I think everyone knows Hugh Hefner. I know every guy knows Hugh Hefner. He created Playboy, a magazine that cared about editorial, social causes, sophisticated humor, and nakedness. The nakedness, of course, is what counted to we 12-year-olds.
Growing up in a world where there wasn’t the Internet or cable TV, Playboy was king. Other magazines tried to dethrone Playboy, but Playboy always remained the standard-bearer.
Even in a world of Internet and cable TV, Playboy meant something… continues to mean something.
It could be because founding Playboy wasn’t easy… it was the first… it went against all societal norms… and it met with, at times, violent resistance. Huge Hefner truly was the proverbial “pioneer with arrows in his back.”
Or, maybe, it’s just because we were all 12-years-old boys once.
There’s a great quote from the movie Animal House where an adolescent boy is looking at a Playboy and a beautiful woman crashes through his window and lands on his bed. The adolescent exclaims, “Thank you, God!”
For me, all I can say is, “Thank you, Hugh.”
P.S. As always, The Superficial gives Hugh the kind of unfiltered send-off that I think would put a smile on his face. Check it out here. (I borrowed the picture above from them. Hugh has his arm around the beautiful Barbi Benton, of course!)
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