral staircase, elevated piano bar,

and 360-degree fireplace,

it was even more stunning than our Chicago operation.

We had comedians and singers.

A cue around the block.

It was a huge success right from the start.

[man] You cried me a river

You cried me a sea

And I believed without a doubt

That you really really really loved me

Don't cry no more

And I had the most beautiful date in the room.

My girlfriend, Cynthia Maddox.

Cynthia wasn't the only woman I dated,

But anytime I was at the Club, she was at my side.

Within weeks, we were averaging over 3,000 guests a night.

Not bad, huh?

Not bad at all.

You cried me a river

You cried me a sea...

And I knew if we could conquer the New York nightclub scene,

we could succeed anywhere.

Within a year, we had Playboy Clubs

in Miami, New Orleans, St. Louis, Phoenix, Detroit,

Baltimore, Kansas City, Cincinnati and Los Angeles.

Playboy was on top of the world.

But just when it seemed like everything was going our way...

Don't cry no more baby...

... a decision I made months earlier

was about to threaten the entire Playboy empire.

[phone ringing]

[phone continues ringing]

[Bob Preuss] Hef?

Hef...

Bob?

[Bob] Sorry, I know it's early.

It's 10:00 a.m.

It's important.

[sighs]

[Hugh Hefner] Just a few months after the New York Club opened,

my staff caught wind of a government operation

that could shut us down.

New York Governor, Nelson Rockefeller,

had announced a corruption investigation

with a specific focus on the State Liquor Authority,

the same organization that had forced me to pay a bribe

to get my club open.

I knew it was only a matter of time

before Rockefeller's investigation

would lead directly to Playboy.

Hefner had apparently given a bribe

to two New York state officials,

the Chairman of the Republican Party of New York

and the Chairman of the State Liquor Board.

In Hugh Hefner's mind,

he had done what he needed to,

to get Playboy's liquor license in New York

[Hugh Hefner] Practically every club owner in New York City

had paid a bribe.

But I knew our success made us a big target.

And if investigators found out, the Club could be shut down.

The Playboy name could be tarnished,

and we could face criminal charges.

To save Playboy's reputation and my own,

I decided there was only one thing to do.

[Richard Rosenzweig] Once one succumbs to a bribe transaction,

you are hooked... forever.

Anything you need, names, dates, Playboy will give it to you.

[Richard Rosenzweig] We went to the

District Attorney's office in New York,

and we told them what had occurred.

And they said they would work together on this.

First time, I think that it ever happened in New York.

[Victor Lownes] Hefner and Morton,

the way they felt about it had a certain rationale.

And with all the evidence...

We even paid the bribe with a check.

And, I mean, so there was no question about evidence.

And there was no question about blowing the whistle.

[Hugh Hefner] I followed through with my promise

and turned over all of our books.

[Richard Rosenzweig] By handling it the way we handled the approach

works out in the end.

And the word gets out to these people that you cannot touch us

with these unlawful suggestions.

[man] Go away baby quit hanging around my bed...

[Hugh Hefner] After months of investigation and a high-profile trial,

Judson Morhouse, the man who had forced us to pay the bribe,

was removed from office, disbarred, and convicted

on charges of both corruption and extortion.

Your love has ruined my...

Our testimony proved so vital to the state's case,

Playboy was forgiven on all counts.

[James Karmel] Hefner had, in fact, come clean.

And then he did whatever he could

to break the whole scheme of corruption

by providing testimony

against these two guys who were convicted.

[Hugh Hefner] While I was dealing with the Clubs,

the world was changing.

You gotta leave me baby...

And I quickly realized Playboy needed to change with it.

[Hugh Hefner] The pill came in in 1960.

And there were topless go-go dancers

in both New York and, uh, San Francisco.

And the sexual revolution had become a reality.

And with that a permissiveness

that offered a new possibility in terms of freedom.

It was also a time of revolution too,

and you can't separate that either.

I have a dream...

[Hugh Hefner] It was a time of questioning old mores and values.

It was a reaction to the very repressive values

that had existed in the '40s and '50s.

It was questioning a lot of the fundamental views

that people saw were hurtful.

We hold these truths to be self-evident

that all men are created equal.

[news announcer)] At City Hall Park another multitude

welcomes the young democratic Bay Stater.

[Hugh Hefner] With John F. Kennedy

pushing a progressive agenda in the White House,

it seemed like America was on the cusp of a new era.

And I knew then that Playboy needed to be

at the forefront of the revolution.

Quit hanging 'round my bed

[man] Every day in the same old way

I'm a 9:00 to 5:00...

We began publishing articles tackling the changing times.

We slammed nuclear testing,

criticized America's corrupt auto industry,

and basted America's outdated government leaders.

We were even covering social issues like economic reform.

Even some of my early critics had to admit

the magazine was doing important work.

The come-on for Playboy in the '60s

was the fact that you were going to see

the Playmate of the Month.

Once you bought the magazine and began to read it,

then you understood that there was stuff worth looking at.

Worth reading, worth thinking about.

And some of it was indeed groundbreaking.

[Hugh Hefner] Playboy in its tenth year

was becoming more influential than ever before.

[Richard Rosenzweig] Writers, cartoonists, photographers, artists,

they all wanted to be part of this cultural revolutionary

piece of work that we were doing.

And some of them, and many of them actually

worked for less than their normal fees

just to be part of it.

[man] So much to live...

[Hugh Hefner] Because I was the face of the company,

I wanted to start my own column

to address topics I cared about.

From drug law reform to separation of church and state.

I called it The Playboy Philosophy.

But our biggest addition was inspired by the conversations

I was having with celebrities and intellectuals

at my parties and on my TV show.

I thought it would be great to give them a platform

to talk about the issues they cared about,

and I knew our readers would love it.

We called it The Playboy Interview.

The first Playboy Interview

was with my good friend, Miles Davis.

In an interview that took place over two days,

he went beyond talking about music

and opened up about his experience

as a black man in America.

The magazine wanted to prove itself to be broad-minded.

Miles Davis was this very important guy.

The interview was comprehensive, patient, finely edited.

[Hugh Hefner] Over the next few months,

we interviewed Peter Sellers,

Jackie Gleason,

and Ayn Rand.

The interviews themselves could have

up to 40 hours of material,

compiled over weeks or months.

[David Granger] Well, the thing that makes the Playboy Interview

completely unique is, it's incredibly in-depth.

I mean, who's gonna give, you know, somewhere between

ten and 25 hours to an interviewer, you know?

I mean, especially now, when every celebrity

is so completely controlled by publicists.

[Hugh Hefner] By spending so much time with celebrities,

we developed a rapport.

And they shared things with us

they would never tell any other publication.

It was a big status thing to do the Playboy Interview.

And I think I answered some things perhaps

a little more frankly than I normally would,

thinking I'm in the big time of Playboy now.

[Hugh Hefner] The Playboy Interview went on to become

one of the most iconic features in the magazine's history.

[Arthur Kretchmer] The interview was in the first 20 years,

you'll see that they are like a classical symphony.

One melody leads into the next melody and the third melody

is a counterpoint on the first melody.

There is a comprehensiveness to them.

Many years later, Steve Jobs said about

his first Playboy Interview,

it was the single best thing in media he had ever done.

[Hugh Hefner] With all of our new editorial features,

there was so much to do at the magazine

that I had little time for anything else,

including my girlfriend, Cynthia.

I'm bored.

I've gotta get this done by tonight.

[woman] But I'm feeling so sad

I long to try

Something I've never had

Never had no kissin'

Oh what I've been missin'

I've, uh... I've gotta get this done by tonight.

Lover man oh where can you be?

The night is so cold

Cynthia...

And I'm so alone

I'd give my soul

Just to call you my own

Got a moon above me

But no one to love me lover man...

You're really not making this easy for me.

But I have to work, okay?

I've heard it said

That the thrill of romance

Can be...

[door closes]

[Hugh Hefner] I knew I should have been spending

more time with Cynthia,

but my devotion to the magazine

was far from the only problem in our relationship.

He dates other girls, and I don't like it.

He knows I don't like it.

And he doesn't like when I date,

and he feels it's wrong when I date.

Discussions go back and forth and we try to work things out,

but I don't know what's going to happen if this continues on.

I'll be right back.

[Richard Rosenzweig] Cynthia was a very vibrant young woman.

And they had a romantic relationship.

Hefner never indicated that he was a one-woman man.

And that was not to Cynthia's liking, as one can imagine.

[woman] Was it done just for fun?

We have necked till I'm wrecked...

[Hugh Hefner] Throughout all the years with Playboy,

I never had a monogamous relationship.

I think I was committed to that lifestyle.

It was a young man's fantasy.

I was in a unique position as the publisher of Playboy.

[Hefner] Mm-hmm.

Well, let's set it up.

Or try to.

I'll, I'll call you back, Spec, okay.

Everything okay?

It's great.

These heels, though... they're a killer.

I'm sure if you talk to the Bunny Mother,

she'll let you go back to the dressing room and take five.

Oh, I don't know, she seems pretty strict.

Plus... it's always fun to break the rules

every once in a while, isn't it?

[Stephen Martinez] Cynthia Maddox was really beautiful.

Hef, uh, fell in love with her.

They started dating.

But Cynthia wanted to have a relationship with him.

She just didn't wanna be another girl,

and Hef wasn't prepared for that.

[Hugh Hefner] In the spring of 1963,

my relationship with Cynthia came to an end.

Part of what my pursuit of happiness has been all about

has been an attempt to walk a different road.

And when you're walking a different road without a map,

uh, you're gonna make mistakes.

And, you know, when you're involved in a, in a series

of romantic relationships,

the nature of that is gonna hurt.

I was sad to see Cynthia go,

but work was a welcome distraction.

And soon, bigger issues of the day

were taking up all of my attention.

[marchers chanting]

[Martin Luther King] The Negro still is not free.

[Hugh Hefner] The Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum,

but the peaceful demonstrations advocated

by Martin Luther King Jr., soon gave way to violence...

[crowd screaming]

... as police in Birmingham, Alabama

brutally assaulted black protestors.

[Martin Luther King] We can never be satisfied

as long as the Negro is the victim

of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

[applause]

Playboy had been involved in Civil Rights issues for years,

and we weren't going to stop now.

[Arthur Kretchmer] We did everything there was to do

about Civil Rights.

It was an overwhelming fact that black people were badly treated

and that the magazine should do

what it could to make that better.

The thing about the magazine that nobody realizes

is it was the only magazine in America that was fearless

on any topic you gave it, Playboy could cover it

and could cover it honestly.

[Hugh Hefner] In early 1963, a new leader in the Civil Rights Movement

had captured the nation's attention.

Malcolm X was a polarizing figure,

who, unlike Dr. King,

encouraged violence as a means of protest.

[Malcolm X] We need an organization that no one downtown loves.

We need one that's ready and willing to take action,

- any kind of action... - [audience reacts]

Not when the man downtown sees fit but when we see fit.

- [audience affirms] - By any means necessary.

[Jesse Jackson] Malcolm X was a black nationalist

who thought white people were barbaric

by not allowing us to use public facilities.

In that season of fear and polarization

driven by former slaveholders and segregationists,

the argument was that Malcolm did not deserve a platform.

[Hugh Hefner] In the spring of 1963,

Malcolm X agreed to sit down with us.

[Spec] We can't publish this.

"The white man must realize that the sins of the fathers

are about to be visited upon the heads of the children

who have continued those sins,

only in more sophisticated ways."

This is practically a declaration of war.

If I'm not mistaken, it's what he's been saying for years.

It is not our place to get involved in his crusade.

Why not? Because we're white?

Because we don't like what he's saying?

Look, we've fought for years against censorship of all kind,

to be able to express ourselves the way we see fit,

live our life how we want to.

Let's not become hypocrites here, Spec.

Print this as is.

[David Eisenbach] Malcolm X, his message was really important.

But his rhetoric and language was definitely threatening,

even to those who had embraced civil rights.

Black people, you cannot trust the white devil.

The white devil will always try to keep you in chains.

So the fact that you would have Hugh Hefner

giving Malcolm X an interview in Playboy magazine,

whoa, man, now that's wild.

And they were interested...

[Jesse Jackson] Hefner stood almost alone

in the social, political role, as a force to be dealt with.

It was courageous 'cause he was being encouraged

to not publish the Malcolm X interview.

But he did not surrender.

[Hugh Hefner] We knew that publishing the interview

could mean losing subscribers,

but I was willing to bet America was ready

to hear his words.

As it turns out, I was right.

After the Malcolm X interview ran,

letters poured in from all over the country,

thanking us for covering his movement.

After nearly a decade, Playboy magazine was finally

being recognized as much for its editorial content

as for its centerfolds.

But that was all about to change.

[piano music playing inside]

[both panting]

[door opens]

- Hef?! - Bobbie!

- Hef! - What is it?

The cops are downstairs.

Just tell them I'll deal with it tomorrow.

They're here for you.

[camera shutter clicking]

[Hugh Hefner] On June 4, 1963,

I was arrested and charged

with creating and distributing an obscene publication.

Newspapers quickly picked up the story,

and I couldn't help wonder why the city of Chicago

was coming after me now.

We knew the magazine wasn't obscene

because I knew my plans for the magazine,

I knew that the Supreme Court had already established

that nudity was not obscene.

The difference with Playboy

is that we went mainstream immediately.

The obscene publication in question was our June issue,

specifically, an eight-page spread

of actress Jayne Mansfield.

Playboy had published nude photos

of Mansfield twice before,

but our new photos were unique.

Taken on the set of her upcoming film, Promises! Promises!,

it was the first mainstream Hollywood movie

to feature a star in the nude.

[Carrie Pitzulo] The standards of obscenity

were very vague in these years.

Prosecutors claimed that those pictures

were particularly obscene

because there was a full-dressed man,

another character from the film sitting on the side of the bed,

and they claimed that the captions were obscene.

They talked about Jayne Mansfield

writhing around in the bed.

After spending the night in a Chicago jail cell,

I was released on bail and returned home to start

working on how to fight these ridiculous charges.

There aren't a whole lot of things in our society,

not many publications,

that are willing to stand up and say sex is good.

I'm the guy and Playboy's the magazine

that is willing to say sex is a good thing.

Sexual imagery is a good thing.

The act itself is a good thing.

And before you can tell me that it hurts somebody,

you have to make a serious case.

[David Eisenbach] What makes something obscene?

The Supreme Court still hasn't come up with

a legit definition, a specific definition.

It's intentionally written in a vague way.

So, if you were to try to publish a national magazine,

you are open, uh, to prosecution left and right.

[Eldon Sellers] We need to avoid court at all costs.

I just don't think we have a choice here.

And we have the money to settle.

You think the city of Chicago's gonna let us

settle out of court?

[Eldon] You know what? We gotta try.

- I agree with that. - We can afford it.

[editor] We need to be prepared for both eventualities, frankly.

[discussion continues indistinctly]

[Nadine Strossen] Hugh Hefner was facing

a criminal sentence, a prison term.

How many people are willing to risk criminal prosecution?

Even if you're ultimately acquitted,

you have enormous expenses, enormous amount of time drained,

and a big stigma, being accused of engaging in obscenity.

So you have to be willing to place your resources

and your reputation on the line.

[Hugh Hefner] Despite my team's advice,

I knew settling wasn't an option.

These charges were censorship, plain and simple,

and no one was going to take away my freedom of speech.

[William Ming] I don't take on cases that are easy.

And I don't take on cases I don't believe in.

So you're saying this case won't be easy?

Six years ago, the Supreme Court ruled

that it's not enough to point to a single article

or image to label a publication as obscene.

You have to look at the magazine as a whole.

Well, there you go,

Playboy's primarily focused on lifestyle, not nudity.

Correct.

So... what's the catch?

Well, when we go to court, no matter how clearly

we explain it, we'll be at the mercy of a jury.

[Hugh Hefner] The man I had chosen to represent mehad already

won some of America's most controversial cases.

His name was William Ming Jr.

I look forward to seeing you at the arraignment.

- Thank you, William. - You're welcome.

[Hugh Hefner] Three years earlier he had defended Martin Luther King Jr.

on perjury charges, winning him an acquittal

in front of an all-white jury.

And a few years before that, he served on the legal team

that won the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case,

Brown v. The Board of Education.

Ming was also involved in the NAACP, the ACLU.

Hef's very much into Civil Rights,

so it was a perfect match.

[Mike Wallace] Police yesterday carted

two tons of obscene magazines, films,

and photographs to the city incinerator and burned them.

[Hugh Hefner] In the weeks leading up to the trial,

the city of Chicago stepped up its efforts

to damage our business.

And anti-pornography activists came out of the woodworks.

[Charles Keating] Men who would stand by and see their women

degraded and debased as they are with the breast

and the buttock presentation by Playboy are not men at all.

[Hugh Hefner] But the more they attacked,

the more I knew I had to defend Playboy.

In your June issue, you show Jayne Mansfield unclothed,

lying in bed with a man fully clothed.

Mm-hmm.

It looks like you're asking for it.

- Why? - Uh, you...

It looks as though the photograph is designed

since we have both sexes involved here...

Mm-hmm.

... solely to arouse the viewer.

The difficulty is most people who get into censorship

really know very little about it.

They don't know much about it psychologically.

They don't really recognize the effect

that these things have.

And so what we were really doing was, uh,

reporting on a, on a movie in the making

and, uh, since a name personality was involved,

the pictures we felt had legitimate journalistic interest.

[Mike Wallace] This morning a man is on trial in Chicago

charged with violating that city's laws against obscenity.

He is Hugh Hefner, publisher of Playboy magazine.

Many court cases involving motion pictures, books,

and magazines have left considerable gray areas

in determining just what is salacious and obscene.

[Hugh Hefner] The trial began on November 20, 1963,

and from the beginning,

jury selection put us at a huge disadvantage.

[Richard Rosenzweig] We discovered

that they essentially rigged the jury

with not only almost all women,

but people from very conservative organizations.

[Hugh Hefner] The moment the trial began,

it was clear we were fighting an uphill battle.

For more than a decade,

Playboy magazine has done more to damage American values

than any other publication currently in circulation.

It is up to you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,

to protect the basic human decency

that this country stands for.

[William Ming] Your sworn duty, as members of the jury,

is to defend and uphold the laws of the Constitution.

A constitution which not only protects the freedom of Mr. Hefner,

but which also protect the freedoms of your fellow citizens.

[Jesse Jackson] Hefner's point was, you had the right not to buy,

but not the right to deny it to be seen and to be read.

And when he was attacked on that basis,

he would not surrender his First Amendment rights.

[Hugh Hefner] The prosecution launched into their case.

Your honor, the prosecution

would like to call its first witness.

In your professional opinion,

do you find these pages to be obscene?

Without reservation.

[John Melaniphy] What do you think is the aim of all this?

In my opinion, to stimulate or inflame

the sexual appetite of the average person.

[Hugh Hefner] For nearly three weeks,

the prosecution argued that the pictures in Playboy

could incite readers to commit sexual crimes.

Then something unexpected happened.

Kennedy's death was the first presidential assassination of our time.

It was earth-shattering,

and it would come to define a generation.

This is a sad time for all people.

We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed.

[Hugh Hefner] The world came to a halt.

[Lyndon Johnson] For me, it is a deep, personal tragedy.

I know that the world shares the sorrow

thatMrs. Kennedy and her family bear.

[newscaster] His firm commitments to support the cause

of democracies throughout the world...

[Hugh Hefner] Suddenly, the future of the progressive movement

was in question.

[newscaster] Across the country,

a great outpouringof grief, shock, and revulsion.

[David Eisenbach] JFK's assassination

for the generation of young people

is the same as the attack on Pearl Harbor was

for the prior generation.

Subsequent generations the blowing up of the Challenger

and 9/11 in that it destroys the optimism and idealism.

It is a break with a sense of security in the past

that everything was fine.

And a reminder that no one is invulnerable.

[Hugh Hefner] But just as the country was struggling

to come to grips with the loss,

and life seemed like it would never get back to normal,

it was finally time to hear the verdict.

And now, the fate of the Playboy empire

was in the hands of the jury.

Everything I had worked for

would be affected by this decision.

[woman] Every little movement

Every motion of your hips

I feel the compulsion

To pull you to my sweet lips

Is it a black magic spell

You put me under?

This miracle moment

Never let it end

Every little movement

Is beyond improvement

You are the magician

I've been wishing for forever

Every little movement

Every little movement

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