Mr Playboy

Reviews / Votes

"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"Hugh Hefner started Playboy magazine in 1953 using purchased photos of Marilyn Monroe, and including the article "Miss Gold Digger 1953" about women who "manipulate the legal system for alimony." Hefner positioned the magazine as respectable, with articles by celebrated writers, interviews, and advice columns, accompanied with photos of nude models and ads, all combined to help promote a notion of "the good life." And so it was in his publicly lead private life, complete with famous people, naked women (he was allowed to date other people, his girlfriends were not), and a home in the "Playboy mansion." Watts outlines the man and magazine's influence on the country's notions of personal liberation, sexual freedom, and material abundance. Clocking in at over 500 pages, this is not a gossip book but a well-documented biography written with access to Hefner's over 1800 scrapbooks, the company archives, and interviews. Watts finds Hefner comparable to the subjects of his other books about Henry Ford and Walt Disney in that all were major contributors to aspects of the American dream. Recommended for public libraries and cultural studies collections."--Lani Smith, Ohlone Coll. Lib., Neward, CA (Library Journal, September 1, 2008)"As he did in his previous books on Henry Ford (The People's Tycoon) and Walt Disney (The Magic Kingdom), Watts carefully details the life of Hugh Hefner and the influence his Playboy magazine has had on American culture. Using unrestricted access to the magazine's archives, Watts skillfully charts the intersection of Hefner's professional and personal history: the "sexual titillation" of his first issue; his mid- to late-1960s championing of leftist politics and writers such as Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut; his 1970s retrenchment after assaults by the women's liberation movement; his financial and personal troubles in the '80s and '90s; and his current position as the "retro cool" figurehead of an institution that is now a "midsize communications and entertainment company." Watts evokes a time when Playboy was seen by its critics as a key "symptom of decadence in American life," and is at his best when exploring his subject's early years, showing how Hefner's sexual and material "ethic of self-fulfillment" drove him to challenge "the social conventions of postwar America."" (Oct.) (Publishers Weekly, July 28, 2008)