Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy died a few days ago at the age of 91. Hugh single handily changed the way America looked at men and women, helping mold the social mores of our times. Hugh was a complicated businessman who held a very public persona, but here are a few things about Hugh you may not have known…
Hugh borrowed $8,000 from a friend and $1,000 dollars from his mother to publish the very 1st Playboy magazine, omitting the date on the cove in case it didn’t sell. Sell it did, moving over 50,000 copies; a groundbreaking number of copies in the day. He originally wanted to call the magazine ‘Stag Party’ but went with Playboy when most if his friends told him they thought it was a good name for a hunting magazine.
Hugh Hefner’s first publishing job was with Esquire magazine where he worked as a copywriter. As luck would have it, he quit after he was refused a $5 raise.
His first issue of Playboy featured Marilyn Monroe, an iconic star that he will be with for eternity; Hefner bought the burial plot next to Marilyn in LA’s Westwood Village cemetery. He bought the location in 1992 for $75,000.
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