you have now is the founder editor in chief and chief creative officer of
Playboy he's the subject of a new documentary it opens July 30th wide
called Hugh Hefner playboy activist rebel is this noir documentary or was it
some group producing it about you well it's produced by a young lady named
Bridget Berman in Canada and she who trade show career and follow you around
as well not really the I think that what it she wanted Academy Awards some years
ago for a documentary on already Shaw and that's how we originally met and
what she was interested in doing was the part of my life that most people don't
know about are you happy with it more than happy yes let's take a look at a
clip from the new documentary about Hefner we published the last piece they
were written by Martin Luther King and we publish it shortly after his death is
his widow actually edited there is no gracious incongruity of it all of course
that we should be sitting there in the heft pad listening to Martin Luther
King's dream yes well people don't recognize or
realize the extent to which it was part of my dream to how'd you first become
involved in this we call it anti-segregation movement well I don't
know college right yes well in a small way but I you know I was never really
part of a major a movement as such I think there were a couple of occasions I
went University of Illinois and I feel a couple of occasions where there were
some segregated restaurants and I was there with the students protesting that
but you know it just comes from family I think that you know bigotry comes from
family I was raised you know a very consistent conservative Midwestern
Methodist family but there was no racism and I think that you know my part in
terms of all of this really was related to the fact that when I did the
television show it was a social setting appeared to be a party in my apartment
sure and you know black and white segments you know mixed as they did in
my home and back in 1959 1960 that was unusual for network television and the
same thing when we opened the clubs Dick Gregory was the first black performers a
period of in a club that wasn't a black Club and when we when there were clubs
opened franchise clubs in in Miami and New Orleans we expect there are black
members to be accepted there and when they weren't we bought back the
franchises even though it cost us a little a little money did you ever
understand why people would not like people because there's something like
skin pigment well it's that crazy notion of you know the birds of a feather flock
together the notion is somehow or other that if the person is a little different
than somebody they're suspicious open and you know it's one of the sad things
for me on this planet whether it's race or religion or whatever it is we live on
one very small planet and we ought to learn together learn to live together
now some say yes have you supported blacks but you set back the woman's
movement well it takes a very curious attitude towards Playboy to come up with
that conclusion in other words the notion that our sexuality the fact that
we are attracted to the opposite sex that there are two sexes on the planet
is a blessing and it's something I think we ought to celebrate the fact that
there are hang-ups related to what I think is reflective of the fact that we
are and still remain essentially a Puritan people but you don't think that
playboy at all made women objects rather than hi equals I think that women in the
best sense and not in a negative sense our object of desire that is a
celebration of one's own sexuality and the fact that we are two sexes and what
playboy tried to do quite frankly is elevated to a to another kind of level
you know that did celebrate that and and prior to playboy there were lots of
connections with sexuality in magazines but they were connected to sin and
sensationalism playboy tried to give it a little style and and I think you need
to talk quite frankly to the women who posed for Playboy and see how they feel
about it most of them continue to be friends over
more than half a century and they I get wonderful cards that after the Christmas
and birthdays they still want to pose right they still
want to pose was it tough to speak out no no no never difficult no I think that
privileged to be in a position to be able to speak out to be able to make
some difference I think of all the many things that I'm grateful for in my life
is the fact that I've been able to make some difference and in the process have
a lot of fun doing it and you use the magazine frankly as a tool that has a
look at the Playboy forum yeah well to begin with the magazine started in 1953
and it was really a lifestyle magazine but in the early 60s the magazine was so
successful I knew I could do the other half of what I'm really all about which
is you know the does the social justice in there and it wasn't simply race it
had to do with with sexual prejudice and had to do with drug prejudice
had to do with gays very much with related to gays we did a a a piece that
had been turned down by Esquire called the crooked man we published it in the
middle of 1950s and it was about a future society in which normal was
homosexual and the aberrations worth's was heterosexual it simply turned
anything over that was a very controversial of the time and some in
some quarters considered homophobic at the time and it was attempted to be
exactly the opposite I had the honor of being a Playboy interviewee in the mid
90s how important was that interview do you come up with that and it was Q&A in
the first issue no no when I talked about that you know the other half of
what I was all about in other words that part the Playboy philosophy
playboy interview and the nonfiction on controversial subject began really in
the early 1960s and the first one we did was conducted by Alex Haley who did a
whole bunch of them for us and it was with Miles Davis and he didn't really
talk about jazz he talked about race and that was the beginning of it and Alex
Haley did Martin Luther King for us and and Malcolm X and there did the American
neo-nazi oh yeah not Norman quite a difference you think we'll ever see a
day when it's not an issue when we will be colorblind really
colorblind I can't answer that it certainly won't happen in our lifetime
you know look at how separated we are by religions I mean religion is supposed to
bring us together but religion becomes one of the major sources of conflict on
the planet how crazy is that you know the thing that concerns me
quite frankly is that we live on a planet in which our technology and our
science has gotten to such a level in which we can destroy the planet and
destroy one another and we have not yet learned to live together crazy
technologies where at a human kind yes absolutely
it boggles the mind yes where's jewel superstitious savages in
the jungle on that level however there's another side though we're still better
than most don't we yes country I certainly think that you know if one
looks back over over the centuries we're certainly making progress we're moving
in the right direction yeah hope for mankind I feel like you've lived through
it all well we have certainly lived through very interesting times yes I
think that the you know the 20th century in the beginning of the 21st century is
a fascinating time were you against the Vietnam War early yes yeah and and
central in the magazine did you ever envision the success
playboy what best become no how could i I started the magazine on 600 borrowed
dollars a total investment from friends and relatives of $8,000 just enough to
start the first published the first issue with no notion of what what lay
ahead what year was that 1953 was the cover the Marilyn Monroe good choice
pose picture it was a pickup for the first most of the first year was pickup
material you bought her from photography photographer right was the first issue a
success yes hugely successful or I wouldn't be
around for the second issue but the second issue didn't have Marilyn and
sold more than the first there was what caught the attention of the people there
was it was it was the Monroe nude in that first issue that got the initial
attention but what made the magazine successful was the message it was a
lifestyle magazine for single guys and back in the 1950s that was a revolution
was there a centerfold in the first issue yes well what was a single page
yeah then it was a centerfold in the second issue single page yeah we didn't
get we didn't get to the old out yeah we didn't get that till about the second or
third year magazine in the season trouble oh and that now the world has
changed yes you're big arrived the internet right yes can you make money
off the internet is anybody well I guess no I don't think we're making anything
significant out of it yet but at the same time you know it's a very nice way
to interconnect with your audience I mean you get a playback immediately I I
became I got a gift from my girlfriend Crystal Harris they gave me an iPad from
whether you like it I like it very much and I'm now a Twitter bug I was when I
was a kid I was a jitterbug and I'm a Twitter bug I'm speaking of girlfriends
how how many of you had how many girlfriends you counted up the number I
haven't been counting how many do you have now just one
we are settling down laughs no more the threesomes huh no no I found a very nice
lady you just celebrated your 84 84th birthday trying to buy back the magazine
do you ever think of just as that Elise Stevenson once said go out on the beach
and eat some strawberries and watch the dances I think that that you know if you
stop doing what you love I think it is the first step towards the grave I think
that it is the combination of the workingplayer that keeps you alive keeps
your Bible keeps you connected yeah health deteriorates if you're
permanently I think so what do you want your legacy to be do you wanna go you
have no business man civil rights activists philanthropist somebody who
played some positive part in the changing social sexual values of my time
and I think I'm pretty secure in that do you still read every page of every issue
no no the man that used to the very beginning but the magazine the major
headquarters are in Chicago what I still do is pick the covers pick the playmates
pick the pictorials oversee the total package and see that it's together and
making sense continue to get healthy thank you you're
a young 84 and you you changed America thank you very much