American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story (2017–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Birth of the Centerfold: The Girl Next Door - full transcript
Hugh Hefner convinces his new subscription manager to pose as the magazine's first centerfold and "the girl next door" becomes Playboy's formula for success.
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[Hugh Hefner] 1953 was a
year of all-American values.
♪
"I Love Lucy" was the number
one show on television.
Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in
as the country's 34th President.
♪
And suburban culture was a way of life.
♪
But under the surface,
society was as repressed as ever.
It was a very culturally and
sexually conservative time.
♪
Men and women were
expected to go to college,
get a job, get married, settle
down, and raise a family.
It was the new American dream,
the white picket fence
out in the suburbs.
And that's exactly the
life that Hefner was living,
but he found it deeply
unsatisfying and boring.
[Hefner] It was clear to me
that America needed a change,
so I decided I was going
to create a magazine
that would challenge conformity.
♪
A modern men's magazine about lifestyle,
art, culture, and sex,
and I'd call it Stag Party.
But I knew the first issue
needed the perfect cover girl,
and after months of searching,
I had finally found her.
[door opening]
[door closing]
Hey, Hef, I got some
more girls here for you.
- What do you think about that?
- Good.
I have an option myself.
What do you think of this?
Um... that's Marilyn Monroe.
That's her. She's our pin-up girl.
[laughing]
[Hefner] In the spring of 1953,
I bought the rights to nude photos
of one of the most
famous women in the world,
Marilyn Monroe.
♪
Now that we had our model,
I worked around the clock,
creating every single
aspect of the magazine...
♪
... what would be in
it, how it would look.
He put the first issue
out singlehandedly.
He went over all the material,
he did some of the drawings himself.
[Hefner] I was determined to
create the perfect first issue.
There was a section with party jokes,
another on designs
for the modern office.
We would even publish classic literature
from some of the most well known authors
in the world.
[Jason Buhrmester] The boldest
thing Hef did with the magazine
is that he really dismantled the idea
of the 1950s masculinity.
In the first issue,
in the editor's letter,
Hef very plainly says,
other men's magazines
focus on hunting and fishing and sports.
We're not doing any of that.
We're gonna talk about jazz
and cocktails and Picasso.
[Hefner] We'd talk about culture,
but we'd also focus on sex.
♪
[Hefner] When people raised questions
about why we included
sex in the magazine,
my response always was,
how could you put together
a men's magazine and not include
the primary thing that
men are interested in?
The whole idea from the
beginning was to incorporate sex
as one, normal and logical and
healthy part of a total package
that appealed to a male audience.
We featured articles on modern
dating and married life...
♪
and instructions for how to play
a provocative new party game
called "Strip Quiz."
♪
I think that we have it very,
very engrained in our heads
to be very uncomfortable with sex,
but that's the reason I'm here.
That's the reason why you're here.
That's the reason why we're all here.
[Hefner] My hope was that my magazine
would bring sex to the mainstream.
♪
[Hefner] But just as we were putting
the final touches on the magazine,
everything came to a standstill.
It turns out, there
was a hunting magazine
already on the market called Stag,
and as soon as Stag
got wind of Stag Party,
they threatened to sue us
for copyright infringement.
Now, with only a week
before our deadline,
we had to completely
re-edit the magazine
and come up with a brand new title.
♪ 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 ♪
[Hefner] Facing a potential
lawsuit, I gathered my staff
to try and come up with a
new name for the magazine.
Bachelor.
[Art Paul] Ah, it makes it sound
like we're not for married men.
We'd be cutting out a whole reader base.
What about something
like Sir or Gentlemen?
[Hefner] No, no, it's too literal.
It has to be fun. What
does the name Jaguar
have to do with a car company?
Nothing, but it sounds cool, right?
Oh, oh! What was the
name of that car company
my mom used to work for? Playboy.
Playboy.
♪
[Eldon Sellers] We spent many,
many hours talking about names.
Finally, I remembered that my mother
had worked for an
automobile company in Detroit
called Playboy Automobile,
and it was a very sporty
looking automobile,
a nice looking automobile,
and that's what made me
mention Playboy as a possibility.
[David Eisenbach] Playboy. Perfect.
It isn't aggressive. It
isn't hyper-masculine.
Yeah, okay, you're
doing nudie magazines,
but there's a sophistication to it.
♪
[Hefner] We had our new name.
Now we had to quickly revise the cover
and remove all references to Stag Party
throughout the magazine.
Back then, when you're literally
pasting print onto a page,
somebody would have to take a
knife, a little X-Acto knife,
and cut out every Stag Party
on every page of the magazine
and replace it with Playboy. Even today,
with desktop publishing
and all that kind of stuff,
that would be an
incredible amount of work.
♪
[Hefner] Even our
cartoon mascot of a deer
would have to change to something else,
and we chose a bunny.
♪
The rabbit captures the sophistication,
the silliness of the brand.
There is the sort of sexual
connotation of a rabbit
that comes through.
[Hefner] I had no idea at the
time, but that one little change
would come to define
the magazine for decades.
We had our mascot in place,
and with Marilyn on the
cover, we were ready to go.
♪
Soon, almost 70,000 copies of Playboy
would be heading to major
cities across the country.
♪
The only question was, would it sell?
♪
In December of 1953, my
magazine hit the newsstands.
[man] Thank you.
[Sellers] Hef got up and lurked
around newsstands in Chicago
and waited to see if anyone
would pick up the copy
and has talked about how excited he was
the first time he saw someone buy it.
And I imagine he was elated to know
there were other people out
there who felt like he did,
because he was taking this gamble.
[Hefner] I was excited,
but I was also nervous,
so nervous I didn't put
my name or issue number
on our first publication.
♪
I felt at the time, even if
there was never going to be
another issue that I'd
had my chance, and indeed,
at that point, I was not sure
there would be a second issue.
That's why it had no date on it.
Whether I succeeded or not,
I'd had the chance to try.
[Hefner] And then, the numbers came in.
♪
In its first two weeks
on the newsstands,
nearly 80% of the 70,
000 issues we printed
were sold across the country.
♪ Don't you know you
gotta be strong? ♪
♪ Leave all the other guys alone ♪
[Richard Rosenzweig] It
was virtually sold out.
He edited this magazine for
himself, and he was betting
that other young men were interested
in the same things he was interested in,
and he won that bet.
♪ You're gonna be lonely ♪
♪ So let it shine ♪
[Hefner] It was enough for me
to pay back everyone I owed,
get our furniture back,
and still have enough left over
to replace my 12-year-old Chevy
with a brand-new Studebaker sports car.
♪
"May I congratulate you
on your initial issue
of Playboy magazine."
[Hefner] And it wasn't long
before fan mail started pouring in.
♪ Don't you know you gotta be strong? ♪
♪ Leave all the other guys alone ♪
[Hefner] Readers in Oklahoma,
Colorado, and Illinois
were raving about
Marilyn and the magazine.
♪ Whoa ♪
[Hefner] Even the press
gave us positive reviews.
The magazine started from
nothing and was a success
from its very first issue.
It was as if it was
a moment and an event
that was waiting to happen.
♪
- Just back to back.
- Good.
Yeah, with a little explanation and, uh.
[Hefner] We were so surprised
by the magazine's success
that we hadn't even thought
about a second issue,
and now we had only a
week to put one together.
To make our lives easier,
we stuck to what made
the magazine work the first time,
adding more party jokes,
comics, and literature,
but this time, we were
missing one key component.
♪
No. There's nothing good here.
Well, this is all we
have to choose from,
so one of them has to be good enough.
I'm sorry, but none of
these girls are right.
None of these girls are Marilyn, Hef.
They're just not.
But if you want to print a second issue,
you need to pick one of them.
[Hefner] Putting Marilyn
Monroe on the cover
had drawn in readers
for the first issue,
but I knew I wasn't going
to find another Marilyn.
If Playboy was going to last
I had to find another hook,
and that's when it hit me.
♪ Let the sunshine in ♪
♪ Come on right away ♪
♪ Let the sunshine in,
brighten up my day ♪
[Hefner] Remember
back in my college days
when I started a column
in the school magazine
called "Co-Ed of the Month"
that featured female students?
I realized Playboy
could do the same thing,
only we'd call her the
Playmate of the Month.
[Hefner] I had completely forgotten
that the cover of Shaft Magazine
and the feature inside it was
called the Co-Ed of the Month.
It was a revelation.
♪ And let the sunshine
in, come on right away ♪
[Hefner] So, a calendar
girl named Margie Harrison
became Miss January.
♪ Send those clouds away,
let the sunshine in ♪
[Buhrmester] Publishing
photos of naked women,
that was nothing new.
It was Hef's personalized
approach to that,
where they were called Playmates.
This was someone, your partner in crime.
This was someone you did things with.
♪ Girl, you've done me
wrong, that's right ♪
[Hefner] Was it our best issue? No.
♪ Yeah, but I really
need you right now ♪
[Hefner] But I was
confident enough this time
to put my name and issue number on it.
♪ Come back to me right now ♪
♪ And let the sunshine in ♪
[Hefner] And believe it
or not, the second issue
outsold the first by 2,000 copies.
♪ Brighten up my day ♪
♪ Send those clouds away ♪
♪ Let the sunshine in ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
[Hefner] Now that our
magazine was a success,
I knew my staff of three wasn't enough.
♪
[Hefner] What do you think of Playboy?
I think your fiction section
could use a little work.
Oh, really?
[Hefner] When I met Ray Russell,
he was just an unpublished
science fiction writer,
but he'd submitted a few
pieces to the magazine
and I really liked his style.
♪
Although his only experience
was writing for Walgreens circulars,
I made Ray my associate editor.
My next focus was the visuals.
♪
I had worked with a
guy named Vince Tajiri
during my publishing house days,
whose talent I felt was
never fully recognized.
♪
These days, he was stuck
taking wedding photos to pay the bills,
so he was more than happy
to accept the position
as Playboy's photo editor.
♪
The little magazine that I had started
with a couple of friends
was suddenly outgrowing
my kitchen table,
so in the spring of 1954,
with the money we had earned
from the first two issues,
Playboy moved into its own offices.
- Good morning, Mr. Hefner.
- Good morning, Julie.
[Hefner] With our new headquarters...
Eldon.
... my staff was ready to get to work.
Can I talk to you in
my office? Five minutes?
[Cooper Hefner] My dad's success
very much has to do with the fact
that he surrounded himself
with the right people,
and that comes down to his gut.
His gut allowed him to
figure out who he could trust,
who he couldn't... also to
bring out the best in his team.
♪
[Hefner] With our sales growing,
we needed someone to take care
of the subscription requests
that came pouring in.
Hello? No, of course.
I can do that for you
right now if you like.
[Hefner] So, I hired Charlaine Karalus,
a smart, determined young woman
with meticulous attention to detail.
Perfect. That won't be a problem.
I can get a copy over to him. Bye.
[Charlaine Karalus] I
had a friend that told me
about Playboy wanting help,
so we decided we would
go for an interview.
Well, we stopped at a newsstand
and we bought the magazine.
She took it real quick
and hid it under her jacket
so no one would see it.
Turned out, my friend
backed out of the interview.
She chickened out and I didn't.
I had hoped to get on the ground floor
with this magazine and grow with them.
♪
These various employees
that we're talking about,
one could say that Hef lucked out
with these guys, because
one never really knows,
but Hefner's gut told him
these were the right
people for the right jobs.
Okay, great, so what's your
turnaround time on that?
[Hefner] I'd assembled a team
of promising, if unproven, talent
but I knew I needed someone on staff
who could lend a little
credibility to the magazine,
so I hired a guy who had been
an editor at The New Yorker.
His name was Auguste Comte Spectorsky,
or as we'd soon call him, Spec.
Hiring Spectorsky
was a brilliant move on Hefner's part.
Spectorsky gave the magazine a maturity
it wasn't going to have,
and it's to Hefner's credit
that he understood the
magazine needed that maturity.
♪
♪ Well, rock-a-bye, baby ♪
[Hefner] I finally had a team in place
and it was time to see
what we could accomplish.
♪ Rock-a-bye, baby ♪
♪ Mama's gonna rock you by and by ♪
[Hefner] The staff worked like crazy
to get the magazine
together every month.
♪ To this little lullaby ♪
♪ You don't need any whiskey ♪
[Hefner] Day in, day out,
we clocked long hours
and worked weekends.
[Richard Rosenzweig] Playboy was
one of the most exciting places
one could work.
Very different from most
of the other companies
that were around in Chicago
or New York or Los Angeles.
[Hefner] I even bought a
pullout couch for my office
so I could work overnight.
♪
I started spending
most of my time at work,
away from my family.
He spent the majority of
his time in that office.
He had a small little bed,
he had a small little kitchenette,
and he just worked,
and unfortunately, his
marriage suffered from that.
[Hefner] In the marriage, I
was already missing emotionally.
I'm the product of the way I was raised.
While my father was absent emotionally,
I was soon absent.
In point of fact, I wasn't there.
[Millie Gunn Williams] That
physical change occurred
because of the success of the magazine.
It was easier for him
to set up living
quarters somewhere else,
and that's when he said,
"I'm gonna start staying...
living down at the office
a couple of days a week."
♪
[Hefner] The team at Playboy
became my other family.
We worked hard, but we also partied.
And with the magazine's growing success,
we were getting invited to some
of the best parties in town.
♪ Let me love you ♪
[Hefner] And that's
where I was introduced
to a man named Victor Lownes.
Victor, this is the friend
I was telling you about, Hugh Hefner.
There you are. Hi, how are you?
Hef runs the magazine.
Oh, Mr. Playboy. I like your look.
Nice and casual.
Thank you. Is this your place?
Yeah, sure is.
[Victor Lownes] When I met
Hef, I thought he was terrific.
Hefner was a very ambitious businessman,
a very clever businessman.
I mean, anybody who could start
their own magazine,
I was very impressed.
♪ If you lend me your ear... ♪
[Lownes] It was great to meet you, Hef,
but I have some business to attend to.
Um, how about we grab some drinks
at Walton Walk on Friday?
Sure. That sounds good.
Good.
I'll bring along some friends.
Okay.
[Hefner] For almost a year,
I'd been creating a
magazine called Playboy.
But then one night at a party,
I actually met one.
♪
By 1954, Victor Lownes
was the ultimate bachelor.
He came from a wealthy
family in New York
and was given anything he wanted.
By the age of 26, he
had moved to Chicago
and was living the bachelor's dream.
He had the cool
apartment, suave attitude,
and the women.
Victor was leader of the pack.
Everyone wanted to be
with him, men and women.
He just has this gift of life.
He had great style, he had great flair.
There was never a dull
moment with Victor Lownes.
[Hefner] I knew Victor could
add something to the magazine,
so I brought him on board
as manager of promotions
and he fit right in.
[Lownes] So, we got two girls, right?
One of 'em puts her
leg across me, right?
Hand underneath.
[Arthur Kretchmer] Victor Lownes
played a great role at the company.
He was something that Hefner
was not... bold, brash.
He was the complement to Hef,
who was, after all, a
little bit shy and cerebral.
Meanwhile, I'm at the front, here.
[Hefner] Victor lived the
life most guys dreamed of...
All the way at the front. Yeah!
[laughter]
[Hefner] ... and I
wanted to be a part of it.
♪
♪ She is magic... ♪
[Lownes] Not even kidding.
No socks, no necktie, nothing.
[Hefner] I was out with Victor
almost every night of the week.
The guy could get into
any club in Chicago
and always managed to bring
along some incredible company.
[Lownes] I had a very good
bond with Hefner himself.
The two of us worked late at night
and then we would go out
and have drinks together,
and that became a regular pattern.
♪
[clears throat] Well, we're dancing.
♪ Fish got to swim
and birds got to fly ♪
[Christie Hefner] Victor, in some ways,
was more the image of
the editor/publisher
of Playboy than my father was,
because Victor was someone
who loved good food and wine,
who loved to travel, who was
more gregarious and sociable.
♪
So, are you gonna ask
me to dance or what?
Oh, of course.
♪ Tell me he's slow ♪
[Patty Farmer] Hef really
did not have the example
or the sophistication growing up
to be what everyone now
thinks of as a playboy.
♪ Lovin' that man of mine ♪
[Farmer] It wasn't until his
association with Victor Lownes
that they almost became a whole.
♪ He can come home ♪
♪ As late as can be ♪
♪ Can't help lovin' that man ♪
♪ The way I do ♪
♪ Lovin' that man ♪
[Hefner] Partying with
Victor opened my eyes
to a completely different world...
♪
... and I jumped right in.
♪ Hey ♪
♪
[Hefner] The beginning of Playboy
introduced me to a bachelor lifestyle
that has much of the upside
and very few of the downside.
♪ I want to tell you a story ♪
♪ Every man ought to know ♪
[Hefner] I felt no
guilt in that context.
I felt that I was
exploring the outer limits
of what it meant to really be moral.
But the truth of the matter
is, I was running away,
I think, from my traditional values.
♪ Hey hey hey ♪
♪
[Hefner] You have to
remember, this was the 1950s.
You were supposed to get married
and start a family right after school.
But times were changing.
[Christie Hefner] My father had a sense
that he wanted more out of life
than he had seen his
father get out of life,
and that a part of that was the idea
of having a period of time
before you got married and settled down.
And he got married young,
and I think, too young,
and he would say that.
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Hey hey hey ♪
[Hefner] As I began
spending more of my time
living the life of a single man,
I realized it was time to
update the magazine's message.
♪ Oh work it now, work that ♪
[Hefner] When I started Playboy,
it was filled with topics
that met my interests.
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Oh, work it now ♪
[Hefner] But now I wanted to do more.
I wanted to turn the
magazine into a guide
for how to become the ultimate playboy.
[Hefner] What is a playboy?
Just toss out a word.
A bachelor.
[Hefner] What else?
[Sellers] Suave.
[Russell] Sophisticated.
- Intelligent.
- Urbane.
[Hefner] Right.
Every time someone picks
up a copy of Playboy,
I don't want him to just imagine himself
as the type of guy who
can get the girl he wants.
I want to teach him how.
How to buy the right suit,
select the right bottle of wine,
put on the right music
when a girl comes over.
I don't want to follow trends.
I want to create them.
And that is why every
article, every picture,
every page must be specifically tailored
to promote this one, singular vision...
the Playboy lifestyle.
[Hefner] The message was very clear.
We were talking about how
to live as a single male.
And nobody had done that before.
♪ My sugar is so... ♪
[Hefner] My staff had
their marching orders,
and we worked around the clock,
redefining every section of the magazine
to promote the Playboy lifestyle.
♪ She goes to see... ♪
[Hefner] Tajiri translated
his slick photographic style
into how-to guides...
[camera shutter snapping]
... teaching our readers to
select the finest in fashion,
mix the perfect cocktail,
outfit the most
cutting-edge bachelor pad
and orchestrate the perfect date.
♪ She says "toh-mah-toh"
instead of "toh-may-toh" ♪
[Buhrmester] There's a
generation of men who said,
"I'm not gonna marry
the girl down the street
and I'm gonna move to a major city."
That really shook up America
and I think that bred the
ground for Hef to come out
and invent the idea of the bachelor.
♪ We'll be married soon ♪
[Hefner] I think the thing
that made Playboy so special
was that we managed to mix the lifestyle
and the sexual content
with a mix of contemporary values
that were not really getting expression
in other mass media.
♪
[phone ringing]
[Hefner] Our readership
continued to expand...
Yeah, it's nice, it's nice.
[Hefner] ... and I realized that
we were no longer just a magazine.
We were becoming a brand.
But there was still one thing missing.
Playboy needed a logo.
♪
So I gave Art Paul the
task of designing it.
♪
♪ Talk to me, baby, whisper in my ear ♪
[Hefner] Four minutes later,
he had sketched the perfect symbol...
♪ Talk to me, baby,
whisper in my ear ♪
[Hefner] ... an image so
flawless that even 60 years later,
it remains completely unchanged.
♪ Don't have no fear ♪
♪ Don't you know I love you so ♪
The Playboy rabbit head is iconic.
It is one of a handful of symbols that,
from very early on, became
phenomenally recognizable.
♪ Holler hey, hey ♪
♪ Kokomo ♪
♪
[Hefner] Our famous mascot
became a part of every issue,
with Art Paul turning it into a game,
challenging our readers
to find the rabbit
hidden on every cover.
♪
♪ There's dimples on her elbows ♪
[Brett Ratner] The best
comparison I have for Hef,
I would say Hefner is Walt Disney
and the bunny is his Mickey Mouse.
♪ Dimples on her knees ♪
[Ratner] It's branding. It's
marketing. It's brilliance.
♪ She chills and thrills me ♪
♪ With just a little squeeze ♪
♪ I like the sleigh ride,
I like the sleigh ride ♪
♪ Jingle bells, jingle bells ♪
♪ Jingle all the way ♪
Pass these around, gentlemen.
[Hefner] Looking back, 1954
had been an incredible year.
The magazine I'd started
with a staff of three
had taken over four floors
of a Chicago office building,
hired over 25 employees,
and grown monthly sales
to nearly 185,000 copies,
more than doubling the print-run
of our first issue.
It's really remarkable
the magazine was profitable
in its first year. Nobody does that.
Sports Illustrated, for
a frame of reference,
started about the same time as Playboy,
and they didn't turn a
profit until the early '60s.
♪ I like the sleigh ride ♪
♪
♪ Silent night ♪
♪ Holy night ♪
♪ All is calm ♪
♪ All is bright ♪
♪ Round yon virgin ♪
♪ Mother and child ♪
♪
[Christie Hefner] My
father wasn't around a lot
when I was growing up.
Putting the magazine first,
which Hef clearly did,
meant, by definition,
that he wasn't gonna have
the same kind of family
life that he would have
if he hadn't done that.
♪
[Millie Gunn Williams] He
was so busy with the company,
he didn't have a lot of time,
but he was Daddy, and Daddy was good,
and Daddy was caring.
♪
But he was fairly non-existent.
♪
[Hefner] I knew I should
have been home with my family
to be the father Christie needed,
but there was always
something at the office
that pulled me away.
[Art Paul] All right, so
you can see we're going
for a beach theme here.
We're incorporating an image
of the bunny in the sand,
making use of the bathing suit,
and you can see there's
just a pair of legs
walking into the distance,
suggesting that it may be
her suit that we're
seeing, which of course
would mean that she's not
wearing anything at all.
Uh, it was just an idea.
I can come up with a
couple other options
if you're not happy with it, Hef.
No, no. It's a good
cover. It's a great cover.
It's better than the centerfold.
This is inspired.
This is just awkward, right?
Why don't we take our own photographs?
[men groaning]
Why not?
She has a point. Why don't we?
See if you can find out
where the calendar companies
are getting their girls from.
Yeah, I'll get on it.
Thank you, everyone.
[Karalus] At the time, Playboy was using
calendar pictures for their centerfolds.
They were professional models,
and they were not exclusive pictures,
Hefner was very unhappy with
the quality and the caliber.
He wanted something
different, something new,
something unique, and
something, you know,
special that Playboy would have.
Charlaine, if you ever have any ideas,
my door's always open.
♪
♪ This time ♪
[Hefner] Charlaine was a
talented, beautiful woman.
♪ Can change my mind ♪
[Hefner] The more we worked
together, the closer we got.
♪ And keep my heart
from yearning inside ♪
[Hefner] And it wasn't long
before we became more
than just coworkers.
♪ Right this time ♪
♪
I'm gonna get a glass of
water. Do you want one?
Sure.
♪
♪ Can't keep my heart
from yearning inside ♪
♪ I know love is right ♪
♪ This time ♪
Why are you looking at me like that?
Have you ever thought
about being in the magazine?
Doing what, exactly?
Miss July.
[laughing]
No, I'm serious.
Wouldn't you like to be
pictured in a magazine?
I'm sure there are
plenty of girls out there
who would be more than
happy to pose for you.
I don't want those girls. I want you.
Why?
Because you're not the
type of girl you'd expect.
[Hefner] I had sent my team out
looking for the perfect girl.
And I realized she had been
in front of me all along.
I really did the Playmate
picture as sort of a lark.
It seemed like a fun thing to do.
It was out of loyalty to the magazine,
and it was just super fun.
♪
[Hefner] Charlaine's one condition
was that we didn't use her real name...
♪
... so I came up with
an alias, Janet Pilgrim,
and wrote a short blurb
to go along with the photo,
explaining that she
wasn't like the models
we'd used in the past.
She was plucked right
from our own office,
and to Playboy's readers,
she would simply be the girl next door.
♪
You look great.
♪
♪ If I only had a second chance ♪
♪ How I'd love you ♪
♪ If you'll only take a
second chance with your heart ♪
♪
♪ Darling, this time I swear ♪
♪ At least a lifetime we'd share ♪
♪ No one could tear our love apart ♪
♪ Our love apart ♪
♪ If I only had a second chance... ♪
[Karalus] When I did my
first Playmate picture,
I was very nervous about it
because I knew hundreds of men
would be opening that magazine
and seeing me like that,
but I wasn't really
showing much of anything.
♪ Then you'll see ♪
♪
[camera shutter clicking]
♪
[Hefner] With that issue,
our subscription manager
became the magazine's
most popular Playmate yet.
Letters poured in from
across the country,
and I realized the girl next door...
... was a hit.
[Art Paul] That looks
great. Here. You know what?
Just come forward a little bit.
♪ Listen to me, baby ♪
The idea that then evolved was to use,
when we talk about the girl next door,
in other words, to use an office girl
or somebody going to college
or someone working as a clerk in a shop.
♪ Every boy wants a girl ♪
[Hefner] And what we didn't know
was that it was gonna
cause such a sensation.
♪ But I've seen lips
bigger to be kissed ♪
♪ Stop I can't stop... ♪
And it caused a sensation.
♪ Lightning striking again ♪
♪ Lightning striking again ♪
[Buhrmester] She's not unapproachable.
Hef wanted to capture
the girl-next-door essence
of a flirtiness but
also an approachability.
♪ I can't stop ♪
♪ I can't stop myself lightning... ♪
[Hefner] We had gone from the
most famous woman on the planet
to the girls right there in front of us,
and I knew, from that moment on,
we were never going back.
♪ 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] 1953 was a
year of all-American values.
♪
"I Love Lucy" was the number
one show on television.
Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in
as the country's 34th President.
♪
And suburban culture was a way of life.
♪
But under the surface,
society was as repressed as ever.
It was a very culturally and
sexually conservative time.
♪
Men and women were
expected to go to college,
get a job, get married, settle
down, and raise a family.
It was the new American dream,
the white picket fence
out in the suburbs.
And that's exactly the
life that Hefner was living,
but he found it deeply
unsatisfying and boring.
[Hefner] It was clear to me
that America needed a change,
so I decided I was going
to create a magazine
that would challenge conformity.
♪
A modern men's magazine about lifestyle,
art, culture, and sex,
and I'd call it Stag Party.
But I knew the first issue
needed the perfect cover girl,
and after months of searching,
I had finally found her.
[door opening]
[door closing]
Hey, Hef, I got some
more girls here for you.
- What do you think about that?
- Good.
I have an option myself.
What do you think of this?
Um... that's Marilyn Monroe.
That's her. She's our pin-up girl.
[laughing]
[Hefner] In the spring of 1953,
I bought the rights to nude photos
of one of the most
famous women in the world,
Marilyn Monroe.
♪
Now that we had our model,
I worked around the clock,
creating every single
aspect of the magazine...
♪
... what would be in
it, how it would look.
He put the first issue
out singlehandedly.
He went over all the material,
he did some of the drawings himself.
[Hefner] I was determined to
create the perfect first issue.
There was a section with party jokes,
another on designs
for the modern office.
We would even publish classic literature
from some of the most well known authors
in the world.
[Jason Buhrmester] The boldest
thing Hef did with the magazine
is that he really dismantled the idea
of the 1950s masculinity.
In the first issue,
in the editor's letter,
Hef very plainly says,
other men's magazines
focus on hunting and fishing and sports.
We're not doing any of that.
We're gonna talk about jazz
and cocktails and Picasso.
[Hefner] We'd talk about culture,
but we'd also focus on sex.
♪
[Hefner] When people raised questions
about why we included
sex in the magazine,
my response always was,
how could you put together
a men's magazine and not include
the primary thing that
men are interested in?
The whole idea from the
beginning was to incorporate sex
as one, normal and logical and
healthy part of a total package
that appealed to a male audience.
We featured articles on modern
dating and married life...
♪
and instructions for how to play
a provocative new party game
called "Strip Quiz."
♪
I think that we have it very,
very engrained in our heads
to be very uncomfortable with sex,
but that's the reason I'm here.
That's the reason why you're here.
That's the reason why we're all here.
[Hefner] My hope was that my magazine
would bring sex to the mainstream.
♪
[Hefner] But just as we were putting
the final touches on the magazine,
everything came to a standstill.
It turns out, there
was a hunting magazine
already on the market called Stag,
and as soon as Stag
got wind of Stag Party,
they threatened to sue us
for copyright infringement.
Now, with only a week
before our deadline,
we had to completely
re-edit the magazine
and come up with a brand new title.
♪ 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 ♪
[Hefner] Facing a potential
lawsuit, I gathered my staff
to try and come up with a
new name for the magazine.
Bachelor.
[Art Paul] Ah, it makes it sound
like we're not for married men.
We'd be cutting out a whole reader base.
What about something
like Sir or Gentlemen?
[Hefner] No, no, it's too literal.
It has to be fun. What
does the name Jaguar
have to do with a car company?
Nothing, but it sounds cool, right?
Oh, oh! What was the
name of that car company
my mom used to work for? Playboy.
Playboy.
♪
[Eldon Sellers] We spent many,
many hours talking about names.
Finally, I remembered that my mother
had worked for an
automobile company in Detroit
called Playboy Automobile,
and it was a very sporty
looking automobile,
a nice looking automobile,
and that's what made me
mention Playboy as a possibility.
[David Eisenbach] Playboy. Perfect.
It isn't aggressive. It
isn't hyper-masculine.
Yeah, okay, you're
doing nudie magazines,
but there's a sophistication to it.
♪
[Hefner] We had our new name.
Now we had to quickly revise the cover
and remove all references to Stag Party
throughout the magazine.
Back then, when you're literally
pasting print onto a page,
somebody would have to take a
knife, a little X-Acto knife,
and cut out every Stag Party
on every page of the magazine
and replace it with Playboy. Even today,
with desktop publishing
and all that kind of stuff,
that would be an
incredible amount of work.
♪
[Hefner] Even our
cartoon mascot of a deer
would have to change to something else,
and we chose a bunny.
♪
The rabbit captures the sophistication,
the silliness of the brand.
There is the sort of sexual
connotation of a rabbit
that comes through.
[Hefner] I had no idea at the
time, but that one little change
would come to define
the magazine for decades.
We had our mascot in place,
and with Marilyn on the
cover, we were ready to go.
♪
Soon, almost 70,000 copies of Playboy
would be heading to major
cities across the country.
♪
The only question was, would it sell?
♪
In December of 1953, my
magazine hit the newsstands.
[man] Thank you.
[Sellers] Hef got up and lurked
around newsstands in Chicago
and waited to see if anyone
would pick up the copy
and has talked about how excited he was
the first time he saw someone buy it.
And I imagine he was elated to know
there were other people out
there who felt like he did,
because he was taking this gamble.
[Hefner] I was excited,
but I was also nervous,
so nervous I didn't put
my name or issue number
on our first publication.
♪
I felt at the time, even if
there was never going to be
another issue that I'd
had my chance, and indeed,
at that point, I was not sure
there would be a second issue.
That's why it had no date on it.
Whether I succeeded or not,
I'd had the chance to try.
[Hefner] And then, the numbers came in.
♪
In its first two weeks
on the newsstands,
nearly 80% of the 70,
000 issues we printed
were sold across the country.
♪ Don't you know you
gotta be strong? ♪
♪ Leave all the other guys alone ♪
[Richard Rosenzweig] It
was virtually sold out.
He edited this magazine for
himself, and he was betting
that other young men were interested
in the same things he was interested in,
and he won that bet.
♪ You're gonna be lonely ♪
♪ So let it shine ♪
[Hefner] It was enough for me
to pay back everyone I owed,
get our furniture back,
and still have enough left over
to replace my 12-year-old Chevy
with a brand-new Studebaker sports car.
♪
"May I congratulate you
on your initial issue
of Playboy magazine."
[Hefner] And it wasn't long
before fan mail started pouring in.
♪ Don't you know you gotta be strong? ♪
♪ Leave all the other guys alone ♪
[Hefner] Readers in Oklahoma,
Colorado, and Illinois
were raving about
Marilyn and the magazine.
♪ Whoa ♪
[Hefner] Even the press
gave us positive reviews.
The magazine started from
nothing and was a success
from its very first issue.
It was as if it was
a moment and an event
that was waiting to happen.
♪
- Just back to back.
- Good.
Yeah, with a little explanation and, uh.
[Hefner] We were so surprised
by the magazine's success
that we hadn't even thought
about a second issue,
and now we had only a
week to put one together.
To make our lives easier,
we stuck to what made
the magazine work the first time,
adding more party jokes,
comics, and literature,
but this time, we were
missing one key component.
♪
No. There's nothing good here.
Well, this is all we
have to choose from,
so one of them has to be good enough.
I'm sorry, but none of
these girls are right.
None of these girls are Marilyn, Hef.
They're just not.
But if you want to print a second issue,
you need to pick one of them.
[Hefner] Putting Marilyn
Monroe on the cover
had drawn in readers
for the first issue,
but I knew I wasn't going
to find another Marilyn.
If Playboy was going to last
I had to find another hook,
and that's when it hit me.
♪ Let the sunshine in ♪
♪ Come on right away ♪
♪ Let the sunshine in,
brighten up my day ♪
[Hefner] Remember
back in my college days
when I started a column
in the school magazine
called "Co-Ed of the Month"
that featured female students?
I realized Playboy
could do the same thing,
only we'd call her the
Playmate of the Month.
[Hefner] I had completely forgotten
that the cover of Shaft Magazine
and the feature inside it was
called the Co-Ed of the Month.
It was a revelation.
♪ And let the sunshine
in, come on right away ♪
[Hefner] So, a calendar
girl named Margie Harrison
became Miss January.
♪ Send those clouds away,
let the sunshine in ♪
[Buhrmester] Publishing
photos of naked women,
that was nothing new.
It was Hef's personalized
approach to that,
where they were called Playmates.
This was someone, your partner in crime.
This was someone you did things with.
♪ Girl, you've done me
wrong, that's right ♪
[Hefner] Was it our best issue? No.
♪ Yeah, but I really
need you right now ♪
[Hefner] But I was
confident enough this time
to put my name and issue number on it.
♪ Come back to me right now ♪
♪ And let the sunshine in ♪
[Hefner] And believe it
or not, the second issue
outsold the first by 2,000 copies.
♪ Brighten up my day ♪
♪ Send those clouds away ♪
♪ Let the sunshine in ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
[Hefner] Now that our
magazine was a success,
I knew my staff of three wasn't enough.
♪
[Hefner] What do you think of Playboy?
I think your fiction section
could use a little work.
Oh, really?
[Hefner] When I met Ray Russell,
he was just an unpublished
science fiction writer,
but he'd submitted a few
pieces to the magazine
and I really liked his style.
♪
Although his only experience
was writing for Walgreens circulars,
I made Ray my associate editor.
My next focus was the visuals.
♪
I had worked with a
guy named Vince Tajiri
during my publishing house days,
whose talent I felt was
never fully recognized.
♪
These days, he was stuck
taking wedding photos to pay the bills,
so he was more than happy
to accept the position
as Playboy's photo editor.
♪
The little magazine that I had started
with a couple of friends
was suddenly outgrowing
my kitchen table,
so in the spring of 1954,
with the money we had earned
from the first two issues,
Playboy moved into its own offices.
- Good morning, Mr. Hefner.
- Good morning, Julie.
[Hefner] With our new headquarters...
Eldon.
... my staff was ready to get to work.
Can I talk to you in
my office? Five minutes?
[Cooper Hefner] My dad's success
very much has to do with the fact
that he surrounded himself
with the right people,
and that comes down to his gut.
His gut allowed him to
figure out who he could trust,
who he couldn't... also to
bring out the best in his team.
♪
[Hefner] With our sales growing,
we needed someone to take care
of the subscription requests
that came pouring in.
Hello? No, of course.
I can do that for you
right now if you like.
[Hefner] So, I hired Charlaine Karalus,
a smart, determined young woman
with meticulous attention to detail.
Perfect. That won't be a problem.
I can get a copy over to him. Bye.
[Charlaine Karalus] I
had a friend that told me
about Playboy wanting help,
so we decided we would
go for an interview.
Well, we stopped at a newsstand
and we bought the magazine.
She took it real quick
and hid it under her jacket
so no one would see it.
Turned out, my friend
backed out of the interview.
She chickened out and I didn't.
I had hoped to get on the ground floor
with this magazine and grow with them.
♪
These various employees
that we're talking about,
one could say that Hef lucked out
with these guys, because
one never really knows,
but Hefner's gut told him
these were the right
people for the right jobs.
Okay, great, so what's your
turnaround time on that?
[Hefner] I'd assembled a team
of promising, if unproven, talent
but I knew I needed someone on staff
who could lend a little
credibility to the magazine,
so I hired a guy who had been
an editor at The New Yorker.
His name was Auguste Comte Spectorsky,
or as we'd soon call him, Spec.
Hiring Spectorsky
was a brilliant move on Hefner's part.
Spectorsky gave the magazine a maturity
it wasn't going to have,
and it's to Hefner's credit
that he understood the
magazine needed that maturity.
♪
♪ Well, rock-a-bye, baby ♪
[Hefner] I finally had a team in place
and it was time to see
what we could accomplish.
♪ Rock-a-bye, baby ♪
♪ Mama's gonna rock you by and by ♪
[Hefner] The staff worked like crazy
to get the magazine
together every month.
♪ To this little lullaby ♪
♪ You don't need any whiskey ♪
[Hefner] Day in, day out,
we clocked long hours
and worked weekends.
[Richard Rosenzweig] Playboy was
one of the most exciting places
one could work.
Very different from most
of the other companies
that were around in Chicago
or New York or Los Angeles.
[Hefner] I even bought a
pullout couch for my office
so I could work overnight.
♪
I started spending
most of my time at work,
away from my family.
He spent the majority of
his time in that office.
He had a small little bed,
he had a small little kitchenette,
and he just worked,
and unfortunately, his
marriage suffered from that.
[Hefner] In the marriage, I
was already missing emotionally.
I'm the product of the way I was raised.
While my father was absent emotionally,
I was soon absent.
In point of fact, I wasn't there.
[Millie Gunn Williams] That
physical change occurred
because of the success of the magazine.
It was easier for him
to set up living
quarters somewhere else,
and that's when he said,
"I'm gonna start staying...
living down at the office
a couple of days a week."
♪
[Hefner] The team at Playboy
became my other family.
We worked hard, but we also partied.
And with the magazine's growing success,
we were getting invited to some
of the best parties in town.
♪ Let me love you ♪
[Hefner] And that's
where I was introduced
to a man named Victor Lownes.
Victor, this is the friend
I was telling you about, Hugh Hefner.
There you are. Hi, how are you?
Hef runs the magazine.
Oh, Mr. Playboy. I like your look.
Nice and casual.
Thank you. Is this your place?
Yeah, sure is.
[Victor Lownes] When I met
Hef, I thought he was terrific.
Hefner was a very ambitious businessman,
a very clever businessman.
I mean, anybody who could start
their own magazine,
I was very impressed.
♪ If you lend me your ear... ♪
[Lownes] It was great to meet you, Hef,
but I have some business to attend to.
Um, how about we grab some drinks
at Walton Walk on Friday?
Sure. That sounds good.
Good.
I'll bring along some friends.
Okay.
[Hefner] For almost a year,
I'd been creating a
magazine called Playboy.
But then one night at a party,
I actually met one.
♪
By 1954, Victor Lownes
was the ultimate bachelor.
He came from a wealthy
family in New York
and was given anything he wanted.
By the age of 26, he
had moved to Chicago
and was living the bachelor's dream.
He had the cool
apartment, suave attitude,
and the women.
Victor was leader of the pack.
Everyone wanted to be
with him, men and women.
He just has this gift of life.
He had great style, he had great flair.
There was never a dull
moment with Victor Lownes.
[Hefner] I knew Victor could
add something to the magazine,
so I brought him on board
as manager of promotions
and he fit right in.
[Lownes] So, we got two girls, right?
One of 'em puts her
leg across me, right?
Hand underneath.
[Arthur Kretchmer] Victor Lownes
played a great role at the company.
He was something that Hefner
was not... bold, brash.
He was the complement to Hef,
who was, after all, a
little bit shy and cerebral.
Meanwhile, I'm at the front, here.
[Hefner] Victor lived the
life most guys dreamed of...
All the way at the front. Yeah!
[laughter]
[Hefner] ... and I
wanted to be a part of it.
♪
♪ She is magic... ♪
[Lownes] Not even kidding.
No socks, no necktie, nothing.
[Hefner] I was out with Victor
almost every night of the week.
The guy could get into
any club in Chicago
and always managed to bring
along some incredible company.
[Lownes] I had a very good
bond with Hefner himself.
The two of us worked late at night
and then we would go out
and have drinks together,
and that became a regular pattern.
♪
[clears throat] Well, we're dancing.
♪ Fish got to swim
and birds got to fly ♪
[Christie Hefner] Victor, in some ways,
was more the image of
the editor/publisher
of Playboy than my father was,
because Victor was someone
who loved good food and wine,
who loved to travel, who was
more gregarious and sociable.
♪
So, are you gonna ask
me to dance or what?
Oh, of course.
♪ Tell me he's slow ♪
[Patty Farmer] Hef really
did not have the example
or the sophistication growing up
to be what everyone now
thinks of as a playboy.
♪ Lovin' that man of mine ♪
[Farmer] It wasn't until his
association with Victor Lownes
that they almost became a whole.
♪ He can come home ♪
♪ As late as can be ♪
♪ Can't help lovin' that man ♪
♪ The way I do ♪
♪ Lovin' that man ♪
[Hefner] Partying with
Victor opened my eyes
to a completely different world...
♪
... and I jumped right in.
♪ Hey ♪
♪
[Hefner] The beginning of Playboy
introduced me to a bachelor lifestyle
that has much of the upside
and very few of the downside.
♪ I want to tell you a story ♪
♪ Every man ought to know ♪
[Hefner] I felt no
guilt in that context.
I felt that I was
exploring the outer limits
of what it meant to really be moral.
But the truth of the matter
is, I was running away,
I think, from my traditional values.
♪ Hey hey hey ♪
♪
[Hefner] You have to
remember, this was the 1950s.
You were supposed to get married
and start a family right after school.
But times were changing.
[Christie Hefner] My father had a sense
that he wanted more out of life
than he had seen his
father get out of life,
and that a part of that was the idea
of having a period of time
before you got married and settled down.
And he got married young,
and I think, too young,
and he would say that.
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Hey hey hey ♪
[Hefner] As I began
spending more of my time
living the life of a single man,
I realized it was time to
update the magazine's message.
♪ Oh work it now, work that ♪
[Hefner] When I started Playboy,
it was filled with topics
that met my interests.
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Oh, work it now ♪
[Hefner] But now I wanted to do more.
I wanted to turn the
magazine into a guide
for how to become the ultimate playboy.
[Hefner] What is a playboy?
Just toss out a word.
A bachelor.
[Hefner] What else?
[Sellers] Suave.
[Russell] Sophisticated.
- Intelligent.
- Urbane.
[Hefner] Right.
Every time someone picks
up a copy of Playboy,
I don't want him to just imagine himself
as the type of guy who
can get the girl he wants.
I want to teach him how.
How to buy the right suit,
select the right bottle of wine,
put on the right music
when a girl comes over.
I don't want to follow trends.
I want to create them.
And that is why every
article, every picture,
every page must be specifically tailored
to promote this one, singular vision...
the Playboy lifestyle.
[Hefner] The message was very clear.
We were talking about how
to live as a single male.
And nobody had done that before.
♪ My sugar is so... ♪
[Hefner] My staff had
their marching orders,
and we worked around the clock,
redefining every section of the magazine
to promote the Playboy lifestyle.
♪ She goes to see... ♪
[Hefner] Tajiri translated
his slick photographic style
into how-to guides...
[camera shutter snapping]
... teaching our readers to
select the finest in fashion,
mix the perfect cocktail,
outfit the most
cutting-edge bachelor pad
and orchestrate the perfect date.
♪ She says "toh-mah-toh"
instead of "toh-may-toh" ♪
[Buhrmester] There's a
generation of men who said,
"I'm not gonna marry
the girl down the street
and I'm gonna move to a major city."
That really shook up America
and I think that bred the
ground for Hef to come out
and invent the idea of the bachelor.
♪ We'll be married soon ♪
[Hefner] I think the thing
that made Playboy so special
was that we managed to mix the lifestyle
and the sexual content
with a mix of contemporary values
that were not really getting expression
in other mass media.
♪
[phone ringing]
[Hefner] Our readership
continued to expand...
Yeah, it's nice, it's nice.
[Hefner] ... and I realized that
we were no longer just a magazine.
We were becoming a brand.
But there was still one thing missing.
Playboy needed a logo.
♪
So I gave Art Paul the
task of designing it.
♪
♪ Talk to me, baby, whisper in my ear ♪
[Hefner] Four minutes later,
he had sketched the perfect symbol...
♪ Talk to me, baby,
whisper in my ear ♪
[Hefner] ... an image so
flawless that even 60 years later,
it remains completely unchanged.
♪ Don't have no fear ♪
♪ Don't you know I love you so ♪
The Playboy rabbit head is iconic.
It is one of a handful of symbols that,
from very early on, became
phenomenally recognizable.
♪ Holler hey, hey ♪
♪ Kokomo ♪
♪
[Hefner] Our famous mascot
became a part of every issue,
with Art Paul turning it into a game,
challenging our readers
to find the rabbit
hidden on every cover.
♪
♪ There's dimples on her elbows ♪
[Brett Ratner] The best
comparison I have for Hef,
I would say Hefner is Walt Disney
and the bunny is his Mickey Mouse.
♪ Dimples on her knees ♪
[Ratner] It's branding. It's
marketing. It's brilliance.
♪ She chills and thrills me ♪
♪ With just a little squeeze ♪
♪ I like the sleigh ride,
I like the sleigh ride ♪
♪ Jingle bells, jingle bells ♪
♪ Jingle all the way ♪
Pass these around, gentlemen.
[Hefner] Looking back, 1954
had been an incredible year.
The magazine I'd started
with a staff of three
had taken over four floors
of a Chicago office building,
hired over 25 employees,
and grown monthly sales
to nearly 185,000 copies,
more than doubling the print-run
of our first issue.
It's really remarkable
the magazine was profitable
in its first year. Nobody does that.
Sports Illustrated, for
a frame of reference,
started about the same time as Playboy,
and they didn't turn a
profit until the early '60s.
♪ I like the sleigh ride ♪
♪
♪ Silent night ♪
♪ Holy night ♪
♪ All is calm ♪
♪ All is bright ♪
♪ Round yon virgin ♪
♪ Mother and child ♪
♪
[Christie Hefner] My
father wasn't around a lot
when I was growing up.
Putting the magazine first,
which Hef clearly did,
meant, by definition,
that he wasn't gonna have
the same kind of family
life that he would have
if he hadn't done that.
♪
[Millie Gunn Williams] He
was so busy with the company,
he didn't have a lot of time,
but he was Daddy, and Daddy was good,
and Daddy was caring.
♪
But he was fairly non-existent.
♪
[Hefner] I knew I should
have been home with my family
to be the father Christie needed,
but there was always
something at the office
that pulled me away.
[Art Paul] All right, so
you can see we're going
for a beach theme here.
We're incorporating an image
of the bunny in the sand,
making use of the bathing suit,
and you can see there's
just a pair of legs
walking into the distance,
suggesting that it may be
her suit that we're
seeing, which of course
would mean that she's not
wearing anything at all.
Uh, it was just an idea.
I can come up with a
couple other options
if you're not happy with it, Hef.
No, no. It's a good
cover. It's a great cover.
It's better than the centerfold.
This is inspired.
This is just awkward, right?
Why don't we take our own photographs?
[men groaning]
Why not?
She has a point. Why don't we?
See if you can find out
where the calendar companies
are getting their girls from.
Yeah, I'll get on it.
Thank you, everyone.
[Karalus] At the time, Playboy was using
calendar pictures for their centerfolds.
They were professional models,
and they were not exclusive pictures,
Hefner was very unhappy with
the quality and the caliber.
He wanted something
different, something new,
something unique, and
something, you know,
special that Playboy would have.
Charlaine, if you ever have any ideas,
my door's always open.
♪
♪ This time ♪
[Hefner] Charlaine was a
talented, beautiful woman.
♪ Can change my mind ♪
[Hefner] The more we worked
together, the closer we got.
♪ And keep my heart
from yearning inside ♪
[Hefner] And it wasn't long
before we became more
than just coworkers.
♪ Right this time ♪
♪
I'm gonna get a glass of
water. Do you want one?
Sure.
♪
♪ Can't keep my heart
from yearning inside ♪
♪ I know love is right ♪
♪ This time ♪
Why are you looking at me like that?
Have you ever thought
about being in the magazine?
Doing what, exactly?
Miss July.
[laughing]
No, I'm serious.
Wouldn't you like to be
pictured in a magazine?
I'm sure there are
plenty of girls out there
who would be more than
happy to pose for you.
I don't want those girls. I want you.
Why?
Because you're not the
type of girl you'd expect.
[Hefner] I had sent my team out
looking for the perfect girl.
And I realized she had been
in front of me all along.
I really did the Playmate
picture as sort of a lark.
It seemed like a fun thing to do.
It was out of loyalty to the magazine,
and it was just super fun.
♪
[Hefner] Charlaine's one condition
was that we didn't use her real name...
♪
... so I came up with
an alias, Janet Pilgrim,
and wrote a short blurb
to go along with the photo,
explaining that she
wasn't like the models
we'd used in the past.
She was plucked right
from our own office,
and to Playboy's readers,
she would simply be the girl next door.
♪
You look great.
♪
♪ If I only had a second chance ♪
♪ How I'd love you ♪
♪ If you'll only take a
second chance with your heart ♪
♪
♪ Darling, this time I swear ♪
♪ At least a lifetime we'd share ♪
♪ No one could tear our love apart ♪
♪ Our love apart ♪
♪ If I only had a second chance... ♪
[Karalus] When I did my
first Playmate picture,
I was very nervous about it
because I knew hundreds of men
would be opening that magazine
and seeing me like that,
but I wasn't really
showing much of anything.
♪ Then you'll see ♪
♪
[camera shutter clicking]
♪
[Hefner] With that issue,
our subscription manager
became the magazine's
most popular Playmate yet.
Letters poured in from
across the country,
and I realized the girl next door...
... was a hit.
[Art Paul] That looks
great. Here. You know what?
Just come forward a little bit.
♪ Listen to me, baby ♪
The idea that then evolved was to use,
when we talk about the girl next door,
in other words, to use an office girl
or somebody going to college
or someone working as a clerk in a shop.
♪ Every boy wants a girl ♪
[Hefner] And what we didn't know
was that it was gonna
cause such a sensation.
♪ But I've seen lips
bigger to be kissed ♪
♪ Stop I can't stop... ♪
And it caused a sensation.
♪ Lightning striking again ♪
♪ Lightning striking again ♪
[Buhrmester] She's not unapproachable.
Hef wanted to capture
the girl-next-door essence
of a flirtiness but
also an approachability.
♪ I can't stop ♪
♪ I can't stop myself lightning... ♪
[Hefner] We had gone from the
most famous woman on the planet
to the girls right there in front of us,
and I knew, from that moment on,
we were never going back.
♪ 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 ♪