Original subtitles

- 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.

I just sit here every day

Wondering what you have to say

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

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] 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.

I got a song that ain't got no melody

[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.

Will it go 'round in circles?

Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?

[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.

I got a story that ain't got no moral

[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."

Ba da ba ba ba ba

Ba ba ba ba ba

Baa, la la ba ba ba

I remember Sunday morning

[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.

I remember Sunday morning

I would meet him at the park

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.

Sunday will never be the same

I lost my baby's heart

I must be back again

[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.

When I loved you so

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.

It's an ill wind

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

Everywhere we went, it was an adventure.

... love like I know it should

And I say it's a good thing

To love someone

[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.

Ooh, ooh, yeah

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.

You ought to hear the monkey when he sings the blues

Monkey, oh yeah, monkey, oh yeah

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.

I had a girl, she was my queen

She didn't love me like I loved her

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.

Somebody tell me what I've done wrong

[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.

I don't know why

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

Things look bad from over here

[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.

Get out of the way

I ain't got much time

[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.

Yellow diamond in the sky

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.

Sometimes it seems so heavy

[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.

Yeah yeah yeah

[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.

Just flew in, yeah

[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.

Your heart's gonna melt ya

[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

Who knows where the time goes

[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.

If I could show you, Robin, girl, you'd know...

[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.

If I could show you, Robin

[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.

I was weak, I thought that it would always last

[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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