When they said the party was over, they
were wrong. Hugh Hefner reveals how the Playboy Mansion
survived '80s conservatism and his own marital woes and
stroke to once again become the hottest spot in
America.
He bounds into his library, the personification of the Playboy
lifestyle, a lightning rod of the last four decades - from Marilyn
Monroe to Pamela Lee and the infinity in between. Admittedly a
relic, but hip once again in the era of retro, he is every inch his
image: the square jaw, the silk pajamas, that famous grin. Hugh M.
Hefner, "Hef" to all, remains the king of swing.
"If You Don't Swing, Don't Ring," forewarned a plaque beside the
doorbell on the original
Playboy Mansion in
Chicago, and the
Playboy Mansion West, just off the Sunset Strip, was designed with
the swinger in mind. The fabled 1927 Gothic-Tudor, where Hef lives
and works with a household staff of 70 and a menagerie of peacocks,
monkeys, exotic birds, and sleepover Playmates, still wows. All of
the legendary locales known to Playboy readers everywhere - the
Grotto, the Game House (which includes the TV Room, known for its
rubbery floor and plethora of pillows), the mirrored bedrooms, the
baccarat boards, and the Seburg LP record machine - remain, as if
preserved in the amber of the 1970s, when, fueled by baby boomers
and the Vietnam War, Playboy's monthly circulation soared to seven
million. Only the partyers have changed, with the likes of Leonardo
DiCaprio,
George Clooney,
Cameron Diaz, and
Jim Carrey joining
perennials
Jack Nicholson, Tony Curtis, James Caan, and a cast of
thousands.
Celebrating his 75th birthday on April 9, Hef is the subject of an
upcoming major film biopic and long-awaited biography. His magazine
will turn 50 in 2003. But most importantly, Hef is swinging again,
and fingers are snapping everywhere in celebration. "Oh, it was
definitely one of the great ones, everybody will tell you that," he
says of his last
Halloween party, a bash to which almost everyone
in celebrity
Los Angeles begged invitation and only 800 of his
closest friends and Playmates were admitted.