He was also the patron of those who thought that comedy could be smarter than the boobs who did so well making faces and telling wife jokes…the Jerry and Henny types. And that’s what is ALMOST as important as the legacy of centerfolds on which Hugh Hefner built the Playboy empire.
For me, and I told him this, a big part of Playboy’s legacy is that he gave cartoonists and comedians a place to work, and for good pay. Few seem to remember that Dick Gregory got his start at a Playboy club. Fewer would know that one of the regular Playboy cartoonists was black; Buck Brown. Hefner wrote the liner notes for Will Jordan’s “sick humor” album, and championed both Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl.
The pages of Playboy featured many satirists, and many of them earned their first decent paycheck thanks to the magazine’s policy of paying far more than they had to. Yes, Playboy also pioneered the in-depth Q&A interview feature (Mort Sahl again was given a prominent shot). Playboy Press published Lenny Bruce’s book.
Playboy’s first issue featured a nude image of Marilyn Monroe. The mag would literally expand on this with a dazzling three-page fold-out, and it would not only create stars (such as Barbi Benton) but help keep stars famous (Farrah Fawcett) and bring back some older favorites (including Nancy Sinatra and Terry Moore). I got a chance to meet and talk with Nancy Sinatra...when she did a signing of the Playboy issue at Tower Records.
The legend of the Playboy Mansion grew. Just about everyone who could get there, wanted to go. From Julie Newmar to Judy Tenuta and back, the parties there were a lot of fun. My friend Julie dashed off a quick recollection on her website, JULIENEWMARWRITES.com. If you can't blow up the article here, go over there and search for it. Hefner of course was a pretty good writer himself, creating the “Playboy Philosophy” that did so much for the sexual revolution.
Sprinkled within the pages of Playboy were great cartoons. Aside from The New Yorker, Playboy was the best place for somebody with talent to gain fame. Playboy’s version of Charles Addams was Gahan Wilson. At the corner of eye-popping drawings of busty women were the familiar signatures of Dedini, Interlandi, Dempsey, B. Kliban and many more.
All this is coming from memory at the moment, the vivid memories of just how important Playboy was for humorists, whether those who wrote (including Jean Shepherd) to the stand-up stars and the cartoonists, and the ones, like Shel Silverstein, who did a bit of everything.
Classy and stoic, Hefner watched the competition turn up and prosper. Guccione showed pubic hair. Larry Flynt brought sex back into the bathroom. If you wanted more pictures and less text, the newsstand was festooned with rival magazines, what Lenny Bruce happily called “stroke books,” including Rogue, Dude and Gent. And Cavalier, Escapade, Bachelor, and on and on and on.
My stuff appeared in dozens and dozens of those mags, both comedy, fiction and photographs. No, I never got into Playboy. I did publish erotic (really, not dirty) science-fiction in Hustler and photos (really, not dirty...a full page portrait of Richard Jeni after all) in Penthouse.
Hef sometimes turned up in a funny role (as himself in “The Odd Couple” for example) and was pretty genial when the feminists came after him in the 70’s.
He also withstood the blows to the empire when he found himself aging, erotica on newsstands replaced with free porn on the Internet, and women outright using him by becoming close and then writing a tell-all book. His daughter couldn’t quite keep the empire going. Mel Brooks’ son was an editor who came and went. And for a bleak period of time, Playboy went the way of the “lad mags” and declared there would be no nudity. Hefner lived long enough to see the reality of his mansion going up for sale, and his fragile attempts to hold onto his swinging image satirized and scorned.
So many of Hefner's comic icons passed before he did. That includes Irwin Corey who recorded an album at the Playboy Club, Dick Gregory who replaced Corey one night and went on to stardom, my friend George Carlin, and cartoonist legends such as Shel Silverstein and B. Kliban. Here's a photo of Hugh at a fundraiser for our mutual pal Mort Sahl, who wasn't quite as astute with his finances as Hefner was in running the Playboy empire.
Hefner is gone; the legacy of Playboy is forever. The writers who published short stories in his magazine and went on to novels and greatness never forgot. While rock and rap long ago eclipsed Hefner’s own favorite music, there were golden years for Playboy with their jazz poll and concerts. There are the memorable centerfolds, which included the ones for a lady named Dolly and a lady named China. One of them married comedian Dick Martin and the other married Mort.
And so we come back to Mort, and to the other comedians, and the cartoonists, who created that link between sex and joyous laughter. What was a better time than bringing a date to a comedy club, watching a Playboy-approved guy like Dick Gregory, Mort Sahl, Irwin Corey or Lenny Bruce…and then having an exciting evening of erotica afterward? I have no idea! But many guys Hefner’s age, who were swinging in the 50’s and 60’s know exactly what I mean. Those sly dogs.
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