All language subtitles for American Playboy s01e07 Below The Belt Playboy And The Pubic Wars.eng

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

[Hugh Hefner] The year was 1968

and America was still reeling
from three major assassinations

and an ongoing war in Vietnam.

But Playboy was keeping up
with the tumultuous times...

running articles about politics...

race...

and social justice.

Soon the magazine was
earning a reputation

as the voice of the
young, progressive movement

that was sweeping the country.

[Jason Buhrmester] Hef did a
great job of evolving the magazine

from the '50s suit, dinner jacket,

cocktail version of Playboy

to the '60s Summer of
Love version of Playboy.

He was always ready
to adapt the magazine

to what was going on in culture.

Most of the time he was
already very far ahead

of where the culture was going.

[Hugh Hefner] As we evolved...

readership continued to boom.

And by the end of the 1960s,

one in four college men
subscribed to Playboy.

But just because the
magazine had matured

didn't mean we took
ourselves too seriously.

My new TV show, Playboy After Dark,

showed that, at the end of the day,

we were still about having fun.

[announcer] Playpen After
Dark! with your host...

[Hugh Hefner] In its first
year, the show was popular enough

to be spoofed by Johnny Carson.

[Johnny Carson] Each
week I'm here on the show

to kinda break down ancient
sex beliefs, you know,

combat puritan morality and
get my hands on some good stuff.

[Hugh Hefner] Between filming
Playboy After Dark in L.A.

and traveling around the world

to meet with Playboy Club
managers and magazine editors,

I was always in the air

and barely spending any
time in my Chicago home.

So I decided it was time to
bring the Playboy mansion...

to the skies.

[woman]
Every little movement

[Hugh Hefner] In the spring of 1968,

I tasked my executive
assistant, Dick Rosenzweig,

with an ambitious project.

[Dick Rosenzweig] Hef came to me one day

and he said he needed
a private aircraft.

And he wanted a very special one.

He said the plane should
be painted black...

because there is no other
black plane out there,

and we'll put a white bunny on the tail.

I love it.

[Hugh Hefner] It was a status
symbol just to fly private,

but I wanted to take it a step further,

so I took a commercial airliner,

gutted it,

and retrofitted it in a
style that was pure Playboy.

[Hugh Hefner] Before
long my jet became known

as the Big Bunny.

If Hugh Hefner can afford a
personalized airplane like this,

his money must multiply like bunnies.

[Hugh Hefner] That plane cost
five and a half million dollars...

over 38 million dollars today,
and it was worth every penny.

We have a series of buttons here

that can control the polarized windows.

It can go all the way from
light to grey to total blackness.

It can seat 38, sleep 16.

And has additional gas facility

so that it can go anyplace in the world.

[Hugh Hefner] The Big
Bunny had a luxury bedroom,

shower,

a TV and movie theater,

and of course a dance floor.

[announcer] Constantly
surrounded by gorgeous girls

and beautiful belongings,

Hefner's world may
seem enviable to some.

At 44 he's unquestionably king rabbit

and certainly he takes every
opportunity to enjoy his dough.

The Big Bunny, it was an experience.

It was like a house with wings.

I remember the first time
our crew flew with Hef.

He saw our luggage and he
didn't like the way it looked.

So he went and bought everybody luggage.

"If you're gonna fly with me,
you're gonna have good luggage."

[Hugh Hefner] My every
need was taken care of...

by our jet bunnies.

Jet bunnies did not wear
the traditional bunny outfit.

They wore black mini
dresses, scarves and boots,

very much modeled after the Bond girls

that were so popular at the time.

[Hugh Hefner] The Big Bunny
became a media sensation.

It is the only way to fly.

[Don Rickles] Really?!

Who cares?

These are all people
who work at the A&P.

[Hugh Hefner] But I had no idea
that the next time I flew to L.A.

my life would change forever.

[man] It's in five minutes.

Thanks for coming to the set.

What do you think?

I like it.

I'm not so sure about
the furniture in front.

We've got an orange sofa
down in the back there,

I know you love that color.

Okay, great.

And I think we should use
the red carpet in the back.

[Hugh Hefner] Every week
on Playboy After Dark,

we packed the soundstage

with great-looking models and extras.

Well, if you're happy, let me
take you through to make-up.

One day, one of them
captured my full attention.

[Hugh Hefner] I bought the plane.

I'd already committed to
doing Playboy After Dark.

I was preparing to live a new
adventure and a new experience

in a new time frame, or
a new chapter in my life.

And there she was.

[Hugh Hefner] That wholesome
beauty was Barbara Klein,

who would soon come to
be known as Barbi Benton.

[Barbi Benton] I met Hef on
the set of Playboy After Dark,

and he asked me if I would, uh,

like to go out with him that night.

How about we go out
for a drink after this?

You and me?

And I said, "I don't know.

I've never been out
with anybody over 24."

And he said, "Neither have I."

[Hugh Hefner] Barbi had been attending
UCLA to become a veterinarian,

but when she realized

she couldn't stand the sight of blood,

she quickly gave up the career.

She began modeling part-time,

acted in a few small commercials

and then took a job as an
extra on Playboy After Dark.

I'd been with my fair share of women,

but from the moment I met Barbi,

I knew she was different.

Hef is the most romantic
person that I've ever been with.

And he put me on a
pedestal and worshipped me.

I hadn't been around anybody

who was that affectionate
and wanted me so badly.

I mean just to be with me.

To sit next to me and hold my hand.

He was just so excited.
He was like a little boy.

[Richard Rosenzweig] Hef saw her
as the ultimate girl next door,

and he found her refreshing,
coed-like and a lot of fun.

And Hefner really fell for her.

[Hugh Hefner] From that point
on, all my time in Los Angeles

was spent with Barbi...

both off-camera and on.

What kind of color would you be, Barbi?

Oh, I'd be sexy, I'd be...

I'd have to be red,

because it's sexy and
a little bit mysterious.

Oh, wait a minute. Burnt orange.

Because that's your favorite color.

That's my favorite color!

[Hugh Hefner] She
essentially became my co-host.

I notice that Sonny and Cher

are about ready to do a number for us.

And maybe Barbi would like
to do the introduction.

[Hugh Hefner] And to
everyone who watched the show,

our chemistry was impossible to miss.

[Brett Ratner] Hef's
girlfriend, Barbi Benton.

I mean, God, Barbi Benton,
I was so in love with her.

She was just a regular
girl. But she had beauty.

[Sonny Bono] Simon says,
girls, arms around the boys.

Simon says, bring your
noses two inches apart.

Simon says, bring you
noses an inch apart.

Simon says, closer.

Simon says, closer.

Simon says, be creative.

Simon says, stop, Hef.

Hef, Simon and Barbara,
please say stop or you'll be...

Simon says, stop!

I'm out of the game.

[Hugh Hefner] With Barbi by my side,

I became a new man.

[Barbi Benton] I think
we should go somewhere.

[Hugh Hefner] Where?

Yes! What about Europe?

Europe?

Yeah!

I did things with Barbi
that I had never done before

and I've never done since.

And I spent a great deal
of my time where she was.

It was almost as if I was
planning for that relationship

before I met her.

It was a wonderful time in my life.

Africa!

Where would you like to go in Africa?

Oh, gosh.

[Barbi Benton] I think I managed
to bring him out of his shell.

He was a hermit. He never
got out of his house.

I got him to do things.

I'm still amazed at the things we did.

One of the things that I loved
to do with Hef was travel.

We went to 16 different
countries on one trip.

It was romantic.

Everything we did was fun and exciting.

Hef and I had a lot of
romance in our lives.

Everywhere we went, it was an adventure.

[Hugh Hefner] Barbi was the most
intensely romantic relationship

that I think I had ever been in.

I said publicly that it
was I thought the first time

I'd really been in love.

I was having the ultimate
high school courtship

in my early 40s.

I have some news that
I think a lot of you

will be happy to hear.

Starting with the next issue,

it's time for me to take a step back.

Now, I'm still going to be approving

every page of the magazine,

but this means no more
60-page memos, spec.

[Hugh Hefner] With the
magazine doing so well

and Barbi taking up more of my time,

I finally decided it was time

to do something I'd always resisted...

delegate.

I gave Tajiri, Spectorsky and Kretchmer

more creative control over the magazine,

and made Arnie Executive
VP of Playboy Enterprises.

But I saved one of the
most important assignments

for Victor Lownes.

Over the last several years,

we'd successfully opened 15
Playboy Clubs within the U.S.

and 3 international locations.

But if we were going to
become a worldwide phenomenon,

there was only one place left to go.

London was home to the swinging '60s,

an economic boom had
brought average earnings

almost twice as high
as the cost of living.

And on top of that,

it had the youngest population
of any city in the world.

With 40% of residents
under 25 years old,

they were all looking to go out,

spend their money and have fun.

I knew Victor was the only man

who could develop the
London Playboy Club,

so I sent him over to England

and he wasted no time
setting things in motion.

[Victor Lownes] London was
really quite a hot place.

And it seemed like a good move

and they decided to send
me over to organize it,

which I did.

[Marilyn Cole] He'd
never been to Britain,

but he threw himself into London life.

When he was researching everything,

he was taken to clubs where
there were gaming tables.

[Hugh Hefner] Thanks to
a recent ruling in London,

Vic had license to take the
club in a whole new direction.

[Victor Lownes] Gambling
had just become legalized.

I immediately thought we
ought to get into gambling

because it seemed like
a very profitable avenue.

[Marilyn Cole] He
called Hefner and said,

"Listen, Hef, they are
gambling here in Britain.

It's legal."

Because in America,
it was only in Vegas.

So Victor had this brilliant idea

of opening Playboy as a casino.

[Hugh Hefner] After months of work

and a $2 million investment,
we held our grand opening.

1,500 guests attended
the black tie affair,

which was the most
star-studded in our history.

Sidney Poitier...

James Garner...

and even London royalty were there.

The opening night guest
list is fascinating to me

because it's such a
great m?lange of people.

'Cause he had the Duke of Bedford,

Rudolph Nureyev was there,
the world famous ballet dancer.

And then of course Roman Polanski.

Roman and Victor were
very, very close friends.

[Hugh Hefner] But no Playboy
Club would be complete

without top-notch entertainment.

Luckily, Vic knew all
the best performers,

and we were able to treat our guests

to a performance from one of the
fastest-rising comedians in America.

It was very sad and I didn't
know what the button was for.

And they told me that
if you lose a button,

you take a button off the inside

and you sew it onto the
outside, you got a button.

And, uh, I had the jacket for two weeks

and, just my luck,

I lost from the outside of
my jacket, a button hole.

[laughter]

[Victor Lownes] When
we opened the club here,

we were bringing over acts
from America to perform.

Woody Allen opened the club.

He's a personal friend and
he lived right next door.

[Hugh Hefner] Vic was in his
element, and just as I expected,

he created the perfect venue

to introduce Playboy to London society.

It was an incredible party

and the club stayed open 24 hours a day,

so the celebration
continued well after dawn.

[Hugh Hefner] What I
saw in London that summer

was a whole revolution
in social sexual values.

The entire lifestyle from England

was about to explode across the world.

And I came back from that trip

feeling that I'd seen the future.

[Hugh Hefner] In less than a year,

the London Playboy Club under
Victor was making more money

than any casino in Europe or Las Vegas.

[Dick Rosenzweig] The
London casino was the most

successful casino in the
world for a number of years.

It was a huge celebrity hangout.

When Hollywood came to London,
first stop was the Playboy Club.

It was a once in a
lifetime club experience.

[Dick Cavett] The ladies
they had selected in Britain

to be the British
bunnies were spectacular.

They were not only
gorgeous, they were witty,

they were funny, they had
various regional accents

that were pleasant and fun to hear.

And they were just great.

[Hugh Hefner] Of course being the head

of the most successful club in the world

had other perks.

[Marilyn Cole] I first met
Victor when I became a bunny girl.

And so we were at the Playboy Club

and a man appeared on the floor.

We didn't know who it was,
but we knew he was somebody

just by his vitality and
his looks and his voice,

it just sounded different.

And it turned out it was Victor Lownes.

The boss, so to speak.

[Hugh Hefner] Victor was constantly
surrounded by beautiful women,

but soon enough, one particular
bunny stood out among the rest.

And you are?

Marilyn Cole.

It's my first day here.

Mmm, I picked up on that.

But don't worry, you'll do just fine.

You're a real beauty.

Some people say I'm too tall.

Well, those people don't know
what they're talking about.

Me, on the other hand, I'm an expert.

And trust me, you're perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

Thank you, Mr. Lownes.

Please call me Victor.

[giggles]

I dated Marilyn because
she was drop-dead gorgeous

when I saw her,

and she was intelligent and interesting.

[Hugh Hefner] While Victor
was falling in love in London,

my relationship with Barbi
was becoming more serious.

And we were practically inseparable.

What are you doing up?

I thought you might like some breakfast.

Oh, sweetheart, come here.

Oh, and a flower!

Yes, I picked that myself.

- No, you didn't.
- I did.

I don't believe you for a
second, but you're still sweet.

Mmm, that's great.

What's that?

I don't know.

[Hugh Hefner] Since Playboy's inception,

the magazine had never
faced any real competition.

But that all changed in 1969

when a publication called Penthouse

burst onto the scene

and made it its mission
to take Playboy down

[Carrie Pitzulo] When Penthouse came
onto the scene in the late 1960s,

it really presented a
challenge to Playboy.

It sought to be a lifestyle magazine.

It talked about things
like fashion and politics.

And so Penthouse was taking the formula

that Playboy had established.

[announcer] The man who runs it
is 44-year-old Robert Guccione,

Brooklyn born but a
longtime European resident.

Penthouse jumped the
Atlantic from England in 1969

with a promotion aimed
directly at Playboy.

The Penthouse Pet of the Year

is Guccione's version of
Hefner's Playmate of the Year.

Guccione has dreams of an
empire to surpass Hefner's.

And he's working at getting it.

[Hugh Hefner] But there was
one thing Penthouse offered

that Playboy never had.

[Patty Farmer] Penthouse
was showing pubic hair.

That had always been
the line of demarcation

that Hef and most men's
magazines would not cross

in order to avoid the risk

of obscenity charges by the government.

But then here came Penthouse.

[Hugh Hefner] Only six months earlier,

the U.S. Supreme Court made
a major ruling on obscenity,

stating that people could
view whatever they wished

in the privacy of their homes,

effectively loosening
obscenity standards in America.

By the early '70s, you
had porn chic magazines

that were, uh, a lot more
explicit than Playboy ever was.

And, of course, you had
hardcore pornography films

running in the neighborhood theaters.

We've come a long ways, baby.

[Hugh Hefner] The new
laws gave readers access

to a whole new world of explicit photos.

And Penthouse took full advantage.

[Hugh Hefner] The government came after
me with guns blazing for Mansfield,

but Penthouse shows
bush, and what? Nothing.

[Arthur Kretchmer]
Times have changed, Hef.

I wouldn't exactly
call it "showing bush."

It's just a glimpse of her pubic hair.

You know what I mean, Kretch.

You can't find a copy anywhere.

Is that true?

It's completely sold out.

The entire print run
was gone within the week.

Hef, a reporter from Time just called.

And?

They wanted to get your reaction.

To what?

To this.

[David Granger] You know,
it's completely natural

for the established brand
to be threatened by outsiders

that are willing to
be much more extreme.

Just like Esquire was
threatened by Playboy,

I'm sure Playboy had
to look at Penthouse

and decide whether or not it
was gonna go as far as Penthouse,

or whether it was good enough
to sort of stay the course.

[Hugh Hefner] Even with
the recent court rulings,

I still believed that our playmates

didn't need to show
everything to be sexy.

But Penthouse, riding the
wave of relaxed standards,

quickly began gaining ground on Playboy.

They doubled their
circulation from 235,000

to over half a million in just one year.

This was really difficult for Hefner

because he had spent his life...

his crusade was mainstreaming
middle class sexuality,

and so to remove
Playboy from that status

would have challenged everything
he had worked so hard for.

[Hugh Hefner] Penthouse had
become too big to ignore.

Playboy had started a sexual revolution,

but now we were being left behind.

[Arthur Kretchmer] Although
it is hard to conceive now,

the idea of the playmate
showing pubic hair

was a hard hurdle to overcome.

But the world recognized that
Penthouse was pushing Playboy,

so he went there.

[Hugh Hefner] Nine months after
Penthouse changed the game,

a new, more revealing
Playboy hit the shelves.

In the first issue of 1971,

Miss January, Liv Lindeland,

showed more than any
playmate had before.

And our readers approved...

pushing circulation to over
six million issues per month.

But competition from Penthouse

wasn't the only opposition
I faced that year.

[newscaster] The battle cry of
the women's liberation movement

rings out down New York's Fifth Avenue

as more than 10,000 militant feminists

stage a one-day strike for equal rights.

[Carrie Pitzulo] When the women's
movement really comes onto the scene

in the late '60's and early 1970s,

Playboy was a primary target.

Because feminists argued
that the centerfold images

were degrading to
women and objectifying.

And so, they really
criticized Hugh Hefner

as a purveyor of patriarchy and sexism

and the degradation of women.

[Hugh Hefner] Now, there had
always been groups of women

who disliked Playboy.

But back in the early
days of the magazine,

they were mostly
conservative, religious types.

I knew this was different.

Join us now!

Sisterhood is powerful, join us now!

[Hugh Hefner] The 1960s had given
rise to a second wave of feminism.

While their predecessors
had fought for things

like the right to vote,

these women were fighting
for access to birth control,

abortion and equal rights.

It's equal rights to have
a job, to have respect,

to not be viewed as a piece of meat.

We just want what men
have had all these years

[Hugh Hefner] Led by women
including Betty Friedan...

This will continue as
a political coalition

to achieve the unfinished revolution,

to win the unfinished
revolution of women's equality.

[Hugh Hefner] ... Bella Abzug...

We proclaim that we talk
about free abortion on demand,

we need to have it now!

[Hugh Hefner] ... and Gloria Steinem.

Now, thanks to the spirit
of equality in the air

and to the work of many of
my more foresighted sisters,

I no longer accept society's judgment

that my group is second class.

[Hugh Hefner] Steinem had been a
harsh critic of Playboy for many years.

In 1963, she even went
undercover as a bunny

in our New York club...

giving herself a fake name...

and ultimately writing an
article about her experience

for Show magazine.

[Gloria Steinem] I exposed the
working conditions at the Playboy Club,

which were so horrendous.

If you can only get a job,
you know, in three-inch heels,

falling out of your
costume serving food,

you know, it's not...

I mean, men don't have to
fall out of their costumes

to serve food.

[Hugh Hefner] Her article
came out in May of 1963.

Needless to say, I didn't
agree with her evaluation.

She characterized the experience
as extremely degrading.

As extremely objectifying.

That instead of being
an exciting, adventurous,

well-paying job for young
women in cities like New York,

she said that this was actually
intense labor, exploitation,

and a really sexist place

that was just using women
further for the benefit of men.

[Hugh Hefner] I hadn't paid much
attention to the article at the time,

but now the feminist
movement had made Playboy

one of its main targets,
and I knew I had to respond.

I truly believed
Playboy and the feminists

were on the same side,

and I felt the best
way to explain myself

was to speak with Steinem face to face.

So what men do you admire? And why?

Well, I've always admired
Jack and Robert Kennedy.

How about women? What
women do you admire?

Margaret Mead, very much.

Uh, uh, uh...

I can't remember her name
off the top of my head,

but the head of SIECUS.

Mary Calderone.

Mary Calderone, yes. Very much so.

[Hugh Hefner] The interview
got off to a rough start

and it only went downhill from there.

What I don't understand is why
feminists don't appreciate us,

appreciate the Playboy philosophy.

I never picked them
out as special enemies.

They chose me first.

But don't you understand that
you have made women objects?

It's as if we're put on a meat hook.

And, according to Playboy philosophy,

women are useless with age.

Now, wait a second, now, I'm
all for women's right to vote,

to own property, all of that.

What I'm saying is that I think
women can be attractive to men.

And I think men should
be attractive to women,

but I wouldn't rest their
entire identity on it.

Let's take a different tact.

If you had one thing to say to
the women readers of McCall's,

what would it be?

Buy Playboy.

That's your whole message?

That's it.

All right, thank you very much, Gloria.

Now, if you'll excuse me.

[Hugh Hefner] Steinem had
recorded our discussion

for the October issue
of McCall's magazine.

And when the issue hit newsstands,

it was clear that I hadn't made my point

as effectively as I thought.

[Arthur Kretchmer] The women's
movement attacking the magazine

certainly caught him up short.

He thought he was doing
a great job for women.

Saying that good girls like sex,

saying that women should have
charge of their own sex lives.

Being in favor of abortion,
placing women in jobs.

[Cooper Hefner] My dad
was carving out a road

for men and women to say we like sex.

And he was doing it from
the male point of view.

Gloria Steinem was saying,

there really aren't a whole
lot of opportunities out there

that allow women to pursue a career

that doesn't involve
objectifying one's self.

And that point was fair
to make. Because it's true.

[Hugh Hefner] While I had tried to
smooth over Playboy's relationship

with the movement,

it seemed I had just
made the situation worse.

But I was determined to prove
that Playboy was not sexist,

so I decided to try again.

And this time, I wanted
to do it in prime time.

[announcer] The Dick Cavett Show!

With Hugh Hefner, Jefferson Airplane...

[Hugh Hefner] At that time,

The Dick Cavett Show had been
on the air for about two years.

They had a huge audience

and Cavett regularly brought on guests

who had something to say.

My next guest has created an empire.

In fact, The London Times said
they always refer to Hefner

as on of the great empire builders

and they said that he
is as well known a symbol

of American life as Coca-Cola.

Will you welcome Mr. Hugh Hefner.

[music and applause]

[Hugh Hefner] So when he
asked me to come on his show

with two prominent feminists,
I didn't hesitate for a second.

It looks like a show

that was probably
contrived for controversy.

Will you welcome Susan
Brownmiller and Sally Kempton.

And the show went on from there.

[Susan Brownmiller]
They oppress us as women.

They benefit from oppressing
women, they really do.

Hefner has built an empire
based on oppressing women.

[applause]

Have you had this
reaction before tonight?

- Yes. Can I respond just a little bit?
- All right.

I think that women, over
generations and centuries,

have indeed been oppressed.

I think there's no question about it.

I think there are still
many areas in society

in which they do not have
equal job opportunity.

But I take issue and separate

in this one rather fundamental area.

I think whether you are a male or female

is the beginning of who
you are as a human being.

I think that it's important

and I think that it is
important emotionally

as well as physically.

I think there are differences

and I think there should
continue to be differences.

Would you like to respond, Susan?

I certainly would.

The role that you have selected
for women is degrading to women

because you choose to
see women as sex objects,

not as full human beings.

Well, it obviously isn't degrading...

Hold on now. The day that...

It obviously isn't
degrading to a lot of women.

I want to say... I haven't finished.

The day that you are willing to
come out here with a cottontail

attached to your rear end...

[applause]

You make them look like animals, yes.

Women aren't bunnies.

They're not rabbits,
they're human beings.

[applause]

We have to pause. We'll
be back in a moment.

I don't know if Hefner
expected quite as much assault

as he was in for when he came on.

But it made for lively television.

I loved it.

[Hugh Hefner] I was starting to realize

this was a conflict
I wasn't going to win.

Hugh Hefner is my enemy.

[Christie Hefner] I do think Hef
was surprised at the harsh critique

in the feminist movement of Playboy.

He felt, quite justifiably,

that he'd been an ally in
a lot of political battles.

But I think he didn't understand
that there was an element

of the feminist movement
grappling with sexual imagery,

and that part of the women's movement

was not gonna be happy with Playboy.

[Hugh Hefner] As frustrated
as I was with these attacks,

I'd soon have to turn my attention

to a battle I could fight...

as Penthouse was about to
push the envelope again.

Forcing us to question how
far Playboy was willing to go.

[woman]
Every little movement

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