Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream

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He emerged as one of the most influential advocates of a rapidly developing consumer culture, flooding Playboy readers with images of material abundance and a leisurely lifestyle. The Horatio–Alger–with–a–libido case he makes where else but in America could a repressed midwestern boy rise, and fall into so many sacks, while creating and brand–managing a multimedia empire? Clocking in at over 500 pages, this is not a gossip book but a well–documented biography written with access to Hefner′s over 1800 scrapbooks, the company archives, and interviews.

The Horatio-Alger-with-a-libido case he makes--where else but in America could a repressed midwestern boy rise, and fall into so many sacks, while creating and brand-managing a multimedia empire?Certainly, Hefner was fascinated by sexuality and how its acknowledgement was forbidden, but as he noted later, "Pop culture was my other parent. Ray Porter has garnered two Audie nominations as well as several Earphones Awards and enthusiastic reviews for his sparkling narration of audiobooks. Critics sought to ban Playboy, with many accusing it of contributing to a moral degradation of society. Of course, the larger legacy of Playboy has been considered long and well (in these pages a couple of years ago, and elsewhere). If we're to believe this book, it's the Truth about Hugh Hefner--and, by proxy, about American life since the 1950s.

Choice Reviews , May 2009) "Just past the round rotating bed, beyond the hot-tub grotto but before the pajama-draped walk-in, lies … what?

Newark Star Ledger ) "Like it or not, Hugh Hefner has affected all of us, so I treasured learning about how and why in the sober biography. Neward, CA ( Library Journal , September 1, 2008) As he did in his previous books on Henry Ford ( The People′s Tycoon ) and Walt Disney ( The Magic Kingdom ), Watts carefully details the life of Hugh Hefner and the influence his Playboy magazine has had on American culture. He reveals that from the beginning Hefner believed he could overturn social norms and take America with him.

In light of more recent and disgusting revelations about Hefner's personal life in his old age, you get the feeling the publisher might not have been the visionary and saint that fills the pages of this biography. The publisher played a crucial role in the sexual revolution that upended traditional notions of behavior and expectation regarding sex. Hindi niya alam kung anong klaseng magnet ang mayroon sa babae dahil hindi niya maalis ang paningin dito.

He shows Hefner's personal dichotomies-the pleasure seeker and the workaholic, the consort of countless Playmates and the genuine romantic, the family man and the Gatsby-like host of lavish parties at his Chicago and Los Angeles mansions who enjoys well-publicized affairs with numerous Playmates, the fan of life's simple pleasures who hobnobs with the Hollywood elite.

Title Page A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the. And so it was in his publicly lead private life, complete with famous people, naked women (he was allowed to date other people, his girlfriends were not), and a home in the "Playboy mansion.But it wasn't always that way—from his Midwestern Quaker roots to his vast empire in Chicago—which made the whole concept of "lifestyle" a birthright to affluent and upwardly mobile young Americans—Hefner has always courted controversy. Still, there's plenty to enjoy here, from the factual wealth (Watts was granted access to the vast Playboy vaults and draws heavily on his subject's compulsively kept scrapbook collection) to the photographs aplenty (some offer revelatory glimpses; others give off the whiff of stale cheesecake) to the fundamental pleasures of watching a larger-than-life figure scuttle social norms and satisfy his own lavish urges.