Hugh Hefner The Founder Of Playboy Has Died At Age 91
Hugh M. Hefner
American Icon and Playboy Founder  Hugh M. Hefner  passed away today.  He  was 91. #RIPHef
Born in Chicago   Hefner  served in the military and worked in journalism before founding Playboy  at age 27  with a small loan. The first issue featured Marilyn Monroe in the centerfold  with images taken for a nude calendar four years earlier  before she became famous. In 2011   Hefner  bought the crypt next to Monroe at the West Hollywood Cemetery  though the two never met.
"You know I'm a sucker for blondes  and  she  is the ultimate blonde " he told CBS2  calling Monroe "the definitive sex icon of our time."
 Hefner 's magazine began publishing its now-iconic centerfold in 1955 — a two-page spread with a titillating photo of a woman. As the magazine took off in the '50s   Hefner  shed a marriage to  his  former classmate Mildred Williams and embraced the sybaritic life depicted on those glossy pages. In 1962  the magazine introduced the "Playboy Interview " which was lauded for its great writing  starting a long-running joke that people read the magazine for the articles  rather than the pictures.  Hefner  also hosted television shows related to the brand  including Playboy's Penthouse in 1959 and Playboy After Dark in 1969.
 Hefner  was married three times  and while  he  himself grew older  his bride was always twentysomething as  she  walked down the aisle. Hailing from a Methodist family in the Midwest   he  styled  himself  as someone who transcended the sexual puritanism endemic in the United States  despite  his  carefully tailored embodiment of an old-fashioned form of masculinity.  He  read Alfred Kinsey's research enthusiastically and experimented with bisexuality in the 1950s;  he  claimed to be a proponent and an instigator of the "sexual revolution"; and yet  he  acknowledged in  his  autobiography that Playboy was "a romantic reflection of earlier times." Although the Playboy fantasy was inherently conservative  the philanthropic Playboy Foundation was a financial supporter of the fight for abortion rights. "Women were the major beneficiary of the sexual revolution "  Hefner  said in Esquire in 2007. "Unfortunately  within feminism  there has been a puritan  prohibitionist element that is antisexual." In the same piece   Hefner  called himself a feminist. Playboy's circulation peaked at 7 million in the '70s  around the time  Hefner  moved from Chicago to the storied Playboy Mansion  where he continued to live and work for the rest of his life.  His company  took a dive in the 1980s  when many of the Playboy Clubs were shuttered  and again in the 1990s  with the rise of easily accessible internet porn  which made his pornographic magazine seem irrelevant. In 2015  the magazine abruptly announced that it would stop publishing nude photos  although it reversed that decision earlier this year. Hefner and a collection of his live-in girlfriends also managed to reach a new audience  starring in an E! reality TV series called The Girls Next Door from 2005 to 2010. He married one of those girlfriends  Crystal Harris  in 2012. It was at this time that he also announced his youngest son  Cooper  would take over Playboy Enterprises.
 Hefner  is survived by  his  wife  Crystal Harris;  his  three sons  David  Marston  and Cooper Hefner; and a daughter  Christie Hefner.
American Icon and Playboy Founder  [TGT]passed away today.  [TGT]  was 91. #RIPHef
Born in Chicago   Hefner  served in the military and worked in journalism before founding Playboy  at age 27  with a small loan. The first issue featured Marilyn Monroe in the centerfold  with images taken for a nude calendar four years earlier  before she became famous. In 2011   [TGT]bought the crypt next to Monroe at the West Hollywood Cemetery  though the two never met.
"You know I'm a sucker for blondes  and  she  is the ultimate blonde " he told CBS2  calling Monroe "the definitive sex icon of our time."
 Hefner 's magazine began publishing its now-iconic centerfold in 1955 — a two-page spread with a titillating photo of a woman. As the magazine took off in the '50s   Hefner  shed a marriage to  his  former classmate Mildred Williams and embraced the sybaritic life depicted on those glossy pages. In 1962  the magazine introduced the "Playboy Interview " which was lauded for its great writing  starting a long-running joke that people read the magazine for the articles  rather than the pictures.  [TGT]also hosted television shows related to the brand  including Playboy's Penthouse in 1959 and Playboy After Dark in 1969.
 [TGT]was married three times  and while  [TGT]  himself grew older  [TGT] bride was always twentysomething as  [TGT]  walked down the aisle. Hailing from a Methodist family in the Midwest   he  styled  himself  as someone who transcended the sexual puritanism endemic in the United States  despite  his  carefully tailored embodiment of an old-fashioned form of masculinity.  He  read Alfred Kinsey's research enthusiastically and experimented with bisexuality in the 1950s;  he  claimed to be a proponent and an instigator of the "sexual revolution"; and yet  he  acknowledged in  his  autobiography that Playboy was "a romantic reflection of earlier times." Although the Playboy fantasy was inherently conservative  the philanthropic Playboy Foundation was a financial supporter of the fight for abortion rights. "Women were the major beneficiary of the sexual revolution "  Hefner  said in Esquire in 2007. "Unfortunately  within feminism  there has been a puritan  prohibitionist element that is antisexual." In the same piece   Hefner  called himself a feminist. Playboy's circulation peaked at 7 million in the '70s  around the time  Hefner  moved from Chicago to the storied Playboy Mansion  where he continued to live and work for the rest of his life.  His company  took a dive in the 1980s  when many of the Playboy Clubs were shuttered  and again in the 1990s  with the rise of easily accessible internet porn  which made his pornographic magazine seem irrelevant. In 2015  the magazine abruptly announced that it would stop publishing nude photos  although it reversed that decision earlier this year. Hefner and a collection of his live-in girlfriends also managed to reach a new audience  starring in an E! reality TV series called The Girls Next Door from 2005 to 2010. He married one of those girlfriends  Crystal Harris  in 2012. It was at this time that he also announced his youngest son  Cooper  would take over Playboy Enterprises.
 Hefner  is survived by  his  wife  Crystal Harris;  his  three sons  David  Marston  and Cooper Hefner; and a daughter  Christie Hefner.