Hef Off To The Playboy Mansion in The Sky

A fairly young Hefner with his Bunnies.

Hugh Hefner, indubitably a man responsible for fanning the flames of preteen, teenage and adult males around the world with his publication Playboy Magazine has passed at the age of 91, more at the source. If I could imagine anyone meeting death with a smile on his face, Hef (as was his nickname) always - and I do mean always - seemed to be a happy man. If you know anything about him and his lifestyle then there should be little reason to doubt that and no question about why he was happy. To be able to surround yourself in a lavish mansion by a bevy of nonstop and beautiful Playboy Bunnies would be sure to keep many a real man happy.



An older Hef, still smiling, can you guess why!

His magazine, Playboy, at first showed partial nude female models in seductive poses but also included serious articles about current events and societal concerns. I remember sneaking peaks of my Godfather's Playboy mags and calendars many a time (and he and my godmother knew I was doing it) when I was in my late preteen and young teenaged years. Oddly enough, while I liked the photos of semi-naked women and later fully nude models, sometimes even at an early age I read the articles. My favorite features though were the Varga Girls. The Varga Girls was a collection of absolutely stunning pinup paintings or drawings by Antonio Vargas (and yes they were called the Varga Girls not the Vargas Girls). He came to fame in Esquire magazine and was later hired on by Hefner to work for Playboy in 1959. He produced over 150 pinup prints for Playboy from 1959 through sometime in the 80s. There was at least one such print in each edition of Playboy, usually with a catchy and funny but seductive caption accompanying it. I have to admit, I was sometimes more enamored by those pinups than by the photos of the semi-nude or nude models. 
 
The other regular feature of Playboy that I always enjoyed was the jokes which contained several jokes as well as, often if not always, containing a limerick too as best I can recall. It is funny how something from so long ago was able to make a lasting impression on me as did one of the so called limericks. As best I remember it went something like this:
 
There once was a woman who begat,
she had three children Nat, Pat and Tat.
The fun was in breeding,
but not with the feeding,
when she found she had no tit for Tat.

Of course, besides the magazine (and because of its success), he built and based his empire at the Playboy Mansion. I can say, I would not mind having a place like that and being able to fill it with Bunnies and to also afford it for most of my life. I believe he sold it in 2016 with the condition that he be allowed to remain living there.

The Playboy Mansion.

He also opened the Playboy Club, a posh and expensive gentleman's club (not a strip joint) in Midtown Manhattan, as I recall on 57th street just west of 5th Avenue (I used to pass it frequently and wish I could get inside). More followed around the world. That lasted for quite a time but nowhere nearly as long as did the magazine and the rest of his empire.
 
I read Playboy fairly regularly up through my mid to late twenties. It got to the point somewhere in there where it just no longer seemed the same and lost some of its appeal. I guess I still read it now and then but by the time I reached my mid-thirties, I got married and that was the end of it for me. I have to hand it to Hugh Hefner though - it was a masterpiece and his lifestyle was one that teenaged boys and grown men around the world coveted.

An air of utter contentment.

I have to say, I do not think I ever saw a man smiling as much or as contentedly as did he. Nor did I ever see a man with as many reasons to smile as he. He knew what he had and he enjoyed it as long as possible; he allegedly was a big fan of Viagra up through his mid eighties. He was 91 when he passed but something tells me his mind's eye still held onto an image of himself as being a happy go lucky young lad in his twenties.

Rest in peace Hef.

All the best,
Glenn B