American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story (2017) s01e10 Episode Script
My Way
1 [announcer.]
Hugh Hefner invites you to Playboy's roller disco and pajama party! Let your body go You know you can do it Like eenie meenie meinie mo There's really nothing to it You can do it [Hugh Hefner.]
The 1970s had been a whirlwind.
Do it, just go ahead and do your dance [Hugh Hefner.]
By the end of the decade, Playboy operated over 30 properties in six countries across the world.
Just go ahead and do your dance Get up and do your thing [Hugh Hefner.]
And with the center of the Playboy empire now in Los Angeles, we were throwing more parties than ever.
Get up and do your thing [Hugh Hefner.]
As we moved into the 1980s, there was even more excitement to look forward to.
Space Shuttle Columbia became the first mission of the long-awaited space shuttle program.
[announcer.]
And liftoff.
[Hugh Hefner.]
And the world of television was forever changed with the introduction of MTV.
As for Playboy, after a rough patch in the '70s, when circulation numbers were down and ad revenues declined, we still had a steady readership of 4.
5 million people each month.
Our first London Playboy Club was so popular that we'd opened four more casinos across England.
Playboy's gambling turnover in this country amounts, in the past five years, to something over £660 million, a great proportion of Playboy's profits.
[Hugh Hefner.]
And no one was enjoying our success more than the man running our UK operation, Victor Lownes.
I'm a man I'm a goddess I'm a man [journalist.]
What's you're salary now? Oh, about £300,000 a year.
It's quite high.
[Hugh Hefner.]
After a decade in England, Victor even had his own 42-room mansion that he shared with Playmate-turned- girlfriend Marilyn Cole, and the two were fitting right in with London's high society.
[James Karmel.]
Victor Lownes has a lot of charisma.
He was riding horses with Prince Charles and going on foxhunts with the English aristocracy.
[Hugh Hefner.]
With his casinos outperforming longtime British gambling companies, it seemed like nothing could stop Victor and the UK operation's success.
[Victor Lownes.]
Yes, it's a very profitable operation.
I've had many days here when we've won as much money as we've paid for the place.
[Hugh Hefner.]
But we were about to find out that being the biggest game in town also made you the biggest target.
[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.]
For nearly 15 years, the Playboy operation in England achieved unparalleled success but all that changed on February 20th, 1981.
[reporter.]
Playboy are accused of violating the gaming laws.
Police raided its Park Lane offices.
The description by the Westminster magistrates, Playboy is not fit and proper to run a casino operation.
[Hugh Hefner.]
The London police staged a simultaneous raid on all of our casinos.
Turns out, our success was not sitting well with some of our competitors.
They began making claims of illegal operations at our London club, prompting charges that we'd violated a number of English gaming laws.
Our staff was interrogated, boxes of files were seized, all in an effort to dig up dirt on our operations.
[Karmel.]
Other casinos were under scrutiny and eventually, so was Playboy.
Playboy was accused of some improprieties.
It's questionable whether that was actually happening.
Lownes claimed they were not.
Lownes had always wanted his clubs to be a model of integrity.
Today is not the end of Playboy, but it could well be the beginning of the end.
[Derick Daniels.]
The casinos were raided.
Employees questioned.
Files seized.
When did this happen? Yesterday.
I don't understand.
Well, I don't have specifics yet, but from what I'm hearing, the allegations are serious, like enough to lose us our gaming licenses.
What? Holy shit.
Exactly.
No.
There is no way Victor is involved in anything illegal.
Hef, I appreciate your loyalty, but until we have the facts What did he say? I haven't heard from him.
A friend of mine from The London Times called me.
Apparently, it's all over the newspapers.
The first thing he should have done was call me, but King Victor answers to no one, and now we have a goddamn shit storm on our hands.
He will answer to me.
Forget the phone.
Get him here.
Now.
My pleasure.
[Christie Hefner.]
Because of the structure of the British oversight and to some extent because Victor liked to keep information close to the vest, the American executives were less aware of the details of the business than they might have liked.
[Hugh Hefner.]
I'd given Vic a lot of freedom to run the London operation and I'd always trusted his decisions, but with the London casino responsible for 85% of our profits, we needed to resolve this issue as quickly as possible, especially with a whole new gambling operation starting up in Atlantic City.
[Harry.]
Ethel, there's something out there in the water.
[Ethel.]
Harry, there's nothing out there.
Then what's rising out of the sea, huh? Oh, that! That's the new Playboy Hotel and Casino.
What? Oh, Harry, it's the dawn of a new era for the Playboy Hotel and Casino, with their fantastic, new salon privé.
They wait on you hand and foot.
Ethel, why is it rising out of the sea? Oh, Harry, it's show business.
[announcer.]
The new, very civilized, Playboy Hotel and Casino.
[reporter.]
Atlantic City is already a new gambling mecca, America's new Las Vegas.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Three years earlier, Victor had begun construction on a state-of-the-art casino in Atlantic City.
[reporter.]
Despite the legal wrangle in London, the Playboy Club is alive and profitable in Atlantic City.
[Hugh Hefner.]
We had invested $30 million in the project, and after obtaining a temporary operating permit, the Playboy Hotel and Casino was open for business while we awaited final approval from the gaming commission.
Oh Do you want to dance? [Karmel.]
Atlantic City was a great opportunity to import Playboy style and glamour into the casino business, which is something that they had successfully been able to accomplish in London.
That was a formula for success.
[Hugh Hefner.]
With so much riding on our new casino in Atlantic City, I needed to feel confident that the situation in London was under control.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Vic, I'm so sorry to keep you waiting.
[Victor Lownes.]
Oh, no problem, buddy.
Where's Daniels? Getting the noose ready somewhere? This isn't about your issues with Derick.
I don't have issues with Derick.
I have an issue.
He wants my job.
He is the president of the company.
And I answer to the real boss.
Okay, then.
Answer to me.
Tell me what the hell is going on.
Nothing.
Nothing.
[sighing.]
That's not gonna cut it, Victor.
Well, nothing of consequence.
I would call losing the licenses a pretty stiff consequence.
We are not gonna lose the licenses.
That is not what Derick says.
Fuck Daniels.
He doesn't know the first thing about what happened, Hef.
Okay, those raids were staged based on evidence provided by a crooked competitor's paid informants.
Look, it's a speed bump, and when we're past it, it's not just gonna be business as usual.
It'll be bigger business.
In fact, I already have my eye on two new locations.
Okay, okay.
Let's worry about the licenses before we discuss expansion.
Hey, you can worry about the licenses if you want, but there is nothing there.
[sighing.]
We've been through a lot together, Vic.
Yeah, we have.
Don't let this thing be the last.
I promise you it won't.
[Patty Farmer.]
Derick Daniels had never gotten along with Victor.
They always clashed heads, and it was often said it was a wonderful thing that an ocean separated them.
It was a definite clash of personalities but also vying for the attention of Hef.
[Hugh Hefner.]
It didn't matter whether or not I believed Vic.
The problems in London were under his watch, and now the entire company was at risk.
For Daniels, there was only one solution.
Derick wanted to fire Victor and Hef had a problem with it.
And then, we were told by our British attorney that if Victor were terminated, we may well keep our license.
This was a moment of truth for the company.
Our profits were coming from the UK.
Hefner had a fiduciary responsibility as the CEO of the company to not only protect the shareholders but his investment and the future of the company.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Victor and I had been close friends for over 30 years and there were few people I respected more, but with the future of the London casino on the line, I had no choice but to make one of the hardest decisions of my career.
[line ringing.]
Yes.
Can you put me through to Derick Daniels, please? Victor! A pleasure to see you, as always.
Likewise.
Especially unannounced.
This is my club.
It's the company's club.
And I run the company.
Really? I'm sure Hef would be very keen to hear that.
Oh, Hef sent me.
We'd like you to step down.
Step down? Mm-hmm.
This will send a message to the gaming commission that we are serious about cleaning up corruption.
There is no corruption, which I will prove at the hearing.
But if you fire me, you're basically admitting to it.
The decision has been made.
I knew we had trouble.
First trouble we'd had in 15 years of operation in England, and I was prepared to do battle with them.
Unfortunately, I think they stampeded Hefner into panicking when we ran into difficulties in England and made it a first order of business to, uh, terminate me.
[Marilyn Cole.]
Playboy in London, that was Victor's baby.
It was all very, very dramatic, and Victor was devastated in every which way, and he was devastated for Playboy.
[reporter.]
After the police raid, he was suddenly and unexpectedly fired by his American headquarters.
Victor Lownes, now the interested spectator, has not been asked to give evidence.
The sacking of you by the men from Chicago Yes.
would seem to be a rather clumsy way of saying to the gaming board and the law Yes.
we are now clean again.
We've got rid of the number one culprit.
Give us a chance.
Do you think that's the strategy? If I were the number one saint, it'd still be the strategy, yes.
I mean, uh, regardless And I do feel that I did nothing wrong during my administration.
[Cole.]
For Victor to be fired from Playboy, it was the biggest personal tragedy as well as business tragedy for both Hef and Victor.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Looking back now, I wish I'd handled things differently.
Victor and I had been through so much together and I didn't even say goodbye.
But what made it even worse is that it was all for nothing.
The licensing magistrates, four women and a man, issued their verdict.
Very simply, they said that Playboy was not fit and proper to hold a gaming license and that the clubs had been used for unlawful purposes.
[Hugh Hefner.]
The London Playboy Club was still denied its gambling license.
[Karmel.]
What Hugh Hefner and Derrick Daniels, I don't think, grasped was, Victor Lownes actually was still seen with a lot of prestige and still had a big influence in the UK gaming industry and still knew what he was doing.
He understood what was going on in the UK much more than anyone, and so, by getting rid of him, you're essentially removing an asset from your company and an asset that very well might have been able to guide Playboy through the investigation without having to lose its casino licenses.
[Hugh Hefner.]
With the loss of our gambling license, we had to sell off all of our London assets, taking a huge financial hit, but it turned out, we had even more problems in Atlantic City.
The applicant failed the test that each of us is required to pass in the conduct of our affairs.
This applicant has not met its burden to establish by clear and convincing evidence its qualifications to hold a casino license.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Investigators had looked through all of Playboy's past business operations and dug up mistakes we'd made in the past.
[Karmel.]
The Casino Control Commission comes out with a report detailing all these issues with Playboy's permanent casino application.
The vote went against Hefner because of his part in bribing New York officials to obtain a liquor license 20 years ago.
[Karmel.]
They go back 20-plus years.
They look at anything and everything connected to Hugh Hefner and the fact that the British Gaming Board has just decided to yank Playboy's casino licenses, so Playboy loses its bid for a permanent license by a three-to-two vote.
Licensing Playboy, with its history, would signal the abandonment of virtually all licensing criteria requiring ethical restraint.
If the unethical practices and illegal acts of corporations are not checked, the future of a kind, free casino industry in Atlantic City would be in jeopardy.
[Hugh Hefner.]
The verdict was a major blow to our business, but I knew I had to put on a brave face to maintain our reputation.
We are a sound, broadly-based company, and we'll not only survive, but we'll do very well with or without gaming.
[Hugh Hefner.]
But after losing both the London casino operations and now the investment in Atlantic City, the future of the company was in jeopardy.
I know things look very dark right now, but this is fixable.
Is it? Yeah, of course.
But you had to think about it.
Oh, come on, Hef.
We just lost almost $200 million.
Yes, yes, I'm well aware how much money How does that not put us on the brink of extinction? [Hugh Hefner.]
With Playboy's reputation at an all-time low, I knew we needed to make a major change at the company if we were going to get back on track, and it was clear that Daniels wasn't cutting it, so I decided it was time to put someone else in charge.
A couple of people in the news tonight.
Playboy Enterprises has a new president.
She's not a former centerfold.
She's Christie Hefner.
Christie, pretty enough to be a centerfold herself, will bring a new image and new zest to Playboy.
[Richard Rosenzweig.]
A moment of truth came that things were not working well with Derick Daniels.
Hefner said, well, so now what am I gonna do? We both agreed that Christie would be an appropriate CEO.
Yo, pretty ladies around the world She says she must now make Playboy a clearly focused communications company instead of a corporation that is broadly based and I'm sure she intended no pun.
We're about to go down [Hugh Hefner.]
Christie was my oldest child with my first wife, Millie.
I hadn't been around much when she was growing up, but after she graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University in 1974, Christie came to work at Playboy in an entry-level position.
I only saw my father occasionally when I was growing up.
I think that what allowed us to get much closer was when I went to work in the company, and the outgrowth of that has been we're actually now very close.
Word no matter where you say it I joined the company not really expecting to stay more than a year or two, but I did get interested in the variety of businesses and the challenges and the people that it attracted, and as I stayed and worked in different parts of the company and learned more, I found it more and more intriguing.
That you're acting like fools [Rosenzweig.]
Christie was extremely bright.
She had a natural knack for organizational efforts.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Christie may have been my daughter, but she quickly carved a path all on her own within the company.
[Carrie Pitzulo.]
Christie really earned for herself a reputation as a very level-headed, smart businesswoman.
Her lifestyle and her image has been very different than her father's.
[Hugh Hefner.]
And by 1982, she had proven that she was more than capable of taking over the reigns of Playboy Enterprises.
I would like to introduce another Playboy executive who happens to be a woman, one of whom I'm rather proud because she's also my daughter, but I would be very proud of her if she weren't my daughter, Christie Hefner.
[cheers and applause.]
My being named president actually was well received, and I think that was because I'd been in the company for seven years.
People had seen me, seen my work ethic, seen how I handled myself.
Plus, I think the fact that I was Christie Hefner, I think people believed that I cared and that I cared about the long term.
There is a bright and shining star in the Hefner family that's on the ascendency.
An articulate, committed young woman.
And we are going to be hearing a great deal from her in the years to come.
Christie, we thank you very much for all that you're doing.
[applause.]
[Hugh Hefner.]
But while there was no better person for the job, Christie was inheriting a difficult situation.
They're calling it the end of an era, the victim of changing times.
Playboy has closed down its big city clubs in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Going into the middle of the decade, we were on the edge of bankruptcy.
[reporter.]
Playboy has lost millions of dollars in recent years, much of it because of the clubs.
Joe, that's the end of the "tail.
" Oh-ho-ho.
Very good, Bob.
[Hugh Hefner.]
With the company in crisis, Christie dove right into work.
When I took over as president, my goal was to save the company.
The first order of business was to stop the bleeding and so we sold the businesses that we didn't think we could make successes of, like the book business and the record business and the resorts.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Her efforts cut costs by $8 million per year.
Despite these measures, Playboy Enterprises still lost $17.
5 million in 1983.
Christie recognized that if we wanted to survive, we'd have to make some bigger moves.
The world was consuming media in new ways, and we needed to adapt to changing times.
VCRs were in almost every home across the country and over 30 million people had started paying for premium cable stations tailored to their interests.
Christie saw the chance to offer them a whole new Playboy experience.
[announcer.]
The Playboy Channel.
When you start talking about Playboy in combination with pay television, people's eyes light up, because it's about the hottest news in the business going right now.
[Christie Hefner.]
Cable TV created the opportunity for destination viewing and a great way of expanding the brand to women because the majority of viewing was done by couples.
Just the man I was looking for.
[David Eisenbach.]
Cable television was one of these great steps toward transforming and liberating the dissemination of information, and what this allowed for, you know, Hugh Hefner was now to have his own channel that he doesn't have to kind of filter himself and his message or his information, and this is, of course, a way to make a tremendous amount of money.
[cheers and applause.]
Hiya, Hef! [Hugh Hefner.]
Airing between 8 p.
m.
and 6 a.
m.
Eastern time, the Playboy TV Network became the country's leading channel for adult entertainment, and as the channel grew to more than 800,000 paying subscribers, it gave us a much needed boost in revenue.
With the channel proving to be a success, Christie turned to the magazine, taking inspiration from Playboy's very first issue.
[Christie Hefner.]
As there were more and more magazines proliferated from the time when Playboy started, it became increasingly important to be able to distinguish yourself on the newsstand to attract the interest of the buyer, and one clear way to do that was through celebrities.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Women like Vanna White graced the covers and helped us increase sales.
But in 1984, we were offered exclusive rights to nude photos of one celebrity who was sure to cause controversy.
A year earlier, 20-year-old Vanessa Williams had been crowned the first African-American Miss America, but it didn't take long for someone from her past to surface, looking to cash in on her celebrity.
Years ago, she'd posed nude, but was told the photos would only be used in silhouette.
Now the photographer was shopping around the full images.
Vanessa Williams' pictures were offered to the magazine, and there wasn't any question that there would be strong commercial appeal in this beautiful young woman who was the first African-American Miss America, but it was also quite obvious that these were not pictures that she had intended to have published.
Ain't no love In the heart of the city [Hugh Hefner.]
We knew that if Playboy ran those photos, she'd be forced to give up her crown.
[Hugh Hefner.]
It was not a difficult decision to make, that if we ran those pictures, we would destroy the career of the first black Miss America, and that was the opposite of the kind of statement we wanted to make.
Every place that I go [Hugh Hefner.]
Playboy rejected the photos.
But it seems so strange [Pat Lacey.]
You don't think he would have sold a lot of Playboy magazines? Most certainly! Very much could've brought those photographs and put them in a magazine.
What kind of man would want to give a young woman that kind of pain? [Hugh Hefner.]
But our longtime rival, Penthouse, published the photos in their September 1984 issue, and Williams was forced to resign.
[Vanessa Williams.]
Potential harm to the pageant and the deep division that a bitter fight may cause has convinced me that I must relinquish my title as Miss America.
[Hugh Hefner.]
It became the highest selling Penthouse issue ever, and for the first time in history, Penthouse sales beat ours by nearly one million copies.
But that success was short-lived, and soon Playboy was once again outselling Penthouse.
Although we had been through many struggles over the past few years, we never wavered in our commitment to covering issues that other publications thought were too controversial.
And, in the mid '80s, that issue was AIDS.
Scientists at the National Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta today released the results of a study which shows that the lifestyle of some male homosexuals has triggered an epidemic.
[Hugh Hefner.]
A strange, lethal, sexually transmitted disease with no cure.
It first appeared in the gay community of New York City and spread quickly.
When AIDS starts off, at least in the American mindset and in the media as a gay disease but suddenly then winds up also affecting straight people The sexual revolution is sex without consequences.
Now, suddenly, the consequences can be deadly, and this has a tremendous effect on my generation that grew up in the 1980s that suddenly, wait a second, this is something we need to be anxious about.
Money for AIDS, not for war! [Hugh Hefner.]
But the government and the national press largely ignored the crisis, believing the subject was too controversial.
The federal role must be to give educators accurate information about the disease.
Now, how that information is used must be up to schools and parents, not government.
[Hugh Hefner.]
But I was determined to make sure Playboy addressed the issue head on.
It used to be so easy To be your lover When the AIDS epidemic started, and then-President Reagan wouldn't even say the word, Playboy played, I think, an important role in educating people about how the disease was transmitted and wasn't transmitted.
Take it easy on me It should be easy to see [Hugh Hefner.]
Playboy ran dozens of articles addressing the AIDS crisis, along with interviews and any other formats we could think of to spread awareness.
Just want you to know When AIDS came along, it came with the frightening thought that everybody who engaged in sex with a stranger was going to get AIDS.
That was full of mythology.
I wrote a short editorial about AIDS.
We dealt with AIDS as scientifically as we could.
But whatever you do Take it easy on me [Hugh Hefner.]
Over the past three decades, Playboy had covered a wide range of controversial topics, and I was always proud of the work we did, but I was getting tired.
Christie had been at the helm for six years and proven she could run the company.
After 35 years, I decided, at age 62, that I needed to step back and settle down.
Though I'd shared my life with many incredible women over the years, I'd sworn that I would never marry again.
That is, until I met Kimberley Conrad.
[Rosenzweig.]
Kimberley Conrad came to us as a potential Playmate from a photographer in Vancouver.
Kimberley played hard to get, actually.
She was very attractive and a lot of fun.
[Hugh Hefner.]
I met Kimberley when she posed for our January 1988 Playmate of the month.
I had met many of our Playmates in the past, but there was something special about Kimberley.
She's just a fallen angel [Hugh Hefner.]
I felt an immediate sense of ease with her.
We're all fallen angels Hello.
This was our best Christmas ever.
It was.
[Hugh Hefner.]
It didn't take either of us long to realize that we were madly in love.
By February of that year, Kimberley had moved into the mansion.
From there, things moved quickly.
She's looking for the love that she's never had I know she's just a fallen angel [Hugh Hefner.]
Kimberly was named Playmate of the Year in June of 1989 Having been in, over the years, a number of romantic relationships, this is different.
[Wedding March playing.]
[Hugh Hefner.]
and became Kimberly Hefner in July.
This is probably as good a moment as any to thank all of you for sharing with us a rather unique evening.
[cheers and applause.]
One that you thought you'd never see.
[laughing.]
I think that meeting Kimberley is very much a matter of having met the right person in the right place at the right time.
I was ready for that kind of relationship, and she had the values that I was looking for, and she came to me at a time in which I was looking for a safe harbor after some very stormy seas.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Getting married was only the beginning.
Wait, I'm right here! Be careful! Don't drop it.
Look! Look! I think somebody's on his nap time.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Within a year, our happy family expanded when our son Marston was born.
It never really mattered too much to me Where are you going, little guy? [Hugh Hefner.]
And the year after that, his brother, Cooper.
[Rosenzweig.]
Hefner was not really a parent to his two children he had with his first wife, Millie, because he was busy with his business, with starting the magazine.
The two boys he had with Kimberley were doted on by Hefner.
In their very early years, they spent a lot of time at the mansion, playing with the animals and Hefner.
You're such a big guy.
Let me love you When my brother and I came along, my dad was older.
I think he, in his head, wanted to try being a parent, so, I mean, I saw him every single day.
He was much more hands on in the sense of being a father.
You ready to go? [Hugh Hefner.]
Almost overnight, the mansion went from the world's most famous bachelor pad to an island of domestic tranquility.
With my first marriage, I knew I hadn't always been the best husband or father, but having this second chance gave me a new lease on life.
It was truly one of my happiest times.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Not until the baby was born did I really realize what an impact it could have on my own life.
It should've been that way the first time, but, of course, I just wasn't there, emotionally or mentally.
And I think it's wonderful to have the chance to do it all right the second time.
I was busy trying to play catch up with my other two children after they were grown.
This time, I don't want to miss all the wonderful part in between.
[Hugh Hefner.]
But sadly, that happiness did not last.
Over time, it became clear that Kimberley and I weren't as compatible as I had originally believed.
Our marriage came to an end after nine years.
In the end, the most important thing was the boys.
Although it hadn't worked out with me and Kimberley, I wanted my sons near me.
[Rosenzweig.]
He bought a house next door to the mansion, and Kimberley and the boys grew up in that house.
This is to our new house.
Hopefully the neighbors won't complain about our music.
[Rosenzweig.]
Hefner wanted it that close so that he could be with the boys.
He and Kimberley had a reasonable relationship before the actual divorce and even now.
[Hugh Hefner.]
It wasn't easy at first, but I soon realized I still had a lot of life to live.
After years of being settled down, Mr.
Playboy was back.
Once again, the mansion became the party destination for Hollywood's A-list celebrities.
You know how to do it, Hugh! [Hugh Hefner.]
And, of course, the most beautiful women in the world.
Before I knew it, in 2003, Playboy had reached another milestone our 50th anniversary.
[Hugh Hefner.]
I could not have imagined, on any kind of level, the impact the magazine would have, how it would change my life.
Who could have imagined it? [Hugh Hefner.]
But the early 2000s brought something we could have never expected the Internet.
[Eisenbach.]
The rise of the Internet destroys the business model of Playboy.
There is no way that you can sell printed material or even a channel when you have to compete with free video, open access, and any kind of porn you want.
[Hugh Hefner.]
But while we couldn't compete with what was online, there was one new trend that was a perfect fit for Playboy.
Welcome to the Playboy Mansion.
[Hugh Hefner.]
And with reality TV being all the rage, I knew it could be the perfect way to move Playboy into the 21st century.
I invited the world into the Playboy Mansion every week as the Playmates and I just went about living our lives.
You look cute.
Do you have boob glue on? No.
You don't? [Hugh Hefner.]
It was called The Girls Next Door.
[Teri Thomerson.]
Initially with The Girls Next Door, there was kind of the belief that this was going to draw more of a male audience.
Is anybody going skinny-dipping? [Thomerson.]
The truth is, it actually attracted a predominantly female audience.
This is the original vibrating, rotating bed from the Chicago Mansion, you know.
Really? Does it still work? [squealing.]
[Thomerson.]
People loved the girls.
There was something relatable about each of them.
[Hugh Hefner.]
It lasted six seasons and introduced Playboy to a whole new generation, and it became one of the most successful shows in the history of E! Network, with over 2 million viewers at its peak.
Then, something unexpected happened.
In the final season of the show, I was introduced to Crystal Harris.
She was our December 2009 Playmate of the Month and we quickly fell in love.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce for the first time, Mr.
and Mrs.
Hugh Hefner.
[cheers and applause.]
[Hugh Hefner.]
And after years of dating, we were married on December 31st, 2012.
[Rosenzweig.]
Hef is a very romantic guy.
He adores Crystal and they have a very, very happy marriage, and he is probably more of a husband now than he was earlier in his life, because he has more time to spend with his wife than he did with the other two women.
[Hugh Hefner.]
My relationship with Crystal couldn't be more perfect, and I'm happier today that I've ever been.
She really is my one true love.
It's been over six decades since I started a magazine at my kitchen table, and in the years since, Playboy has expanded beyond my wildest dreams.
Our updated London casino, which opened in 2011, is one of the most successful private club casinos in the world, and our branded products brought in $1.
5 billion in 2016.
To this day, Playboy is the third-most recognizable brand in the world, after only Apple and Coca-Cola.
I never could have imagined that the conversations I started in 1953 would continue to this day.
Looking back on my life, I see so many things.
What do you think of this? [laughing.]
[Kretchmer.]
Hefner is one of the most underrated forces in American life in the second half of the 20th century.
Hefner changed the way everybody thinks about sex.
Congratulations, Mr.
Playboy.
[laughter.]
[Brett Ratner.]
He took us from '50s innocence to '60s curiosity to '70s revolution.
He created the sexual revolution, in my opinion, and should have all the credit for that.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Cheers! To the Playboy Club! To the Playboy Club! [Jesse Jackson.]
When most people hear the name "Hugh Hefner," they think of the magazine, the pictures, and and ooh-ee.
Well, Hugh Hefner was a real, authentic, First Amendment devotee.
To him, it really was about the freedom of expression.
[Mike Wallace.]
Police yesterday carted two tons of obscene magazines, films, and photographs to the city incinerator and burned them.
[Bill Maher.]
I am not a big fan of censorship, and I'm glad I was born after the people who came before me, like Hugh Hefner.
A lot of these people have got a lot of arrows.
Now, I've gotten some, but not the way they did.
We stand on each other's shoulders.
[Cooper Hefner.]
It wasn't that his attitudes or point of view on sex were revolutionary.
It was his ability to deliver the message as well as promote a conversation about it that was really revolutionary.
The magazine and the company just became the messenger of, these are conversations we should be having and these are topics we should be thinking about a lot more.
He didn't introduce the world to sex.
He just allowed it to step out of the closet.
Yes, yes.
Straight down the lens.
Perfect.
I think he was confident of what he had done, how he had lived, what he believed.
He's remarkably able to weather very difficult times because of that.
[Hugh Hefner.]
I think part of what my pursuit of happiness has been all about has been an attempt to walk a different road.
There is no fantasy that I have not lived out.
If I were gonna rewrite my life from beginning to end, I might change a few punctuation marks, but the things that mattered could hardly have worked out any better.
[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
Hugh Hefner invites you to Playboy's roller disco and pajama party! Let your body go You know you can do it Like eenie meenie meinie mo There's really nothing to it You can do it [Hugh Hefner.]
The 1970s had been a whirlwind.
Do it, just go ahead and do your dance [Hugh Hefner.]
By the end of the decade, Playboy operated over 30 properties in six countries across the world.
Just go ahead and do your dance Get up and do your thing [Hugh Hefner.]
And with the center of the Playboy empire now in Los Angeles, we were throwing more parties than ever.
Get up and do your thing [Hugh Hefner.]
As we moved into the 1980s, there was even more excitement to look forward to.
Space Shuttle Columbia became the first mission of the long-awaited space shuttle program.
[announcer.]
And liftoff.
[Hugh Hefner.]
And the world of television was forever changed with the introduction of MTV.
As for Playboy, after a rough patch in the '70s, when circulation numbers were down and ad revenues declined, we still had a steady readership of 4.
5 million people each month.
Our first London Playboy Club was so popular that we'd opened four more casinos across England.
Playboy's gambling turnover in this country amounts, in the past five years, to something over £660 million, a great proportion of Playboy's profits.
[Hugh Hefner.]
And no one was enjoying our success more than the man running our UK operation, Victor Lownes.
I'm a man I'm a goddess I'm a man [journalist.]
What's you're salary now? Oh, about £300,000 a year.
It's quite high.
[Hugh Hefner.]
After a decade in England, Victor even had his own 42-room mansion that he shared with Playmate-turned- girlfriend Marilyn Cole, and the two were fitting right in with London's high society.
[James Karmel.]
Victor Lownes has a lot of charisma.
He was riding horses with Prince Charles and going on foxhunts with the English aristocracy.
[Hugh Hefner.]
With his casinos outperforming longtime British gambling companies, it seemed like nothing could stop Victor and the UK operation's success.
[Victor Lownes.]
Yes, it's a very profitable operation.
I've had many days here when we've won as much money as we've paid for the place.
[Hugh Hefner.]
But we were about to find out that being the biggest game in town also made you the biggest target.
[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.]
For nearly 15 years, the Playboy operation in England achieved unparalleled success but all that changed on February 20th, 1981.
[reporter.]
Playboy are accused of violating the gaming laws.
Police raided its Park Lane offices.
The description by the Westminster magistrates, Playboy is not fit and proper to run a casino operation.
[Hugh Hefner.]
The London police staged a simultaneous raid on all of our casinos.
Turns out, our success was not sitting well with some of our competitors.
They began making claims of illegal operations at our London club, prompting charges that we'd violated a number of English gaming laws.
Our staff was interrogated, boxes of files were seized, all in an effort to dig up dirt on our operations.
[Karmel.]
Other casinos were under scrutiny and eventually, so was Playboy.
Playboy was accused of some improprieties.
It's questionable whether that was actually happening.
Lownes claimed they were not.
Lownes had always wanted his clubs to be a model of integrity.
Today is not the end of Playboy, but it could well be the beginning of the end.
[Derick Daniels.]
The casinos were raided.
Employees questioned.
Files seized.
When did this happen? Yesterday.
I don't understand.
Well, I don't have specifics yet, but from what I'm hearing, the allegations are serious, like enough to lose us our gaming licenses.
What? Holy shit.
Exactly.
No.
There is no way Victor is involved in anything illegal.
Hef, I appreciate your loyalty, but until we have the facts What did he say? I haven't heard from him.
A friend of mine from The London Times called me.
Apparently, it's all over the newspapers.
The first thing he should have done was call me, but King Victor answers to no one, and now we have a goddamn shit storm on our hands.
He will answer to me.
Forget the phone.
Get him here.
Now.
My pleasure.
[Christie Hefner.]
Because of the structure of the British oversight and to some extent because Victor liked to keep information close to the vest, the American executives were less aware of the details of the business than they might have liked.
[Hugh Hefner.]
I'd given Vic a lot of freedom to run the London operation and I'd always trusted his decisions, but with the London casino responsible for 85% of our profits, we needed to resolve this issue as quickly as possible, especially with a whole new gambling operation starting up in Atlantic City.
[Harry.]
Ethel, there's something out there in the water.
[Ethel.]
Harry, there's nothing out there.
Then what's rising out of the sea, huh? Oh, that! That's the new Playboy Hotel and Casino.
What? Oh, Harry, it's the dawn of a new era for the Playboy Hotel and Casino, with their fantastic, new salon privé.
They wait on you hand and foot.
Ethel, why is it rising out of the sea? Oh, Harry, it's show business.
[announcer.]
The new, very civilized, Playboy Hotel and Casino.
[reporter.]
Atlantic City is already a new gambling mecca, America's new Las Vegas.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Three years earlier, Victor had begun construction on a state-of-the-art casino in Atlantic City.
[reporter.]
Despite the legal wrangle in London, the Playboy Club is alive and profitable in Atlantic City.
[Hugh Hefner.]
We had invested $30 million in the project, and after obtaining a temporary operating permit, the Playboy Hotel and Casino was open for business while we awaited final approval from the gaming commission.
Oh Do you want to dance? [Karmel.]
Atlantic City was a great opportunity to import Playboy style and glamour into the casino business, which is something that they had successfully been able to accomplish in London.
That was a formula for success.
[Hugh Hefner.]
With so much riding on our new casino in Atlantic City, I needed to feel confident that the situation in London was under control.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Vic, I'm so sorry to keep you waiting.
[Victor Lownes.]
Oh, no problem, buddy.
Where's Daniels? Getting the noose ready somewhere? This isn't about your issues with Derick.
I don't have issues with Derick.
I have an issue.
He wants my job.
He is the president of the company.
And I answer to the real boss.
Okay, then.
Answer to me.
Tell me what the hell is going on.
Nothing.
Nothing.
[sighing.]
That's not gonna cut it, Victor.
Well, nothing of consequence.
I would call losing the licenses a pretty stiff consequence.
We are not gonna lose the licenses.
That is not what Derick says.
Fuck Daniels.
He doesn't know the first thing about what happened, Hef.
Okay, those raids were staged based on evidence provided by a crooked competitor's paid informants.
Look, it's a speed bump, and when we're past it, it's not just gonna be business as usual.
It'll be bigger business.
In fact, I already have my eye on two new locations.
Okay, okay.
Let's worry about the licenses before we discuss expansion.
Hey, you can worry about the licenses if you want, but there is nothing there.
[sighing.]
We've been through a lot together, Vic.
Yeah, we have.
Don't let this thing be the last.
I promise you it won't.
[Patty Farmer.]
Derick Daniels had never gotten along with Victor.
They always clashed heads, and it was often said it was a wonderful thing that an ocean separated them.
It was a definite clash of personalities but also vying for the attention of Hef.
[Hugh Hefner.]
It didn't matter whether or not I believed Vic.
The problems in London were under his watch, and now the entire company was at risk.
For Daniels, there was only one solution.
Derick wanted to fire Victor and Hef had a problem with it.
And then, we were told by our British attorney that if Victor were terminated, we may well keep our license.
This was a moment of truth for the company.
Our profits were coming from the UK.
Hefner had a fiduciary responsibility as the CEO of the company to not only protect the shareholders but his investment and the future of the company.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Victor and I had been close friends for over 30 years and there were few people I respected more, but with the future of the London casino on the line, I had no choice but to make one of the hardest decisions of my career.
[line ringing.]
Yes.
Can you put me through to Derick Daniels, please? Victor! A pleasure to see you, as always.
Likewise.
Especially unannounced.
This is my club.
It's the company's club.
And I run the company.
Really? I'm sure Hef would be very keen to hear that.
Oh, Hef sent me.
We'd like you to step down.
Step down? Mm-hmm.
This will send a message to the gaming commission that we are serious about cleaning up corruption.
There is no corruption, which I will prove at the hearing.
But if you fire me, you're basically admitting to it.
The decision has been made.
I knew we had trouble.
First trouble we'd had in 15 years of operation in England, and I was prepared to do battle with them.
Unfortunately, I think they stampeded Hefner into panicking when we ran into difficulties in England and made it a first order of business to, uh, terminate me.
[Marilyn Cole.]
Playboy in London, that was Victor's baby.
It was all very, very dramatic, and Victor was devastated in every which way, and he was devastated for Playboy.
[reporter.]
After the police raid, he was suddenly and unexpectedly fired by his American headquarters.
Victor Lownes, now the interested spectator, has not been asked to give evidence.
The sacking of you by the men from Chicago Yes.
would seem to be a rather clumsy way of saying to the gaming board and the law Yes.
we are now clean again.
We've got rid of the number one culprit.
Give us a chance.
Do you think that's the strategy? If I were the number one saint, it'd still be the strategy, yes.
I mean, uh, regardless And I do feel that I did nothing wrong during my administration.
[Cole.]
For Victor to be fired from Playboy, it was the biggest personal tragedy as well as business tragedy for both Hef and Victor.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Looking back now, I wish I'd handled things differently.
Victor and I had been through so much together and I didn't even say goodbye.
But what made it even worse is that it was all for nothing.
The licensing magistrates, four women and a man, issued their verdict.
Very simply, they said that Playboy was not fit and proper to hold a gaming license and that the clubs had been used for unlawful purposes.
[Hugh Hefner.]
The London Playboy Club was still denied its gambling license.
[Karmel.]
What Hugh Hefner and Derrick Daniels, I don't think, grasped was, Victor Lownes actually was still seen with a lot of prestige and still had a big influence in the UK gaming industry and still knew what he was doing.
He understood what was going on in the UK much more than anyone, and so, by getting rid of him, you're essentially removing an asset from your company and an asset that very well might have been able to guide Playboy through the investigation without having to lose its casino licenses.
[Hugh Hefner.]
With the loss of our gambling license, we had to sell off all of our London assets, taking a huge financial hit, but it turned out, we had even more problems in Atlantic City.
The applicant failed the test that each of us is required to pass in the conduct of our affairs.
This applicant has not met its burden to establish by clear and convincing evidence its qualifications to hold a casino license.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Investigators had looked through all of Playboy's past business operations and dug up mistakes we'd made in the past.
[Karmel.]
The Casino Control Commission comes out with a report detailing all these issues with Playboy's permanent casino application.
The vote went against Hefner because of his part in bribing New York officials to obtain a liquor license 20 years ago.
[Karmel.]
They go back 20-plus years.
They look at anything and everything connected to Hugh Hefner and the fact that the British Gaming Board has just decided to yank Playboy's casino licenses, so Playboy loses its bid for a permanent license by a three-to-two vote.
Licensing Playboy, with its history, would signal the abandonment of virtually all licensing criteria requiring ethical restraint.
If the unethical practices and illegal acts of corporations are not checked, the future of a kind, free casino industry in Atlantic City would be in jeopardy.
[Hugh Hefner.]
The verdict was a major blow to our business, but I knew I had to put on a brave face to maintain our reputation.
We are a sound, broadly-based company, and we'll not only survive, but we'll do very well with or without gaming.
[Hugh Hefner.]
But after losing both the London casino operations and now the investment in Atlantic City, the future of the company was in jeopardy.
I know things look very dark right now, but this is fixable.
Is it? Yeah, of course.
But you had to think about it.
Oh, come on, Hef.
We just lost almost $200 million.
Yes, yes, I'm well aware how much money How does that not put us on the brink of extinction? [Hugh Hefner.]
With Playboy's reputation at an all-time low, I knew we needed to make a major change at the company if we were going to get back on track, and it was clear that Daniels wasn't cutting it, so I decided it was time to put someone else in charge.
A couple of people in the news tonight.
Playboy Enterprises has a new president.
She's not a former centerfold.
She's Christie Hefner.
Christie, pretty enough to be a centerfold herself, will bring a new image and new zest to Playboy.
[Richard Rosenzweig.]
A moment of truth came that things were not working well with Derick Daniels.
Hefner said, well, so now what am I gonna do? We both agreed that Christie would be an appropriate CEO.
Yo, pretty ladies around the world She says she must now make Playboy a clearly focused communications company instead of a corporation that is broadly based and I'm sure she intended no pun.
We're about to go down [Hugh Hefner.]
Christie was my oldest child with my first wife, Millie.
I hadn't been around much when she was growing up, but after she graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University in 1974, Christie came to work at Playboy in an entry-level position.
I only saw my father occasionally when I was growing up.
I think that what allowed us to get much closer was when I went to work in the company, and the outgrowth of that has been we're actually now very close.
Word no matter where you say it I joined the company not really expecting to stay more than a year or two, but I did get interested in the variety of businesses and the challenges and the people that it attracted, and as I stayed and worked in different parts of the company and learned more, I found it more and more intriguing.
That you're acting like fools [Rosenzweig.]
Christie was extremely bright.
She had a natural knack for organizational efforts.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Christie may have been my daughter, but she quickly carved a path all on her own within the company.
[Carrie Pitzulo.]
Christie really earned for herself a reputation as a very level-headed, smart businesswoman.
Her lifestyle and her image has been very different than her father's.
[Hugh Hefner.]
And by 1982, she had proven that she was more than capable of taking over the reigns of Playboy Enterprises.
I would like to introduce another Playboy executive who happens to be a woman, one of whom I'm rather proud because she's also my daughter, but I would be very proud of her if she weren't my daughter, Christie Hefner.
[cheers and applause.]
My being named president actually was well received, and I think that was because I'd been in the company for seven years.
People had seen me, seen my work ethic, seen how I handled myself.
Plus, I think the fact that I was Christie Hefner, I think people believed that I cared and that I cared about the long term.
There is a bright and shining star in the Hefner family that's on the ascendency.
An articulate, committed young woman.
And we are going to be hearing a great deal from her in the years to come.
Christie, we thank you very much for all that you're doing.
[applause.]
[Hugh Hefner.]
But while there was no better person for the job, Christie was inheriting a difficult situation.
They're calling it the end of an era, the victim of changing times.
Playboy has closed down its big city clubs in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Going into the middle of the decade, we were on the edge of bankruptcy.
[reporter.]
Playboy has lost millions of dollars in recent years, much of it because of the clubs.
Joe, that's the end of the "tail.
" Oh-ho-ho.
Very good, Bob.
[Hugh Hefner.]
With the company in crisis, Christie dove right into work.
When I took over as president, my goal was to save the company.
The first order of business was to stop the bleeding and so we sold the businesses that we didn't think we could make successes of, like the book business and the record business and the resorts.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Her efforts cut costs by $8 million per year.
Despite these measures, Playboy Enterprises still lost $17.
5 million in 1983.
Christie recognized that if we wanted to survive, we'd have to make some bigger moves.
The world was consuming media in new ways, and we needed to adapt to changing times.
VCRs were in almost every home across the country and over 30 million people had started paying for premium cable stations tailored to their interests.
Christie saw the chance to offer them a whole new Playboy experience.
[announcer.]
The Playboy Channel.
When you start talking about Playboy in combination with pay television, people's eyes light up, because it's about the hottest news in the business going right now.
[Christie Hefner.]
Cable TV created the opportunity for destination viewing and a great way of expanding the brand to women because the majority of viewing was done by couples.
Just the man I was looking for.
[David Eisenbach.]
Cable television was one of these great steps toward transforming and liberating the dissemination of information, and what this allowed for, you know, Hugh Hefner was now to have his own channel that he doesn't have to kind of filter himself and his message or his information, and this is, of course, a way to make a tremendous amount of money.
[cheers and applause.]
Hiya, Hef! [Hugh Hefner.]
Airing between 8 p.
m.
and 6 a.
m.
Eastern time, the Playboy TV Network became the country's leading channel for adult entertainment, and as the channel grew to more than 800,000 paying subscribers, it gave us a much needed boost in revenue.
With the channel proving to be a success, Christie turned to the magazine, taking inspiration from Playboy's very first issue.
[Christie Hefner.]
As there were more and more magazines proliferated from the time when Playboy started, it became increasingly important to be able to distinguish yourself on the newsstand to attract the interest of the buyer, and one clear way to do that was through celebrities.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Women like Vanna White graced the covers and helped us increase sales.
But in 1984, we were offered exclusive rights to nude photos of one celebrity who was sure to cause controversy.
A year earlier, 20-year-old Vanessa Williams had been crowned the first African-American Miss America, but it didn't take long for someone from her past to surface, looking to cash in on her celebrity.
Years ago, she'd posed nude, but was told the photos would only be used in silhouette.
Now the photographer was shopping around the full images.
Vanessa Williams' pictures were offered to the magazine, and there wasn't any question that there would be strong commercial appeal in this beautiful young woman who was the first African-American Miss America, but it was also quite obvious that these were not pictures that she had intended to have published.
Ain't no love In the heart of the city [Hugh Hefner.]
We knew that if Playboy ran those photos, she'd be forced to give up her crown.
[Hugh Hefner.]
It was not a difficult decision to make, that if we ran those pictures, we would destroy the career of the first black Miss America, and that was the opposite of the kind of statement we wanted to make.
Every place that I go [Hugh Hefner.]
Playboy rejected the photos.
But it seems so strange [Pat Lacey.]
You don't think he would have sold a lot of Playboy magazines? Most certainly! Very much could've brought those photographs and put them in a magazine.
What kind of man would want to give a young woman that kind of pain? [Hugh Hefner.]
But our longtime rival, Penthouse, published the photos in their September 1984 issue, and Williams was forced to resign.
[Vanessa Williams.]
Potential harm to the pageant and the deep division that a bitter fight may cause has convinced me that I must relinquish my title as Miss America.
[Hugh Hefner.]
It became the highest selling Penthouse issue ever, and for the first time in history, Penthouse sales beat ours by nearly one million copies.
But that success was short-lived, and soon Playboy was once again outselling Penthouse.
Although we had been through many struggles over the past few years, we never wavered in our commitment to covering issues that other publications thought were too controversial.
And, in the mid '80s, that issue was AIDS.
Scientists at the National Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta today released the results of a study which shows that the lifestyle of some male homosexuals has triggered an epidemic.
[Hugh Hefner.]
A strange, lethal, sexually transmitted disease with no cure.
It first appeared in the gay community of New York City and spread quickly.
When AIDS starts off, at least in the American mindset and in the media as a gay disease but suddenly then winds up also affecting straight people The sexual revolution is sex without consequences.
Now, suddenly, the consequences can be deadly, and this has a tremendous effect on my generation that grew up in the 1980s that suddenly, wait a second, this is something we need to be anxious about.
Money for AIDS, not for war! [Hugh Hefner.]
But the government and the national press largely ignored the crisis, believing the subject was too controversial.
The federal role must be to give educators accurate information about the disease.
Now, how that information is used must be up to schools and parents, not government.
[Hugh Hefner.]
But I was determined to make sure Playboy addressed the issue head on.
It used to be so easy To be your lover When the AIDS epidemic started, and then-President Reagan wouldn't even say the word, Playboy played, I think, an important role in educating people about how the disease was transmitted and wasn't transmitted.
Take it easy on me It should be easy to see [Hugh Hefner.]
Playboy ran dozens of articles addressing the AIDS crisis, along with interviews and any other formats we could think of to spread awareness.
Just want you to know When AIDS came along, it came with the frightening thought that everybody who engaged in sex with a stranger was going to get AIDS.
That was full of mythology.
I wrote a short editorial about AIDS.
We dealt with AIDS as scientifically as we could.
But whatever you do Take it easy on me [Hugh Hefner.]
Over the past three decades, Playboy had covered a wide range of controversial topics, and I was always proud of the work we did, but I was getting tired.
Christie had been at the helm for six years and proven she could run the company.
After 35 years, I decided, at age 62, that I needed to step back and settle down.
Though I'd shared my life with many incredible women over the years, I'd sworn that I would never marry again.
That is, until I met Kimberley Conrad.
[Rosenzweig.]
Kimberley Conrad came to us as a potential Playmate from a photographer in Vancouver.
Kimberley played hard to get, actually.
She was very attractive and a lot of fun.
[Hugh Hefner.]
I met Kimberley when she posed for our January 1988 Playmate of the month.
I had met many of our Playmates in the past, but there was something special about Kimberley.
She's just a fallen angel [Hugh Hefner.]
I felt an immediate sense of ease with her.
We're all fallen angels Hello.
This was our best Christmas ever.
It was.
[Hugh Hefner.]
It didn't take either of us long to realize that we were madly in love.
By February of that year, Kimberley had moved into the mansion.
From there, things moved quickly.
She's looking for the love that she's never had I know she's just a fallen angel [Hugh Hefner.]
Kimberly was named Playmate of the Year in June of 1989 Having been in, over the years, a number of romantic relationships, this is different.
[Wedding March playing.]
[Hugh Hefner.]
and became Kimberly Hefner in July.
This is probably as good a moment as any to thank all of you for sharing with us a rather unique evening.
[cheers and applause.]
One that you thought you'd never see.
[laughing.]
I think that meeting Kimberley is very much a matter of having met the right person in the right place at the right time.
I was ready for that kind of relationship, and she had the values that I was looking for, and she came to me at a time in which I was looking for a safe harbor after some very stormy seas.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Getting married was only the beginning.
Wait, I'm right here! Be careful! Don't drop it.
Look! Look! I think somebody's on his nap time.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Within a year, our happy family expanded when our son Marston was born.
It never really mattered too much to me Where are you going, little guy? [Hugh Hefner.]
And the year after that, his brother, Cooper.
[Rosenzweig.]
Hefner was not really a parent to his two children he had with his first wife, Millie, because he was busy with his business, with starting the magazine.
The two boys he had with Kimberley were doted on by Hefner.
In their very early years, they spent a lot of time at the mansion, playing with the animals and Hefner.
You're such a big guy.
Let me love you When my brother and I came along, my dad was older.
I think he, in his head, wanted to try being a parent, so, I mean, I saw him every single day.
He was much more hands on in the sense of being a father.
You ready to go? [Hugh Hefner.]
Almost overnight, the mansion went from the world's most famous bachelor pad to an island of domestic tranquility.
With my first marriage, I knew I hadn't always been the best husband or father, but having this second chance gave me a new lease on life.
It was truly one of my happiest times.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Not until the baby was born did I really realize what an impact it could have on my own life.
It should've been that way the first time, but, of course, I just wasn't there, emotionally or mentally.
And I think it's wonderful to have the chance to do it all right the second time.
I was busy trying to play catch up with my other two children after they were grown.
This time, I don't want to miss all the wonderful part in between.
[Hugh Hefner.]
But sadly, that happiness did not last.
Over time, it became clear that Kimberley and I weren't as compatible as I had originally believed.
Our marriage came to an end after nine years.
In the end, the most important thing was the boys.
Although it hadn't worked out with me and Kimberley, I wanted my sons near me.
[Rosenzweig.]
He bought a house next door to the mansion, and Kimberley and the boys grew up in that house.
This is to our new house.
Hopefully the neighbors won't complain about our music.
[Rosenzweig.]
Hefner wanted it that close so that he could be with the boys.
He and Kimberley had a reasonable relationship before the actual divorce and even now.
[Hugh Hefner.]
It wasn't easy at first, but I soon realized I still had a lot of life to live.
After years of being settled down, Mr.
Playboy was back.
Once again, the mansion became the party destination for Hollywood's A-list celebrities.
You know how to do it, Hugh! [Hugh Hefner.]
And, of course, the most beautiful women in the world.
Before I knew it, in 2003, Playboy had reached another milestone our 50th anniversary.
[Hugh Hefner.]
I could not have imagined, on any kind of level, the impact the magazine would have, how it would change my life.
Who could have imagined it? [Hugh Hefner.]
But the early 2000s brought something we could have never expected the Internet.
[Eisenbach.]
The rise of the Internet destroys the business model of Playboy.
There is no way that you can sell printed material or even a channel when you have to compete with free video, open access, and any kind of porn you want.
[Hugh Hefner.]
But while we couldn't compete with what was online, there was one new trend that was a perfect fit for Playboy.
Welcome to the Playboy Mansion.
[Hugh Hefner.]
And with reality TV being all the rage, I knew it could be the perfect way to move Playboy into the 21st century.
I invited the world into the Playboy Mansion every week as the Playmates and I just went about living our lives.
You look cute.
Do you have boob glue on? No.
You don't? [Hugh Hefner.]
It was called The Girls Next Door.
[Teri Thomerson.]
Initially with The Girls Next Door, there was kind of the belief that this was going to draw more of a male audience.
Is anybody going skinny-dipping? [Thomerson.]
The truth is, it actually attracted a predominantly female audience.
This is the original vibrating, rotating bed from the Chicago Mansion, you know.
Really? Does it still work? [squealing.]
[Thomerson.]
People loved the girls.
There was something relatable about each of them.
[Hugh Hefner.]
It lasted six seasons and introduced Playboy to a whole new generation, and it became one of the most successful shows in the history of E! Network, with over 2 million viewers at its peak.
Then, something unexpected happened.
In the final season of the show, I was introduced to Crystal Harris.
She was our December 2009 Playmate of the Month and we quickly fell in love.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce for the first time, Mr.
and Mrs.
Hugh Hefner.
[cheers and applause.]
[Hugh Hefner.]
And after years of dating, we were married on December 31st, 2012.
[Rosenzweig.]
Hef is a very romantic guy.
He adores Crystal and they have a very, very happy marriage, and he is probably more of a husband now than he was earlier in his life, because he has more time to spend with his wife than he did with the other two women.
[Hugh Hefner.]
My relationship with Crystal couldn't be more perfect, and I'm happier today that I've ever been.
She really is my one true love.
It's been over six decades since I started a magazine at my kitchen table, and in the years since, Playboy has expanded beyond my wildest dreams.
Our updated London casino, which opened in 2011, is one of the most successful private club casinos in the world, and our branded products brought in $1.
5 billion in 2016.
To this day, Playboy is the third-most recognizable brand in the world, after only Apple and Coca-Cola.
I never could have imagined that the conversations I started in 1953 would continue to this day.
Looking back on my life, I see so many things.
What do you think of this? [laughing.]
[Kretchmer.]
Hefner is one of the most underrated forces in American life in the second half of the 20th century.
Hefner changed the way everybody thinks about sex.
Congratulations, Mr.
Playboy.
[laughter.]
[Brett Ratner.]
He took us from '50s innocence to '60s curiosity to '70s revolution.
He created the sexual revolution, in my opinion, and should have all the credit for that.
[Hugh Hefner.]
Cheers! To the Playboy Club! To the Playboy Club! [Jesse Jackson.]
When most people hear the name "Hugh Hefner," they think of the magazine, the pictures, and and ooh-ee.
Well, Hugh Hefner was a real, authentic, First Amendment devotee.
To him, it really was about the freedom of expression.
[Mike Wallace.]
Police yesterday carted two tons of obscene magazines, films, and photographs to the city incinerator and burned them.
[Bill Maher.]
I am not a big fan of censorship, and I'm glad I was born after the people who came before me, like Hugh Hefner.
A lot of these people have got a lot of arrows.
Now, I've gotten some, but not the way they did.
We stand on each other's shoulders.
[Cooper Hefner.]
It wasn't that his attitudes or point of view on sex were revolutionary.
It was his ability to deliver the message as well as promote a conversation about it that was really revolutionary.
The magazine and the company just became the messenger of, these are conversations we should be having and these are topics we should be thinking about a lot more.
He didn't introduce the world to sex.
He just allowed it to step out of the closet.
Yes, yes.
Straight down the lens.
Perfect.
I think he was confident of what he had done, how he had lived, what he believed.
He's remarkably able to weather very difficult times because of that.
[Hugh Hefner.]
I think part of what my pursuit of happiness has been all about has been an attempt to walk a different road.
There is no fantasy that I have not lived out.
If I were gonna rewrite my life from beginning to end, I might change a few punctuation marks, but the things that mattered could hardly have worked out any better.
[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