There are few homes in America as famous — or infamous — as the Playboy Mansion.
And for good reason: whatever tawdry stuff you think may have happened there, it probably
did.
So let's dig further and figure out exactly what living in the Playboy Mansion was like.
Launched in 1953 with Marilyn Monroe on its cover, Playboy was an instant success.
According to The New York Times, all 51,000 copies sold out.
After five years, the magazine's annual profit was $4 million, and as the company grew, so
did its various businesses.
In 1960, the first Playboy Club was launched in Chicago and introduced its brand-specific
waitresses dubbed "Bunnies."
The concept was a hit, and dozens more of the clubs followed.
However, the Bunnies weren't just in the clubs.
Hugh Hefner also had them in his office inside the Playboy Mansion.
The New York Times wrote that in the Playboy offices, quote, "life imitated image."
However, there were also numerous allegations of abuse, with Holly Madison, Hef's longtime
"favorite" and former Playboy Bunny writing her tell-all memoir Down the Rabbit Hole that
the women in the mansion were, quote, "merely going through the motions of what life ought
to be."
While Playboy will forever be associated with pages upon pages of risqué photos, it also
wasn't afraid to shy away from more intellectual topics in its articles.
As noted in the Los Angeles Times, Playboy included interviews with thinkers like Albert
Schweitzer and Malcolm X, as well as short stories from such leading writers as John
Updike.
As for the mansion itself?
It seemed to follow suit — at times.
In an appearance on The Wendy Williams Show, Pamela Anderson had this to say about her
experiences at the Playboy Mansion:
"The Playboy Mansion was like my university.
It was full of intellectuals, sex, rock 'n' roll, arts, all the important stuff."
By 2000, the mansion began to be used more for fundraisers and political events than
wild parties, according to the L.A. Times.
In his later years, while Hef would still host people at the mansion, he also pivoted
to more serious gatherings that often featured politicians, like former Governor of California,
Jerry Brown.
For Hugh Hefner, establishing a risqué magazine such as Playboy didn't come without its own
mob of naysayers.
As The New York Times noted, the founder had a troubled relationship with feminist politics,
particularly with journalist Gloria Steinem.
In the early '60s, Steinem posed undercover as a Bunny — even making it into a Playboy
Club.
She ultimately gathered enough information for a two-part feature for Show magazine titled
"A Bunny's Tale."
In the first part, Steinem wrote that she began her journey after responding to a Playboy
ad claiming that girls could earn $200-$300 a week at a Playboy Club.
As it turned out, the pay was nowhere near close, as all the Bunnies had to pay for the
upkeep of their costumes, makeup, the mandatory false eyelashes, and 50 percent of the first
$30 in tips that they made.
Along with the low pay, the girls' treatment wasn't that great, either.
Gloria says, "It was presented as a glamorous place.
It was not the glamorous place that, that Hugh Hefner was trying to sell it as."
If they were to go to a Hefner party at his mansion, they couldn't bring any men at all.
When Steinem published her piece, it was a sensation.
As for Hef's thoughts?
He had this to say to The New York Times:
"There's really no benefit to viewing sex as the enemy.
The sex act is some of the best of what we are, as family, and as a civilization."
The Playboy Mansion was a regular haunt for Hollywood's finest for decades, with wild
tales being the absolute norm.
Even the staff had stories to tell.
Mitch Rosen, one of Hugh Hefner's butlers in the '80s, recalled to The Telegraph how
he spoke to Tony Curtis one day.
The Sparticus actor revealed to Rosen that he and Marilyn Monroe were sleeping together
during the filming of Some Like It Hot.
When the film's other star, Jack Lemmon, heard the news, he threw a temper tantrum out of
jealousy, according to Rosen.
Rosen then gushed to the outlet,
"I'll cherish that anecdote, and the fact I was a part of the place, for the rest of
my life."
The Playboy Mansion was home to celeb secrets, as well.
For instance, there was a hidden room in the house, dubbed "The Elvis Suite."
As you may have guessed, the King himself had a decadent night with eight women there
in the '70s, and it stayed off-limits to everyone but Hef and Elvis himself.
Nestled on 5.3 acres of space and consisting of a whopping 21,987 square feet, we can assure
you that life at the Playboy Mansion was never dull.
According to Architectural Digest, the 29-room palace was originally built in 1927 in Spanish
Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival style.
In 1971, Playboy Enterprises finally purchased the mansion for $1.1 million, which was the
priciest home sale in Los Angeles history, at the time.
With all that space, you'd assume that the mansion's amenities were a dime a dozen — and
you'd be right.
As it turned out, the Playboy Mansion was one of the very few L.A. homes to actually
have a zoo license, with exotic birds, monkeys, and various other kinds of animals on the
property.
If that's not all, the luxurious abode was also the only private residence in L.A. which
had a permanent fireworks permit.
Many people are, of course, curious as to what Hugh Hefner's bedroom looked like at
the Playboy Mansion.
As it turns out, his fabled fortress in Los Angeles isn't actually the first one he purchased
— that was in Chicago.
According to Fancy Pants Homes, the Chicago pad was bought by Hef in 1959, boasting the
following cheeky message on its front door: "If you don't swing, you don't ring."
As for the magazine mogul's most private quarters?
As writer Tom Wolfe once wrote upon entering the Chicago mansion, the bedroom had, quote,
"the biggest roundest bed in the history of the world."
Of course, Wolfe wasn't the only writer to have come across the Playboy Mansion's most
intimate lair.
In fact, Hefner would regularly invite journalists to his bedroom.
As ITN described in 1966, the founder lived more like a hermit than a tycoon, adding:
"[Hefner controlled] his kingdom from the 7-foot, circular, power-driven, vibratable
bed, [which] rotates as well."
"Controls it literally…"
"Wow."
"...literally take the bed around and uh, for a full 360 degrees."
How's that for a work-from-home situation?
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