American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story (2017–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Rebel with a Cause: Civil Liberties and Government Crackdowns - full transcript

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♪

[Hugh Hefner] The year was 1963.

The first James Bond film Dr. No

was a hit in the theaters...

♪ Here's a little song
you can all join in with ♪

♪ It's very simple and
I hope it's new, yeah ♪

[Hugh Hefner] Coca-Cola introduced
a new calorie-free soda called Tab

and a little-known band from
Liverpool named the Beatles

had shot up to the top
of the charts in the UK.

♪

But on November 22nd of that year,



the assassination of John F.
Kennedy changed everything.

♪

While the country was still in shock,

I was in the midst of a trial,

facing jail time on obscenity charges

for publishing nude pictures
of actress Jayne Mansfield

in the pages of Playboy magazine.

♪

After weeks of arguments,

it was finally time to hear the verdict.

[Judge] Bailiff...

I know what pornography is
and I know what obscenity is,

and it certainly isn't
Playboy and never has been.

But again, we were questioning
the traditional values,



and that context, I think,

is what got us into the most trouble.

Defendant, please rise.

On the counts of publishing

and distributing an obscene publication,

the jury has been unable
to reach a verdict.

Mr. Hefner, you are free to go.

♪

♪ All right ♪

♪

♪ I been a-hopin' and a-prayin' ♪

♪ For such a long time ♪

[Hugh Hefner] The jury
was deadlocked 7 to 5

in favor of acquittal...

♪

... and all charges
against me were dropped.

♪ Ain't it a good thing? ♪

♪

♪ Ain't it a good thing? ♪

♪

[Hugh Hefner] I felt relieved

and like I'd won a major
victory for free speech.

♪

♪ Oh, ain't it a good thing? ♪

♪

[Hugh Hefner] My fight was finally over,

but world events were about to reshape

the country and Playboy.

♪

[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] With the
obscenity case behind us,

Playboy spent the next two years

getting back to business,
publishing centerfolds

next to articles
promoting social justice.

But by 1965, there was one issue

that overshadowed all the others.

[male newscaster] This is
the hot spot in the Cold War

and this year saw it getting hotter.

♪ The Eastern world ♪

♪ It is exploding ♪

♪ Violence flaring ♪

[Hugh Hefner] America had been locked

in conflict in Vietnam

since the mid '50s,

but every year, our involvement

in the war kept increasing.

In 1963, there were
16,000 troops in Vietnam.

By '65, there were 125,000.

♪ Oh you don't believe ♪

♪ We're on the eve of destruction ♪

[David Eisenbach] Vietnam
starts off with, uh, oh,

we're just gonna be contained,

and military advisors here

that'll support the government

at this resistance to tyranny,

and then it escalated and escalated,

and more and more,
uh, kids are being sent

over to Vietnam, and more
and more kids are dying.

♪ Can't you feel the fears ♪

♪ I'm feeling today? ♪

[Hugh Hefner] With more
casualties every day,

demonstrators took to the streets

and young men began
burning their draft cards.

♪ Take a look around you, boy ♪

♪ It's bound to scare
you, boy, and you tell me ♪

[Hugh Hefner] Never
before had an American war

been protested so openly,

and I knew the voices
of these young radicals

belonged in Playboy.

♪ We're on the eve of destruction ♪

[sighing]

[Hugh Hefner] So I hired
a new assistant editor...

♪

[Steppenwolf] ♪ We'll call
you when you're six years old ♪

[Hugh Hefner] ... a
popular young journalist

who had written
politically-charged pieces

for The Village Voice
named Arthur Kretchmer.

[Steppenwolf] ♪ To train
your brain for 18 years ♪

I was hired with a bunch
of other hip, connected,

intelligent young people.

Some of us were smoking dope.

Some of us were emphatically
against the Vietnam War.

I think all of our editors

were a little bit to the left,

but Arthur represented his generation

and he was well
connected with that world.

♪

[Spectorsky] Next we have a piece

for our attire section.

No man, no matter how fashion-conscious,

enjoys having to spend
days or even weeks

breaking in a new pair of shoes.

Jesus Christ.

I'm sorry, did you have
something to contribute?

Yeah. Who cares?

Seriously, who gives a shit?

There's a war going on out there,

and we're sitting around here bickering

about how many days it takes

to break in a pair of goddamn shoes.

Last month, 100,000 Americans

demonstrated in cities
across the country.

Last week, a man stood
in front of the Pentagon,

doused himself in kerosene,
and set himself on fire.

And what the hell are we doing about it?

What the hell is
Playboy saying about it?

Nothing.

[Spectorsky] In case
you haven't noticed,

you're no longer working
at The Village Voice.

Let them cover those types of stories.

No, I think we should have
something to say about it.

If it matters to us, it
matters to our readers.

Bring in an article. If
it's good, I'll run it.

Shall I continue?

Mm-hmm.

For our humor section,

a fresh slate of party jokes.

[Arthur Kretchmer] Spectorsky
and I developed conflict,

and Spectorsky hated
the word "political"

and hated politics.

I really did represent something

that he wasn't ready for.

♪

[The Flying Burrito Brothers]
♪ There is a man ♪

♪ A tall man ♪

♪ Follows no... ♪

[Hugh Hefner] Soon Kretchmer pushed us

to take a stance on the Vietnam War.

[The Flying Burrito Brothers]
♪ Out in a storm ♪

♪ Can he stay warm ♪

[Hugh Hefner] But he didn't stop there.

[Kretchmer] Britain recently
abolished the death penalty.

If we're supposed to be the
freest country in the world,

why are we one of the
few western nations

that hasn't banned capital punishment?

[The Flying Burrito Brothers]
♪ Can't he move on? ♪

♪ Tell him it's all right ♪

[Hugh Hefner] We called for the
abolition of the death penalty,

arguing not only that it was barbaric

but that it was disproportionately used

against poor people.

[The Flying Burrito Brothers]
♪ There is a man ♪

[Hugh Hefner] We published pieces

promoting access to contraception

and safe and inexpensive
abortions for women.

[The Flying Burrito Brothers]
♪ Can his new wife ♪

♪ Live out her life ♪

[Hugh Hefner] Playboy has always had

a strong editorial point of view,

and it's reflected in everything we do.

While the magazine was a magazine

of entertainment for men,

the real intention and
message ran much deeper.

[The Flying Burrito Brothers]
♪ It's all right ♪

♪ Say it's all right ♪

♪

[Hugh Hefner] Fighting for change

energized the entire office,

and soon, letters began
pouring in from readers,

letting us know that they also

wanted to be part of the debate.

[Steppenwolf]
♪ Staring at the boob tube ♪

♪ Turning on the big knob ♪

♪ Trying to find some life in the... ♪

[Hugh Hefner] So I created The
Playboy Forum to open a dialogue.

[Steppenwolf] ♪ Gonna
deal with Mary Jane ♪

[Hugh Hefner] The forum
became an interchange of ideas

between myself and readers...

[Steppenwolf] ♪ Obnoxious
Joe comes on the screen ♪

[Hugh Hefner] ... covering sex, marriage,

religion, police, economics...

anything relevant to social change.

(Christine Hefner) By
having a conversation

with millions of men and women

through The Playboy Forum,

I think clearly was a major contributor

to people feeling comfortable
and not feeling so alone.

[Hugh Hefner] Of course, a lot of people

only wanted to talk about Vietnam.

♪

Many of our loyal readers
were now serving overseas,

eager to voice their opinions

and share their experiences

from the front lines.

♪

[Steppenwolf]
♪ Well it's evil, wicked ♪

When Time magazine was still
promoting the war in Vietnam,

The Playboy Forum gave real
soldiers a chance to say

what their reality was in Vietnam,

and it was this place
to put actual testimony

about what was going on.

Abortion is still illegal.

The Chicago Women's Liberation Union

are speaking out about
it and so should we.

[Hugh Hefner] But then I
took it one step further,

beyond the pages of the magazine,

and created The Playboy Foundation...

♪

... an organization dedicated
to fighting censorship

and funding civil rights groups.

[Christie Hefner] Hef had said
that The Playboy Foundation

was intended to put his
money where his mouth was

for issues that were not
just relevant to Playboy

but were relevant to
a broader philosophy

of what makes for a just society.

[Hugh Hefner] We donated
hundreds of thousands of dollars

to the Kinsey Institute,

an organization whose
research on sex and sexuality

had inspired the
founding of the magazine.

We involved ourselves in
landmark civil rights cases

such as Roe v. Wade
and continued to support

the African-American
struggle for freedom.

♪

♪ When I left before ♪

[Hugh Hefner] Across the
country, the civil rights movement

was making significant progress,

and just a year earlier,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

was awarded the Nobel
Peace prize for his work.

It was an incredible moment

for the civil rights movement,

one we wanted to celebrate.

So, in January of 1965,

we published an interview with Dr. King,

the longest one he ever granted.

♪ But I keep coming back ♪

[Jesse Jackson] When
Playboy interviewed Dr. King,

it was a serious breakthrough

because it was a chance
for another market.

I mean, those days you
didn't have cable television.

We didn't have much access.

♪

[Cooper Hefner] MLK Jr.'s voice
was perfectly suited for Playboy.

If you take a step back and
look at all the other pieces

of what makes Playboy Playboy,

I can't think of another
magazine or media company

where the conversation would
have been more appropriate.

[Hugh Hefner] In his
interview with Playboy,

King emphasized how far we'd come,

but he also explained
how far we had to go.

♪

[Martin Luther King Jr.]
With a nonviolent movement,

the end is to convert the opponent

and to bring about a society

where all men will live
together as brothers

and every man will respect the dignity

and worth of human personality.

♪

[Hugh Hefner] So, just months after
being featured in the magazine,

King led a march of 25,000 Americans,

black and white,

on a 54-mile journey

from Selma, Alabama,

to the state's capital,

to show their support for
a new voting rights bill

in the face of ruthless opposition.

[people shouting and screaming]

After being attacked

with nightsticks and teargas,

Dr. King and protesters
arrived in Montgomery.

We are standing before
the forces of power

in the State of Alabama,

saying we ain't gonna
let nobody turn us around.

[cheers and applause]

[Hugh Hefner] What we saw in the
news shocked the entire nation.

♪

[Eisenbach] There's no question
that the power of the media

was a major force

because it allowed the
civil rights protestors

to get their message out

by generating images of oppression

that were compelling
because they were so violent.

♪

[Hugh Hefner] After
considerable public pressure,

President Johnson passed

the Voting Rights Act
of 1965, which outlawed

discriminatory voting
practices based on race.

♪

This bill will strike down restrictions

to voting in all elections.

[applause]

[Hugh Hefner] America was
beginning to see we needed change.

♪

With progress being made
throughout the country,

I wanted to break the color barrier

in all aspects of our magazine.

♪

Hi.

Hi.

If you could just slip this on.

♪ And when you come to see me baby ♪

♪ You don't have to bring no note ♪

♪ You gotta have sweet sweet lovin' ♪

[Hugh Hefner] In March of 1965,

we published the first ever

African-American Playmate of the month,

Jennifer Jackson.

♪ I said baby ♪

[Hugh Hefner] We found
Jenny working part-time

in our Chicago Playboy Club.

She was a Bunny alongside
her twin sister, Jan,

while studying at a
Chicago Teachers' College

and doing some freelance
modeling on the side.

♪

When Playboy published its
first African-American Playmate,

it was a really important comment

on race relations at the time.

This was an important
acknowledgment of black women

and their sexuality and their beauty.

♪ Sweet lovin' ♪

♪ And that's all you need ♪

♪ Oh yeah ♪

♪

[Hugh Hefner] Reader responses
to Jennifer's centerfold

were mostly positive,

but we still got some backlash,

which convinced me

there was still a lot
of work to be done.

♪

I need it by 2 p.m. Thank you.

Uh, Spec.

[Hugh Hefner] As Playboy
became more political,

I continued to personally oversee

every page of the magazine

to make sure it was
as good as it could be.

[Hugh Hefner] I am by nature
a perfectionist, anyway.

I think the difference
between good and excellent

is detail, and I was consumed

with every kind of detail
related to the company.

♪

[Hugh Hefner] Soon, there didn't
seem to be enough hours in the day,

so I relied on a little
orange pill, Dexedrine.

♪

[Richard Rosenzweig]
Dexedrine is an upper.

It keeps you awake.

It was originally formulated as a drug

to help you lose weight,

but it has this other
quality that gives you pep

and keeps you going.

♪

♪ One, two, three, four... ♪

♪

♪ Fortune has me well in hand ♪

[Hugh Hefner] I never tried hard drugs.

I didn't believe in them.

But Dexedrine was completely legal

and my doctor kept prescribing it,

so I told myself it was
a harmless little pill.

♪ And brought you to my bed ♪

[Hugh Hefner] But pretty soon,
I couldn't live without it.

♪ Everybody loves me baby ♪

Page 37, the robe is not...

The colors here are confusing.

Page 29...

[Kretchmer] Dexedrine helped Hefner

write very long, very dense memos

and engage in very long meetings.

We used to go to meetings
at 4:00 in the afternoon.

They would last until
6:00 the next morning.

♪ To offend you ♪

♪ Now ♪

[Hugh Hefner] I would
take them as I needed them,

but the work could often go
for 24 or 30 or more hours,

so it was possible in that timeframe

to use 20, 25 pills.

I don't think I would have created

the Playboy empire without it.

♪ Because everybody loves me baby ♪

He became very dependent on Dexedrine.

Scrap it.

[Rosenzweig] If he was taking the drug,

that let him work for
two days or even more...

♪ Everybody loves me baby ♪

[Rosenzweig] And then, he was
so exhausted that he'd crash.

When he would awaken, he
would be a bit of a grouch.

♪ What did I do to offend you? ♪

Yeah! (laughing)

[knocking on door]

[Spectorsky] Hef.

I'll be done with the new notes

on the mansion piece in ten minutes.

Then I'm gonna go over
the Zwerin article.

Tell everyone else to go over
what they're working on, too.

I'm seeing too many errors.

I've already sent them home.

What? You sent them home?

They need to be with their families.

But they're working, Spec.

It's after midnight.

What, so people can't work late now?

Three nights in a row?
No, Hef, they can't.

They can't keep their eyes open.

That's fine.

Just means more work for you and me.

You cannot keep doing this.

Oh, is it my fault if
the articles are shit?

The articles are fine.
The problem is you.

You've been up for three days.

You're a wreck.

You are killing yourself.

I'm fine.

You're not fine.

If you want to leave, then leave.

Maybe I'm the only one around here

who still remembers what it takes

to put out a good magazine,

but I am not going
to be lectured by you.

Do you even hear yourself?

Get out!

[Kretchmer] When Hef became addicted,

Hefner was accurately
described as self-centered,

demanding, obsessive.

Monstrous, even, you could say.

Really difficult to deal with.

[Hugh Hefner] My staff had
reached a breaking point,

and it was clear that I
needed to make some changes.

[Hugh Hefner] When I
stopped taking the Dexedrine,

it took the better part of a year

for my own body to
kick in and give me back

what I'd previously
gotten from the drug.

If you start using an
artificial stimulus for it,

then the body starts depending on that,

and it needs more of it, and, you know,

they do all those jokes
about get high on life,

but it's true.

♪

[Hugh Hefner] While I
was regaining my health,

Playboy was getting bigger every month

and the effects of our hard work

could be seen in every
aspect of the company.

♪ Oh my love ♪

[Hugh Hefner] We had 15 clubs
operating within the United States,

including locations in
Los Angeles and Miami,

and international locations

in Montreal, Manila, and Jamaica.

[Hugh Hefner] Originally, when
we started off the first one

in Chicago back in '59,

we had no notion it
would be so successful.

♪ So many times ♪

♪ You're gonna be lonely ♪

♪ So many times you're gonna be blue ♪

[Hugh Hefner] By the end of the
1960s, the magazine was selling

an average of 5.5
million issues per month

and Playboy's profits had climbed

to $80 million a year.

♪

I decided the time had
come to make a big statement

and establish ourselves
as an American institution.

♪

So I purchased the
37-floor Palmolive Building

on Michigan Ave. for $2.7 million

and put our name across
it in nine-foot letters.

♪ She asked me maybe ♪

♪ If I could share her sorrow ♪

[Hugh Hefner] Not only was it

one of Chicago's most iconic buildings,

but as a kid, I'd looked out my window

and seen the spotlight
on top light up the city.

When Hefner puts Playboy

in big, bright shining letters

on the Palmolive Building in Chicago,

the Playboy brand becomes
part of the skyline.

The argument is over, right?

The empire is now here,

and there's really nothing
you can do about it.

♪ The promised land ♪

♪ Hang on 'til then ♪

♪ As best as you can ♪

Stand on this one, the
mark here that we've placed.

Yeah, that's the one. Perfect.

Holding the pipe?

Yes.

[Hugh Hefner] As for me, after
years of fighting to prove ourselves,

I ended up on the cover

of one of the most
respected publications,

Time magazine.

[Eisenbach] To make it onto the cover

of Time magazine in '67 was huge.

This is the recognition
of the establishment

that you are a player, right?

Presidents are on the cover,

dictators are on the cover, right?

That's who makes the
cover of Time magazine.

He had arrived.

[Hugh Hefner] Being on the cover
of Time validated everything

I'd been doing for the last 15 years.

Here we have panels along this wall,

similar to what we use in the clubs.

It should look nice. This is the bar.

Made it L-shaped so we can have people

along both sides and not miss anything.

Glasses here.

Uh, Bobbie, we're in a meeting.

[Walter Cronkite] Police have
issued an all-points bulletin

for a well-dressed young white man

seen running from the scene.

Dr. King was standing on the balcony

of his second-floor hotel room tonight

when, according to a companion,

a shot was fired from across the street.

In the friend's words,

the bullet exploded in his face.

[Hugh Hefner] April 4th, 1968,
was a day I will never forget.

[Cronkite] ... in the
civil rights movement

were on the scene almost immediately.

They rushed the 39-year-old
Negro leader to a hospital,

where he died of a
bullet wound in the neck.

♪

[Dick Cavett] The death
of Martin Luther King,

that just seemed to stop time.

It was horrible, it was unimaginable,

but you didn't need to imagine it.

And people were really saying,

"What kind of world are we
in? What kind of people are we?

Who's gonna stop this sort of thing?"

♪

[Hugh Hefner] As riots
broke out across the country,

leaders tried desperately
to calm the nation.

[Robert F. Kennedy] What
we need in the United States

is not division.

What we need in the United States

is not hatred.

[Hugh Hefner] And no speech did
more to bring the country together

than Robert F. Kennedy's...

... but is love and wisdom

and compassion toward one another.

[Hugh Hefner] ... who'd experienced
his own brother's assassination

just under five years earlier.

... within our country,
whether they be white

or whether they be black.

[cheers and applause]

♪

[Hugh Hefner] Martin Luther King Jr.

was laid to rest in Atlanta, Georgia.

Over 100,000 people attended
the funeral procession.

[Cooper Hefner] The big piece
which I think resonated with my dad

was that Dr. King had died for something

that was a lot more than just him,

that he'd given his life for change...

♪

... and that change was the
challenge of finding a way

to live in a world

where people could make
their own choices freely.

♪

[Hugh Hefner] I knew what a blow

his death was for the
civil rights movement

and the country as a whole,

and I wanted to figure out

the best way to honor his memory.

"A promised land of true equality."

[Hugh Hefner] Weeks
before his assassination,

Playboy received an essay from Dr. King

called A Testament of Hope,

a work that would tragically become

his final written words.

"In his final published statement,

"the civil rights
leader points the way out

"of America's racial turmoil

into the promised land of equality."

That's better, but add "fallen"

before "civil rights leader"

and add "true" before equality.

[Hugh Hefner] We knew that
publishing his passionate words

was the best way we
could honor his legacy.

But soon, another
tragedy rocked the nation.

[men shouting]

[Man] If there's a doctor in the house,

I want to see him right here.

Everybody else, please stay back.

[onlookers talking]

[man] Oh, no!

[Jackson] Before we could
adjust in any measure

to Dr. King's assassination,
April 4th, 1968,

Robert Kennedy killed June
the 5th in Los Angeles.

It just left us pained and hurt,

as if all hope had been lost.

We were numb.

♪

[Hugh Hefner] Soon, that
grief turned to anger.

[Strawbs] ♪ In the early
dawn the Bishop's men ♪

♪ Shivered in the damp ♪

♪ Who prayed that wives and families ♪

♪ Might see them once again ♪

♪

[Eisenbach] In the summer of '68,

the fear and anxiety
of the long hot summer,

you had all of the issues
and all of the anger

that had been building up.

It turns into absolute mayhem.

[Strawbs] ♪ The ground mist
hid the patrol's approach ♪

♪ As they drew close enough to show ♪

[Hugh Hefner] It was a time of
revolution and some of it was violent.

It was a time of questioning
old mores and values.

[Strawbs] ♪ Of pure white sand ♪

It was questioning a lot
of the fundamental views

that people saw were hurtful.

[Strawbs] ♪ At evensong
both camps reviewed ♪

♪ Their sad depleted ranks ♪

[Hugh Hefner] To make matters
worse, by the summer of 1968,

the Vietnam War was
spiraling out of control.

[Strawbs] ♪ Gave God
their grateful thanks ♪

♪

[President Johnson] Even while
the search for peace was going on,

North Vietnam rushed their preparations

for a savage assault on the people,

the government,

and the allies of South Vietnam.

[Hugh Hefner] The North
Vietnamese launched

their most brutal campaign yet

against American troops,

a series of surprise bomb attacks

that would come to be
known as the Tet Offensive.

[male newscaster] The Viet
Cong simultaneously attacked

just about every major city
and town in South Vietnam,

and it was a new war.

[Hugh Hefner] After
over a decade of war,

nearly 20,000 American
soldiers had been killed

and it seemed there was no end in sight.

♪

Just hoping to stay
alive from day to day.

Everybody just wants to go
back home and go to school.

That's about it.

[reporter] Have you lost any friends?

Quite a few. We lost one the other day.

This whole thing stinks, really.

[gunfire]

♪

[Hugh Hefner] But as strongly
as Playboy opposed the war

in the pages of the magazine,

we knew many of our readers
were stationed overseas,

and we wanted to do
what we could to help.

[The Grass Roots] ♪ One, two,
three, four sha la la la la la ♪

[Hugh Hefner] We teamed up with the USO,

sending our 1965 Playmate
of the Year, Jo Collins,

to visit the soldiers.

[Merv Griffin] Miss Jo
Collins, ladies and gentlemen.

[cheers and applause]

So, Lieutenant Jack Price
of the 173rd Airborne Brigade

in Vietnam sent a letter to Hugh Hefner,

saying that him and his company

wanted to chip in $150 to
have the Playmate of the Year

deliver a lifetime subscription,

so we flew over to
Saigon and delivered it.

Isn't that a sweet story?

[applause]

[The Grass Roots]
♪ Two, three, four ♪

♪ Sha la la la la la live for today ♪

[Hugh Hefner] It was a uniquely
Playboy way to build morale,

and while it wasn't
going to bring them home,

I hoped it could at
least brighten the mood

of the men fighting for our
country, even momentarily.

[The Grass Roots] ♪ Sha la
la la la la live for today ♪

♪ Live for today ♪

[Hugh Hefner] Also, we
thought it would be fun

to have two floors and see
how that opens up the space.

[Hugh Hefner] 1968 had
been a year of chaos.

It was clear that Americans
had grown disheartened

by what they were seeing on TV,

so I came up with an idea

that could help lift
the mood a little...

♪

bringing Playboy back to television.

My last TV show, Playboy's Penthouse,

had lasted two seasons
and brought together

some of the best names
in jazz and culture,

but Playboy had changed
throughout the past decade

and I wanted a new
generation to experience

the lifestyle for themselves.

On this new show, I would invite guests

from all walks of life

that could appeal to
our younger audience.

But I knew if I wanted
to get the biggest names,

I couldn't stay in Chicago,

so I set my sights on Los Angeles.

♪ What can you see with
your ear on ground ♪

♪ Try to lift up your feet, girl ♪

♪ And take a look around
oh let me see you... ♪

[Hugh Hefner] For years,
Hollywood had been synonymous

with the film industry,

but the city was also becoming

a major culture center for art,

music, and now television.

♪ Yeah, your mind is... ♪

[Hugh Hefner] Shows like Laugh-In,

The Smothers Brothers,

and The Carol Burnett Show

represented a changing culture,

and I knew Playboy would fit right in.

♪ Hey ♪

♪

[Hugh Hefner] In 1969, we signed a deal

to film 26 episodes of a new show

at CBS Television City.

We'd call it Playboy After Dark.

[director] All right,
stand by. Quiet. Shh!

Playboy After Dark.

Airdate TBA. Take one.

Hi, I'm Hugh Hefner,

your host on a weekly series

of swinging parties
called Playboy After Dark.

The great names of show
business will perform,

and I hope you'll be able
to be part of the scene.

[Hugh Hefner] As soon as
I arrived in Los Angeles,

we immediately started shooting.

[announcer] It's nighttime fun and games

on Playboy After Dark,
and the action is wild.

♪

[Brett Ratner] Hef always believed in

and always knew the
power of the television.

♪

He had a real understanding

of youth culture and pop culture.

[laughter]

[Hugh Hefner] It seemed
like the pent-up energy

everyone had shared
over the last few years

was ready to explode

into something new and different.

♪

[laughter]

Who gets the espresso?

[squeals and laughter]

[both screaming]

He had people from all
walks of life on the show,

whether they were
entertainers or thinkers.

He mixed all kinds of people

and it was just an interesting show.

[Rex Reed] First, I want to say

that I'm gonna come
back on this show often,

because it's the first show
I've ever been on in my life

where I can plug a book and get zonked

all at the same time.

[laughter]

[Hugh Hefner] This
generation was tuning in.

We even paid tribute

to the psychedelic drug culture,

inviting bands like The Grateful Dead

to appear show.

♪ Boogie down until the end ♪

[Jason Buhrmester] The
magazine had a core DNA to it

that could adapt to culture,
could adapt to, you know,

an America that had
changed rapidly for years

and still be relevant and
find new ways to be relevant.

And I think that's what helped
Playboy endure for so long.

[Hugh Hefner] Playboy After
Dark became an instant success

and gave our readers
a weekly opportunity

to forget about the problems

of their daily life,

but I had no idea

what the show was about to give me.

Because on that very set,

among the dozens of beautiful women

and celebrity guests,

I was about to meet the love of my life.

♪

[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 ♪