He is considered a legend of pop culture. “Playboy” founder Hugh Hefner thought even more of himself: he was a key protagonist of the sexual revolution – “I was and am a liberator”. And that’s exactly what he was celebrated for when he died in 2017 at the age of 91. As an icon.
Hefner grew up, as he said himself, in an uptight, Puritan-Methodist family. He studied psychology. Launched “Playboy” in 1953, according to his own statements, out of his eternal search for love. On the first cover: Marilyn Monroe, revealing. It was the starting signal for a men’s magazine that conquered the world. It was about cigars, cars and fashion, garnished with jokes and top-class interviews. The women in Hefner’s world were: rabbits. It worked.
At the height of his fame, Hefner bought the Villa Mansion in 1971. A 29 room property with its own cinema, library, wine cellar. He celebrated opulent parties with exclusive guests. The bunnies are always there. With the constant availability of hardcore pornography to the masses came the downfall of Playboy. What used to cause a stir was now harmless. But Hefner became a reality star in old age through the series “The Girls of the Playboy Mansion”. It showed his life with young blond women. If he used to be legendary, he became an icon in old age.
The documentary “The Secrets of Playboy”, which opens on Monday, now names what Hefner really was: a man who sexually and psychologically abused women – made them docile with drugs. His villa mansion? “A hell.”
Nobody ever wanted to see that. The men watched in fascination as he turned women into bunnies, gaining prestige and money and talking about sexual liberation. It’s a patriarchal ploy: to degrade women and tell it as a story of female empowerment.
“We will never be more the same»
Now that Hefner is dead, the women are telling. “No one knows what we’ve been through and how it feels to be an 18-year-old girl with an 83-year-old man. And giving him oral sex with your twin sister. It’s something you can’t forget,” said twins Kristina and Karissa Shannon, 32, who were Hefner’s friends for three years. Both suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. “We were only 18 and had no idea what we were getting into. What we were forced to do in the bedroom ruined us. And we will never be the same again.”
Or Sondra Theodore (65), who lived in the villa in the late 70s and early 80s: “He broke me in and broke it like you break in a horse. In the end he just scared me.” Lisa Loving Barrett, Hefner’s former private assistant, tells of Hefner’s stockpile of tranquilizers: “They were considered ‘leg stretchers’ in the Playboy mansion because the women did everything when they were under the influence of the pills.” And so it goes on and on. Hefner’s former chauffeur reports on the so-called “pig nights”. Then Hefner had six “particularly ugly” prostitutes delivered to him by a pimp. “They were examined by a doctor to see if they had any diseases. Then his VIP friends had to have sex with the prostitutes.” Hefner’s former PR boss Miki Garcia (74) says: “It was like in a sect. The women were made to believe they were part of the family. In reality, Hefner believed he owned these women. We’ve had Playmates die from drug overdoses and others who have committed suicide.”
It is Holly Madison who calls the Villa Mansion hell. HollyMadison? Wasn’t that the woman who gave Hefner kisses and whispered “love you” on the ’90s reality show? Exactly. That is her. Her story goes like this: When she knocked on the door of the Villa Mansion, she was on the verge of homelessness. She saw no other way out.
The first night was traumatic: she was drunk and didn’t want to have sex with Hefner.
She stayed because, as she says, she couldn’t undo it anyway.
If women defend themselves against exploitation, it will be used against them. The US women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem knows this. The 87-year-old researched undercover as a young journalist in the “Playboy” universe. What she still hears today when someone wants to discredit her: You were a “Playboy” bunny! And what about the women who found their voices and testified against Jeffrey Epstein? Prostitute! We got money for it, we don’t have to pretend now, they said.
Those who knew were silent
First the abuse, then the shaming. Only: Many have seen what happened. Both with Hugh Hefner, who celebrated parties with all kinds of exclusive guests, as well as Jeffrey Epstein and his sex trafficking ring, who was friends with Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and countless other powerful men. Why wasn’t any of this made public?
“The Secrets of Playboy” has an explanation: Hefner regularly invited the most well-known journalists to “Playboy” parties. These were filmed with hidden cameras without their knowledge. Ex-Playmate Sondra Theodore says: “They always ended up doing something that they would have regretted if it had come out publicly. So Hef had it in his pocket.”
Next to Monroe in the grave
After all the corruption and abuse, the question remains: why do men who abuse women manage to reframe history? Sell it as a good thing? Because Hefner is not an isolated case. The porn film “Deep Throat”, released in 1972, is still considered a cult today and the leading actress Linda Lovelace, who has since died, is an icon of sexual liberation. She herself, however, described her life as a series of sexual violence and humiliation. She shot some of the cult porn with a gun on her head. “Deep Throat” is still shown today at film and art festivals.
Incidentally, the revealing pictures of Marilyn Monroe, which were Hefner’s starting signal for “Playboy” success, were taken before her career. Out of financial need. She got $50 for it. Hefner bought it from the photographer for $500. Today, Hefner lies in the grave next to Monroe. He secured it for $75,000 while he was alive. “Spending eternity next to Marilyn is too beautiful an idea to resist,” he was quoted as saying. Monroe herself never came to terms with her image as a sex icon. She died at the age of 36, probably suicide. Monroe had neither agreed to appear on the cover of the first “Playboy” nor ever received a dollar for it.
The ten-part documentary “Secrets of Playboy” will be available on aetv.ch from January 24th