American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story on Amazon Prime

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This is a very sympathetic documentary of the man and the magazine he created: Playboy.

I have to admit that I didn't know much about him except for the image he created of himself. But his is a real American success story: he was a man with an idea and his success is totally self-made. He started the magazine in his apartment in Chicago.

I've never read or even looked at a copy of Playboy. So I didn't realize that Hefner was very progressive on the issue of civil rights, and that he did interviews with a lot of intelligent and interesting people. He had black performers in his clubs in the sixties and had connections with many important civil rights leaders.

He did play a part in the so-called sexual revolution of the sixties, though probably not as much as he thinks. And his commitment to living out a 'playboy' lifestyle made him blind to his failures as a husband and father. I don't think he ever understood that women are more than just the fantasy objects of men. He surrounded himself with beautiful, younger women all his life. And in doing so he was intentionally being a role model for men of what it means to be successful and sophisticated. Women are trophies.

The show is a mix of clips from Hefner, his associates, and his daughter Christie - and acting out some important scenes of his life.

Recommended.

[Caribbeans]

1. A very unsympathetic view of the man- and according to this he was a terrible person

Highly recommend - at times very hard to watch for those of us that, like you, were at least somewhat sympathetic to the creep while he smirked at the world in his $5,000 bathrobe

Secrets of Playboy

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15250706/

IMDB: 6.7

He was nothing like what we were led to believe. At all. Hope he's in hell now, having to look at those poor souls he betrayed

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2. Thanks, I'd like to hear the other side.

I once worked in an office with a woman who had been a Playboy bunny in the Chicago club when she was younger. Every time I saw her I pictured her in the bunny costume.

Secrets of Playboy is on Hulu.

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3. I did make it through Secrets of Playboy, which I found really revolting.

Not that I don't believe it. His victims were credible. The stories of exploitation and rape are just heartbreaking.

I noted that Hefner's "civil rights" included giving cover to Bill Cosby and Don Cornelius, who both were known to sexually abuse the women at the Playboy mansion and elsewhere.

I think the series on Amazon Prime series must be a PR response to the one on Hulu. It focused mostly on his business - i.e., the magazine - where as the series on Hulu is mostly about the experience of the girls who lived at the Playboy mansion, which was pretty bad. I don't think he invented date rape - but he certainly drugged a lot of girls who he claimed to be protecting.

Hefner said he was introducing a new ethics of sexual morality - but he had no ethics whatsoever except to use women for his pleasure and allow his friends to do so. Women trusted him and men seemed to look up to him, but he was a horrible person.