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Topic: The Hefner Files…? Post ReplyPost New Topic
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135688
Posted: 19 February 2026 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

LINK

Makes my skin crawl to think I used to respect him.

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Brian ONeill
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Joined: 04 July 2024
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Posted: 19 February 2026 at 7:35pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

People 'respected' him long past the point that he'd aged out of being an actual 'playboy', and had simply become an old, rich perv.
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James Johnson
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Joined: 16 March 2009
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Posted: 19 February 2026 at 8:22pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Let's be honest.

Will anyone be surprised if any preverted stuff comes out ?
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 19 February 2026 at 8:36pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Not anymore.

For a long time Hefner cultivated an air of something like innocence around the magazine. Playmates were “the girl next door”, remember.

But things started to change when the drug culture became more prevalent. When he moved to California, and “next door” was LA instead of Chicago.

Of course, it was all illusion. Hefner began reshaping his real life into his fantasies. Blatant. And as America was swinging in the other direction…..

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Charles Valderrama
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Posted: 19 February 2026 at 11:13pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Nothing really surprises me these days.

-C!
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James Woodcock
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Joined: 21 September 2007
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Posted: 19 February 2026 at 11:13pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Even as a kid in the late 70s, I could not understand how this guy had the
positive rep that he had. I was under 10 and thought he was a sleezbag.
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Bill Collins
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Posted: 20 February 2026 at 1:32am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Same here James. It amazed me in the late 90's when it was
the fashion for little girls to wear Playboy branded
clothes and have their bedrooms decorated with Playboy
branded bed linen and accessories. Not sure if it was just
a U.K. fad. But it made me wonder what their parents were
thinking.
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James Woodcock
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Posted: 20 February 2026 at 9:02pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

We started our kids club in 95. seeing that trend take hold was so
depressing.
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Ted Downum
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Posted: 20 February 2026 at 10:20pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

I always found Hefner distinctly creepy, sort of like if you averaged out an especially louche cult leader and a vampire. 
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Bill Collins
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Posted: 21 February 2026 at 6:52am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Yes James, i remember asking the daughter of my wife's
cousin what she was having for Christmas and she told me it
was a Playboy themed bedroom and clothes, she was about 8.
Then looking through the Argos catalogue and seeing pages
of Playboy themed stuff all aimed at children. I doubt they
understood what it meant, and probably just saw pink bunny
head stuff. But the parents must have known better.
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135688
Posted: 21 February 2026 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

I always found Hefner distinctly creepy…

•••

Obviously this is an exaggeration. You weren’t born finding Hefner “creepy”. So how about giving us some context. There have been many versions of Hugh Hefner, and while his overall arc was definitely toward creepiness, in his early years he was presented and perceived as a champion of American culture. Music, art, literature. Gender and racial equality. His magazine was on the cutting edge when it came to showing truth to power.

So, when did you first encounter him and his “Playboy Philosophy“?

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