American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story (2017–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - The Playboy Interview - full transcript

It was 1962 and America was changing.

The space program was in full swing,

and John Glenn became the
first person to orbit the earth.

Johnny Carson was named the
new host of The Tonight Show,

and the Cuban Missile Crisis,

which had kept the country
on edge for 13 days,

came to an end.

While American culture was shifting,

the world of Playboy had exploded.

Our magazine had over one and a
half million readers each month.

And the Playboy Club had become
the biggest party in Chicago



with over 100,000 key holders.

With the mounting success
of the Chicago Club,

it was time to take our party national.

And I knew the perfect location
for the next Playboy Club...

New York City.

But the competition was tough.

New York was home to the
some of the world's hottest

and most iconic nightlife.

So I sent Victor Lownes to get
a better feel for the market.

I found a perfect location

on East 59th Street.

I was staying at the Plaza Hotel,

and I noticed a "for
rent" sign on a building

that I could see out of
my window at the Plaza.



Central Park here.

Cartier, Tiffany's.

And you see these picture windows here?

That's all the advertising we'll need.

When people walk by and
see that spiral staircase

filled with a rainbow of Bunnies...

We got 'em.

When can renovations begin?

We should be cleared
to start in two weeks.

I'm finalizing everything

with the Department of Buildings today.

Which reminds me, Victor.

Preliminary budgeting
has us at 2.5 million.

Right now we're overextended by a lot.

We're pre-selling
memberships, that'll help.

No, it will help, you're right, but...

Bob, it's New York.

I know it's New York, but it
doesn't hurt to limit risk.

This is what I want.

This design, at this address.

To me, that's worth the risk.

They put $7 million into renovations,

and that was a huge amount at that time.

And that did not even take into
account the advertising budget.

So Victor really had
high hopes for this Club

being really the jewel
in the Playboy Club chain.

With our plans in place,

we started construction.

And at seven stories high,
the Club would have twice

the capacity of our Chicago location.

But I soon realized that
doing business in New York

had risks I hadn't anticipated.

To open a club, you
needed a liquor license.

And to get a liquor license,

you had to go through the
state's licensing board.

But no state government was
more corrupt than New York's.

Albany was since the 19th century

and continuesto this day,
a cesspool of corruption.

If you want to get anything
done in New York State,

you gotta pay somebody.

You've got to pay some
elected official, right,

to get the go-ahead.

That is how things are done in New York.

Soon enough, we were informed

that in order to open our Club,

we had to pay a corrupt
government official

a bribe of $100,000.

This is blackmail.

That's how it works.

Well, we're not paying him.

We need to open the Club now

and we can't do that
without a liquor license.

Plus, we've already
started selling memberships.

We have over 10,000
customers who already paid.

How would they react if
we canceled the opening?

Arnie insisted that pay-offs
were the cost of doing business.

But paying a bribe went
against everything I stood for.

Hefner's an extremely moral person.

You had to be, and there were
so many trumped-up charges,

and efforts to indict us for
things that we didn't do wrong

that we had to keep our nose clean.

I knew it was a risk

to involve Playboy in
any illegal activity.

But if we wanted to get our
liquor license to open our club,

I had no choice.

So I paid the bribe.

What I didn't know then was that

in going against my conscience,

I was making a decision
that would haunt Playboy

for years to come.

♪ That commands my heart to love you?

On December 8, 1962,

after a rocky start,

our biggest venture yet,
the Playboy Club New York

finally opened its doors.

With its spiral staircase,
elevated piano bar,

and 360-degree fireplace,

it was even more stunning
than our Chicago operation.

We had comedians and singers.

A cue around the block.

It was a huge success
right from the start.

And I had the most
beautiful date in the room.

My girlfriend, Cynthia Maddox.

Cynthia wasn't the only woman I dated,

But anytime I was at the
Club, she was at my side.

Within weeks, we were averaging
over 3,000 guests a night.

Not bad, huh?

Not bad at all.

And I knew if we could conquer
the New York nightclub scene,

we could succeed anywhere.

Within a year, we had Playboy Clubs

in Miami, New Orleans, St.
Louis, Phoenix, Detroit,

Baltimore, Kansas City,
Cincinnati and Los Angeles.

Playboy was on top of the world.

But just when it seemed like
everything was going our way...

... a decision I made months earlier

was about to threaten
the entire Playboy empire.

Hef?

Hef...

Bob?

Sorry, I know it's early.

It's 10:00 a.m.

It's important.

Just a few months after
the New York Club opened,

my staff caught wind of
a government operation

that could shut us down.

New York Governor, Nelson Rockefeller,

had announced a corruption investigation

with a specific focus on
the State Liquor Authority,

the same organization that
had forced me to pay a bribe

to get my club open.

I knew it was only a matter of time

before Rockefeller's investigation

would lead directly to Playboy.

Hefner had apparently given a bribe

to two New York state officials,

the Chairman of the
Republican Party of New York

and the Chairman of
the State Liquor Board.

In Hugh Hefner's mind,

he had done what he needed to,

to get Playboy's liquor
license in New York

Practically every club
owner in New York City

had paid a bribe.

But I knew our success
made us a big target.

And if investigators found out,
the Club could be shut down.

The Playboy name could be tarnished,

and we could face criminal charges.

To save Playboy's reputation and my own,

I decided there was
only one thing to do.

Once one succumbs to
a bribe transaction,

you are hooked... forever.

Anything you need, names, dates,
Playboy will give it to you.

We went to the

District Attorney's office in New York,

and we told them what had occurred.

And they said they would
work together on this.

First time, I think that it
ever happened in New York.

Hefner and Morton,

the way they felt about
it had a certain rationale.

And with all the evidence...

We even paid the bribe with a check.

And, I mean, so there was
no question about evidence.

And there was no question
about blowing the whistle.

I followed through with my promise

and turned over all of our books.

By handling it the way
we handled the approach

works out in the end.

And the word gets out to these
people that you cannot touch us

with these unlawful suggestions.

After months of investigation
and a high-profile trial,

Judson Morhouse, the man who
had forced us to pay the bribe,

was removed from office,
disbarred, and convicted

on charges of both
corruption and extortion.

Our testimony proved so
vital to the state's case,

Playboy was forgiven on all counts.

Hefner had, in fact, come clean.

And then he did whatever he could

to break the whole scheme of corruption

by providing testimony

against these two guys
who were convicted.

While I was dealing with the Clubs,

the world was changing.

And I quickly realized Playboy
needed to change with it.

The pill came in in 1960.

And there were topless go-go dancers

in both New York and, uh, San Francisco.

And the sexual revolution
had become a reality.

And with that a permissiveness

that offered a new possibility
in terms of freedom.

It was also a time of revolution too,

and you can't separate that either.

I have a dream...

It was a time of questioning
old mores and values.

It was a reaction to the
very repressive values

that had existed in the '40s and '50s.

It was questioning a lot
of the fundamental views

that people saw were hurtful.

We hold these truths to be self-evident

that all men are created equal.

At City Hall Park another multitude

welcomes the young
democratic Bay Stater.

With John F. Kennedy

pushing a progressive
agenda in the White House,

it seemed like America was
on the cusp of a new era.

And I knew then that
Playboy needed to be

at the forefront of the revolution.

We began publishing articles
tackling the changing times.

We slammed nuclear testing,

criticized America's
corrupt auto industry,

and basted America's
outdated government leaders.

We were even covering social
issues like economic reform.

Even some of my early
critics had to admit

the magazine was doing important work.

The come-on for Playboy in the '60s

was the fact that you were going to see

the Playmate of the Month.

Once you bought the magazine
and began to read it,

then you understood that there
was stuff worth looking at.

Worth reading, worth thinking about.

And some of it was
indeed groundbreaking.

Playboy in its tenth year

was becoming more
influential than ever before.

Writers, cartoonists,
photographers, artists,

they all wanted to be part
of this cultural revolutionary

piece of work that we were doing.

And some of them, and
many of them actually

worked for less than their normal fees

just to be part of it.

Because I was the face of the company,

I wanted to start my own column

to address topics I cared about.

From drug law reform to
separation of church and state.

I called it The Playboy Philosophy.

But our biggest addition was
inspired by the conversations

I was having with
celebrities and intellectuals

at my parties and on my TV show.

I thought it would be great
to give them a platform

to talk about the
issues they cared about,

and I knew our readers would love it.

We called it The Playboy Interview.

The first Playboy Interview

was with my good friend, Miles Davis.

In an interview that
took place over two days,

he went beyond talking about music

and opened up about his experience

as a black man in America.

The magazine wanted to prove
itself to be broad-minded.

Miles Davis was this very important guy.

The interview was comprehensive,
patient, finely edited.

Over the next few months,

we interviewed Peter Sellers,

Jackie Gleason,

and Ayn Rand.

The interviews themselves could have

up to 40 hours of material,

compiled over weeks or months.

Well, the thing that
makes the Playboy Interview

completely unique is,
it's incredibly in-depth.

I mean, who's gonna give,
you know, somewhere between

ten and 25 hours to an
interviewer, you know?

I mean, especially now,
when every celebrity

is so completely
controlled by publicists.

By spending so much
time with celebrities,

we developed a rapport.

And they shared things with us

they would never tell
any other publication.

It was a big status thing
to do the Playboy Interview.

And I think I answered
some things perhaps

a little more frankly
than I normally would,

thinking I'm in the
big time of Playboy now.

The Playboy Interview went on to become

one of the most iconic features
in the magazine's history.

The interview was in the first 20 years,

you'll see that they are
like a classical symphony.

One melody leads into the next
melody and the third melody

is a counterpoint on the first melody.

There is a comprehensiveness to them.

Many years later, Steve Jobs said about

his first Playboy Interview,

it was the single best thing
in media he had ever done.

With all of our new editorial features,

there was so much to do at the magazine

that I had little
time for anything else,

including my girlfriend, Cynthia.

I'm bored.

I've gotta get this done by tonight.

I've, uh... I've gotta
get this done by tonight.

Cynthia...

You're really not
making this easy for me.

But I have to work, okay?

I knew I should have been spending

more time with Cynthia,

but my devotion to the magazine

was far from the only
problem in our relationship.

He dates other girls,
and I don't like it.

He knows I don't like it.

And he doesn't like when I date,

and he feels it's wrong when I date.

Discussions go back and forth
and we try to work things out,

but I don't know what's going
to happen if this continues on.

I'll be right back.

Cynthia was a very vibrant young woman.

And they had a romantic relationship.

Hefner never indicated
that he was a one-woman man.

And that was not to Cynthia's
liking, as one can imagine.

Throughout all the years with Playboy,

I never had a monogamous relationship.

I think I was committed
to that lifestyle.

It was a young man's fantasy.

I was in a unique position
as the publisher of Playboy.

Mm-hmm.

Well, let's set it up.

Or try to.

I'll, I'll call you back, Spec, okay.

Everything okay?

It's great.

These heels, though... they're a killer.

I'm sure if you talk
to the Bunny Mother,

she'll let you go back to the
dressing room and take five.

Oh, I don't know, she
seems pretty strict.

Plus... it's always
fun to break the rules

every once in a while, isn't it?

Cynthia Maddox was really beautiful.

Hef, uh, fell in love with her.

They started dating.

But Cynthia wanted to have
a relationship with him.

She just didn't wanna be another girl,

and Hef wasn't prepared for that.

In the spring of 1963,

my relationship with
Cynthia came to an end.

Part of what my pursuit of
happiness has been all about

has been an attempt to
walk a different road.

And when you're walking a
different road without a map,

uh, you're gonna make mistakes.

And, you know, when you're
involved in a, in a series

of romantic relationships,

the nature of that is gonna hurt.

I was sad to see Cynthia go,

but work was a welcome distraction.

And soon, bigger issues of the day

were taking up all of my attention.

The Negro still is not free.

The Civil Rights Movement
was gaining momentum,

but the peaceful
demonstrations advocated

by Martin Luther King Jr.,
soon gave way to violence...

... as police in Birmingham, Alabama

brutally assaulted black protestors.

We can never be satisfied

as long as the Negro is the victim

of the unspeakable horrors
of police brutality.

Playboy had been involved in
Civil Rights issues for years,

and we weren't going to stop now.

We did everything there was to do

about Civil Rights.

It was an overwhelming fact that
black people were badly treated

and that the magazine should do

what it could to make that better.

The thing about the
magazine that nobody realizes

is it was the only magazine
in America that was fearless

on any topic you gave
it, Playboy could cover it

and could cover it honestly.

In early 1963, a new leader
in the Civil Rights Movement

had captured the nation's attention.

Malcolm X was a polarizing figure,

who, unlike Dr. King,

encouraged violence
as a means of protest.

We need an organization
that no one downtown loves.

We need one that's ready
and willing to take action,

any kind of action...

Not when the man downtown
sees fit but when we see fit.

By any means necessary.

Malcolm X was a black nationalist

who thought white people were barbaric

by not allowing us to
use public facilities.

In that season of fear and polarization

driven by former slaveholders
and segregationists,

the argument was that Malcolm
did not deserve a platform.

In the spring of 1963,

Malcolm X agreed to sit down with us.

We can't publish this.

"The white man must realize
that the sins of the fathers

are about to be visited upon
the heads of the children

who have continued those sins,

only in more sophisticated ways."

This is practically
a declaration of war.

If I'm not mistaken, it's what
he's been saying for years.

It is not our place to get
involved in his crusade.

Why not? Because we're white?

Because we don't like what he's saying?

Look, we've fought for years
against censorship of all kind,

to be able to express
ourselves the way we see fit,

live our life how we want to.

Let's not become hypocrites here, Spec.

Print this as is.

Malcolm X, his message
was really important.

But his rhetoric and language
was definitely threatening,

even to those who had
embraced civil rights.

Black people, you cannot
trust the white devil.

The white devil will always
try to keep you in chains.

So the fact that you
would have Hugh Hefner

giving Malcolm X an
interview in Playboy magazine,

whoa, man, now that's wild.

And they were interested...

Hefner stood almost alone

in the social, political role,
as a force to be dealt with.

It was courageous 'cause
he was being encouraged

to not publish the Malcolm X interview.

But he did not surrender.

We knew that publishing the interview

could mean losing subscribers,

but I was willing to
bet America was ready

to hear his words.

As it turns out, I was right.

After the Malcolm X interview ran,

letters poured in from
all over the country,

thanking us for covering his movement.

After nearly a decade,
Playboy magazine was finally

being recognized as much
for its editorial content

as for its centerfolds.

But that was all about to change.

- Hef?!
- Bobbie!

- Hef!
- What is it?

The cops are downstairs.

Just tell them I'll
deal with it tomorrow.

They're here for you.

On June 4, 1963,

I was arrested and charged

with creating and distributing
an obscene publication.

Newspapers quickly picked up the story,

and I couldn't help wonder
why the city of Chicago

was coming after me now.

We knew the magazine wasn't obscene

because I knew my
plans for the magazine,

I knew that the Supreme
Court had already established

that nudity was not obscene.

The difference with Playboy

is that we went mainstream immediately.

The obscene publication in
question was our June issue,

specifically, an eight-page spread

of actress Jayne Mansfield.

Playboy had published nude photos

of Mansfield twice before,

but our new photos were unique.

Taken on the set of her upcoming
film, Promises! Promises!,

it was the first
mainstream Hollywood movie

to feature a star in the nude.

The standards of obscenity

were very vague in these years.

Prosecutors claimed that those pictures

were particularly obscene

because there was a full-dressed man,

another character from the film
sitting on the side of the bed,

and they claimed that
the captions were obscene.

They talked about Jayne Mansfield

writhing around in the bed.

After spending the night
in a Chicago jail cell,

I was released on bail
and returned home to start

working on how to fight
these ridiculous charges.

There aren't a whole lot
of things in our society,

not many publications,

that are willing to stand
up and say sex is good.

I'm the guy and Playboy's the magazine

that is willing to say
sex is a good thing.

Sexual imagery is a good thing.

The act itself is a good thing.

And before you can tell
me that it hurts somebody,

you have to make a serious case.

What makes something obscene?

The Supreme Court still
hasn't come up with

a legit definition,
a specific definition.

It's intentionally
written in a vague way.

So, if you were to try to
publish a national magazine,

you are open, uh, to
prosecution left and right.

We need to avoid court at all costs.

I just don't think
we have a choice here.

And we have the money to settle.

You think the city of
Chicago's gonna let us

settle out of court?

You know what? We gotta try.

- I agree with that.
- We can afford it.

We need to be prepared for
both eventualities, frankly.

Hugh Hefner was facing

a criminal sentence, a prison term.

How many people are willing
to risk criminal prosecution?

Even if you're ultimately acquitted,

you have enormous expenses,
enormous amount of time drained,

and a big stigma, being accused
of engaging in obscenity.

So you have to be willing
to place your resources

and your reputation on the line.

Despite my team's advice,

I knew settling wasn't an option.

These charges were
censorship, plain and simple,

and no one was going to take
away my freedom of speech.

I don't take on cases that are easy.

And I don't take on
cases I don't believe in.

So you're saying this
case won't be easy?

Six years ago, the Supreme Court ruled

that it's not enough to
point to a single article

or image to label a
publication as obscene.

You have to look at
the magazine as a whole.

Well, there you go,

Playboy's primarily focused
on lifestyle, not nudity.

Correct.

So... what's the catch?

Well, when we go to court,
no matter how clearly

we explain it, we'll be
at the mercy of a jury.

The man I had chosen to
represent mehad already

won some of America's
most controversial cases.

His name was William Ming Jr.

I look forward to seeing
you at the arraignment.

- Thank you, William.
- You're welcome.

Three years earlier he had
defended Martin Luther King Jr.

on perjury charges,
winning him an acquittal

in front of an all-white jury.

And a few years before that,
he served on the legal team

that won the landmark
U.S. Supreme Court case,

Brown v. The Board of Education.

Ming was also involved
in the NAACP, the ACLU.

Hef's very much into Civil Rights,

so it was a perfect match.

Police yesterday carted

two tons of obscene magazines, films,

and photographs to the city
incinerator and burned them.

In the weeks leading up to the trial,

the city of Chicago
stepped up its efforts

to damage our business.

And anti-pornography activists
came out of the woodworks.

Men who would stand
by and see their women

degraded and debased as
they are with the breast

and the buttock presentation
by Playboy are not men at all.

But the more they attacked,

the more I knew I had to defend Playboy.

In your June issue, you show
Jayne Mansfield unclothed,

lying in bed with a man fully clothed.

Mm-hmm.

It looks like you're asking for it.

- Why?
- Uh, you...

It looks as though the
photograph is designed

since we have both
sexes involved here...

Mm-hmm.

... solely to arouse the viewer.

The difficulty is most
people who get into censorship

really know very little about it.

They don't know much
about it psychologically.

They don't really recognize the effect

that these things have.

And so what we were
really doing was, uh,

reporting on a, on a movie in the making

and, uh, since a name
personality was involved,

the pictures we felt had
legitimate journalistic interest.

This morning a man
is on trial in Chicago

charged with violating that
city's laws against obscenity.

He is Hugh Hefner, publisher
of Playboy magazine.

Many court cases involving
motion pictures, books,

and magazines have left
considerable gray areas

in determining just what
is salacious and obscene.

The trial began on November 20, 1963,

and from the beginning,

jury selection put us
at a huge disadvantage.

We discovered

that they essentially rigged the jury

with not only almost all women,

but people from very
conservative organizations.

The moment the trial began,

it was clear we were
fighting an uphill battle.

For more than a decade,

Playboy magazine has done
more to damage American values

than any other publication
currently in circulation.

It is up to you, ladies
and gentlemen of the jury,

to protect the basic human decency

that this country stands for.

Your sworn duty, as members of the jury,

is to defend and uphold the
laws of the Constitution.

A constitution which not only
protects the freedom of Mr. Hefner,

but which also protect the
freedoms of your fellow citizens.

Hefner's point was, you
had the right not to buy,

but not the right to deny
it to be seen and to be read.

And when he was attacked on that basis,

he would not surrender
his First Amendment rights.

The prosecution
launched into their case.

Your honor, the prosecution

would like to call its first witness.

In your professional opinion,

do you find these pages to be obscene?

Without reservation.

What do you think is
the aim of all this?

In my opinion, to stimulate or inflame

the sexual appetite
of the average person.

For nearly three weeks,

the prosecution argued
that the pictures in Playboy

could incite readers
to commit sexual crimes.

Then something unexpected happened.

Kennedy's death was the first
presidential assassination of our time.

It was earth-shattering,

and it would come to
define a generation.

This is a sad time for all people.

We have suffered a loss
that cannot be weighed.

The world came to a halt.

For me, it is a deep, personal tragedy.

I know that the world shares the sorrow

thatMrs. Kennedy and her family bear.

His firm commitments
to support the cause

of democracies throughout the world...

Suddenly, the future of
the progressive movement

was in question.

Across the country,

a great outpouringof
grief, shock, and revulsion.

JFK's assassination

for the generation of young people

is the same as the
attack on Pearl Harbor was

for the prior generation.

Subsequent generations the
blowing up of the Challenger

and 9/11 in that it destroys
the optimism and idealism.

It is a break with a sense
of security in the past

that everything was fine.

And a reminder that
no one is invulnerable.

But just as the country was struggling

to come to grips with the loss,

and life seemed like it would
never get back to normal,

it was finally time to hear the verdict.

And now, the fate of the Playboy empire

was in the hands of the jury.

Everything I had worked for

would be affected by this decision.