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Paperback
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN13: 9780470521670
Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
Notes:
The real Hugh Hefner-the extraordinary inside story of an American icon "Riveting... Watts packs in plenty of gasp-inducing passages."-Newark Star Ledger "Like it or not, Hugh Hefner has affected all of us, so I treasured learning about how and why in the sober biography."-Chicago Sun Times "This is a fun book. How could it not be? Watts aims to give a full account of the man, his magazine and their place in social history. Playboy is no longer the cultural force it used to be, but it made a stamp on society."-Associated Press "In Steven Watts' exhaustive, illuminating biography Mr. Playboy, Hefner's ideal for living -- marked by his allegiances to Tarzan, Freud, Pepsi-Cola and jazz -- proves to be a kind of gloss on the Protestant work ethic."-Los Angeles Times Gorgeous young women in revealing poses; extravagant mansion parties packed with celebrities; a hot-tub grotto, elegant smoking jackets, and round rotating beds; the hedonistic pursuit of uninhibited sex. Put these images together and a single name springs to mind-Hugh Hefner. From his spectacular launch of Playboy magazine and the dizzying expansion of his leisure empire to his recent television hit The Girls Next Door, the publisher has attracted public attention and controversy for decades. But how did a man who is at once socially astute and morally unconventional, part Bill Gates and part Casanova, also evolve into a figure at the forefront of cultural change? In Mr. Playboy, historian and biographer Steven Watts argues that, in the process of becoming fabulously wealthy and famous, Hefner has profoundly altered American life and values. Granted unprecedented access to the man and his enterprise, Watts traces Hef's life and career from his midwestern, Methodist upbringing and the first publication of Playboy in 1953 through the turbulent sixties, self-indulgent seventies, reactionary eighties, and traditionalist nineties, up to the present. He reveals that Hefner, from the beginning, believed he could overturn social norms and take America with him. This fascinating portrait illustrates four ways in which Hefner and Playboy stood at the center of several cultural upheavals that remade the postwar United States. The publisher played a crucial role in the sexual revolution that upended traditional notions of behavior and expectation regarding sex. He emerged as one of the most influential advocates of a rapidly developing consumer culture, flooding Playboy readers with images of material abundance and a leisurely lifestyle. He proved instrumental-with his influential magazine, syndicated television shows, fashionable nightclubs, swanky resorts, and movie and musical projects-in making popular culture into a dominant force in many people's lives. Ironically, Hefner also became a controversial force in the movement for women's rights. Although advocating women's sexual freedom and their liberation from traditional family constraints, the publisher became a whipping boy for feminists who viewed him as a prophet for a new kind of male domination. Throughout, Watts offers singular insights into the real man behind the flamboyant public persona. He shows Hefner's personal dichotomies-the pleasure seeker and the workaholic, the consort of countless Playmates and the genuine romantic, the family man and the Gatsby-like host of lavish parties at his Chicago and Los Angeles mansions who enjoys well-publicized affairs with numerous Playmates, the fan of life's simple pleasures who hobnobs with the Hollywood elite. Punctuated throughout with descriptions and anecdotes of life at the Playboy Mansions, Mr. Playboy tells the compelling and uniquely American story of how one person with a provocative idea, a finger on the pulse of popular opinion, and a passion for his work altered the course of modern history. - Spans from Hefner's childhood to the launch of Playboy magazine and the expansion of the Playboy empire to the present
- Puts Hefner's life and work into the cultural context of American life from the mid-twentieth-century onwards
- Contains over 50 B/W and color photos, including an actual fold-out centerfold
Amazon Exclusive: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Hugh Hefner and the Playboy Mansion
1. He has been keeping an exhaustive “scrapbook” of his life since adolescence, which now consists of over 1800 volumes and takes up much of the third floor of the Mansion.
2. His favorite weekly event is Monday’s “Manly Night,” a gathering of longstanding male friends for an evening devoted to eating, trading friendly insults and stories, and watching old films.
3. Hefner became obsessed with backgammon in the 1970s, playing in tournaments at the Mansion that attracted world-class players and lasted for hours, sometimes days.
4. He was deeply traumatized during his college days when his fiancé confessed that she was involved in a sexual affair.
5. He nearly choked to death in the late 1970s after ingesting a small sex toy during a raucous lovemaking session with his girlfriend. She dislodged it with the Heimlich maneuver.
6. Hefner was a strong backer of the civil rights movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s, contributing money and booking African American entertainers for his television show and the Playboy Clubs.
7. The Mansion library still prominently displays a large ceramic bust of Barbi Benton, Hefner’s girlfriend from the late 1960s and early 1970s.
8. The Mansion staff is inundated with requests for invitations to Hefner’s big parties. Some are from celebrities who want to bring their friends, and many are from young women who send photos of themselves in skimpy clothing and provocative poses. Nearly all are turned down.
9. Every bathroom at the Mansion is equipped with a bottle of baby oil, bottle of aspirin, and Jergens cherry-almond skin lotion. During big parties, many of them also have bowls filled with condoms.
10. Hefner has all of his meals brought to him in his bedroom suite at the Mansion. Even when the Mansion is filled with dozens of guests enjoying an elegant buffet meal for movie nights on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, he eats in his room before joining the crowd.
| Customer Reviews: |
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| How you write an uninteresting book about a very interesting man? |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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Ever wanted to take a fascinating subject and make it a bore, but didn't know how? Watts shows you how. Hugh Hefner's life has always fascinated me. I can't imagine anyone not being interesting in him male or female. When I saw a dozen of these books at a bookstore on clearance, that should have been a tip off to what I was getting into. However, I choose to buy it anyway because, considering how interesting Hugh's life is, how can you mess this up? This book was written using 2 things. #1: Assumptions and guesses of what Hugh was thinking. Then ramble on for several pages about said guesses. It becomes very evident early on that the author at no time interviewed or spoke to Hef when writing this Biography. Why would he? He had #2. #2: Pepper the book with quotes from hundreds of other articles and books that others got from Hef. No need to interview Hef right? You can just read an interview Rolling Stones magazine and the others did with him, snatch the quotes and stuff them in your book. Then revert back to #1 and begin assuming and guessing. Throw in some filler composed of uninteresting and irrelevant details and bam, you've got a book.
I wanted to hear about Hef's hardship starting the magazine. Instead, I got several pages of how the Kinsey Report MAY have had some dramatic impact on Hef's life. This very important aspect of his life is glossed over with basic facts surrounded by more theories. The whole starting the magazine is pretty much covered in 3 or 4 pages when you really break it down. Most of the book should have been the early years, but instead we get assumptions and theories on why Hef is the way he is. If you are still thinking of buying this book after these low star reviews, simply take the money you plan on using to buy it, flush it down the toilet, and you will have accomplished your goal. If you are concerned about the hours upon hours of reading this uninteresting drivel about a fascinating man that you had planned on wasting, then purchase some paint, apply to a wall, then assume an uncomfortable position and watch it dry. Rinse and repeat.
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| Great fun. |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I was so thoroughly taken with this book. Hef is a very very interesting and unique character in my opinion. If you choose to read this book, I think you'll find it takes much more of a historical perspective on the influence of Hef and Playboy. The author mentions occasionally the mix ups Hef would get into.. but the sex mishaps are light and the focus is on the history of the man. It's unlikely this book will disappoint.
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| One Type of American Dream |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I found this a compelling biography as well as a sociological and psychological treatise. In paralleling the life of Hefner and Playboy Enterprises, Watts gives us a tour of five decades where the "American Dream" became essentially synonymous with consumer culture. The psychological sequelae are treated fairly without the hysterical screeching usually heard from the so-called conservative right or the pandering platitudes of the blathering left. Whatever you think of Hefner, he is certainly a person who has lived an amazing life as promoter of sensual pleasure, civil libertarian, and cultural trend-setter.
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| Mildly entertaining...a bit dull |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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I could have used more fact and less guessing about what goes on inside Hefner's head, as if anyone could really know. A better history of his life can be found inside Gay Talese's book "Thy Neighbor's Wife" which is a great read. Find a copy of that and stay away from this one.
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| Disappointing.....boring! |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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This book is SO BORING. The author writes the same stuff over, over and over again. The book could be 1/2 the size it is. I'm getting to the last chapters and finally it is getting a bit more interesting. I won't recommend this book to anyone.
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