Word: hefners
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Gist: Any man who boasts a troika of girlfriends five decades his junior, pops Viagra like Pez and considers smoking jackets formalwear is bound to be divisive. But whether you consider Hugh Hefner a smut-peddler or a "prophet of pop hedonism"-TIME's phrasing in 1967-you can't deny the guy his place in the American canon. And in Mr. Playboy, biographer Steven Watts argues that Hef's influence extends well beyond the bedroom. By framing sex as an All-American aspiration-as worthy a pursuit as good wine or flashy cars-the famous free-love evangelist scrambled...
...Highlight Reel: 1. Hefner was reared in an Illinois household that avoided displays of affection, and he's often traced his turbo-charged sexuality to this repressive upbringing. As a child he was a loner, refusing to answer the telephone or make short trips by himself. Though an indifferent student, he flashed a glimpse of his entrepreneurial spirit early on by writing, illustrating and selling mini-newspapers and magazines at school and in his neighborhood...
...Hefner's first real high-school love interest spurned him. "He saw [Betty Conklin] as the ultimate coed and they learned to jitterbug together, but when school started, she invited someone else to the hayride," Watts writes. Suffice it to say that the jilted lothario-to-be rebounded. Hef's fixation with sex sharpened after Alfred Kinsey released his famous 1948 study. The following year, he married his high-school sweetheart, Millie Williams. But he soon began bristling at the constraints of monogamy. Risque parties quickly gave way to experiments like wife-swapping (with his brother!) and even...
...Hefner considered Playboy (which would have been called Stag Party if not for a copyright snafu) a liberating force for both sexes. But naturally, some women questioned whether swapping aprons for lingerie constituted a net gain. After some 300 protestors organized by a Chicago women's group picketed the Playboy mansion in 1970, a female secretary leaked to the press a memo that underscored Hef's antipathy toward "militant feminists": "What I'm interested in is the highly irrational, emotional, kookie [sic] trend that feminism has taken...these chicks are our natural enemy. It is time to do battle with...
...Puritan roots are deep," Hef told TIME. "We're fascinated by sex and afraid of it." Hefner didn't seem skittish; he indulged in it at every chance he got. Life at the mansion was lavish and lascivious-a Puritan's ninth circle of hell. Strolling grounds populated with imported squirrel monkeys, flamingos and llamas, dotted with waterfalls and full of celebrities, Peter O'Toole said: "This is the way God would have done it if he had the money." Adds a guest: "It was like going to some infant's paradise, where you could eat all the candy...