Hefner, Hugh Marston (1926– )

US publisher, founder of Playboy magazine in 1953. With its centrefolds of nude women, and columns of opinion, fashion, and advice on sex, Playboy helped shape the social attitudes of the post-war generation. In the early 1960s, the huge success of Hefner's magazine led to the creation of a national chain of Playboy clubs and mansions. Its success declined in the 1980s owing to the rise of competing men's magazines and feminist protest.

Hefner produced the first issue of Playboy, featuring the famous calendar photograph of Marilyn Monroe, in 1953. It had no cover date because Hefner did not know if he could finance another edition; however, it sold 50,000 copies. By the 1960s, Playboy was selling 1 million copies a month. In 1959, Hefner presented a syndicated television show called Playboy's Penthouse and opened the first of a national chain of Playboy clubs, with ‘bunny-girl’ hostesses, and leisure resorts, in Chicago, Illinois. In the early 70s Hefner expanded into television and films. In 1985 Hefner had a stroke and control of the company passed to his daughter, Christie, although he remained the magazine's editor-in-chief, playing a key role in determining the path of Playboy Enterprises and directing other areas of the corporation, including cable television and video production.

Hefner was born in Chicago. At school he was more involved in extracurricular activities – as president of the student council, starting a school paper, and drawing cartoons – than academic studies. In 1944 he joined the US Army serving as an infantry clerk and a cartoonist for US Army newspapers. After his discharge in 1946 he took a summer art course at the Chicago Art Institute, before attending the University of Illinois. As a student, Hefner edited the campus magazine and produced cartoons for the Daily Illinois. In 1949 Hefner started working for the Chicago Carton Company, and then as an advertising copywriter for the Carson, Pirie, Scott department store before joining Esquire magazine as a promotion copywriter in 1951. When the company relocated to New York City he chose to stay behind and start his own magazine. Convinced that there was a market for a men's magazine, he raised US$10,000 with investments from family and friends and a bank loan using his family's house as collateral, and produced the first issue of Playboy on his apartment's kitchen table. Hollywood and cinema have always been major factors in Hefner's personal and professional life. At his direction, the Playboy Foundation instituted the Freedom of Expression Award, given annually at the Sundance Film Festival. He personally endowed a course in Censorship in Cinema at USC, at which he serves as a guest lecturer; he has been a major contributor to UCLA's project to restore classic films; and he was a sponsor of the acclaimed ‘American Cinema’ series on PBS (a public broadcast channel).