Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston Hefneris an American adult magazine publisher, businessman, and a well-known playboy. Hefner is a native of Chicago, Illinois and a former journalist for Esquire. Hefner is also a World War II veteran. He is best known for being the founder and chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises. A self-made multi-millionaire, he is now worth over $43 million, because of his success for creating the Playboy magazine. Hefner is also a political activist and philanthropist active in several causes...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth9 April 1926
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
I would like to think that I will be remembered as someone who had some positive impact on the sociosexual values of his time. And I think I'm secure and happy in that.
I was a very idealistic, very romantic kid in a very typically Midwestern Methodist repressed home. There was no show of affection of any kind, and I escaped to dreams and fantasies produced, by and large, by the music and the movies of the '30s.
Historically the Puritans left England to escape religious persecution, and they promptly turned around and started persecuting the people they didn't agree with - the scarlet letter A, and the stocks and the dunking board came from that. That puritanism is still there.
I was fortunate enough to be raised in a, in a very romantic time in terms of music, and the music itself simple reflected the much more romantic time.
You know, from my point of view, I'm the luckiest cat on the planet.
You really don't create an authoritarian society unless you control the personal choices including the sexual choices of the people.
One of the problems with organized religion is that it has always kept women in a second-class position. They have been viewed as the daughters of Eve.
Without question, love in its various permutations is what we need more of in this world. The idea that the concept of marriage will be sullied by same-sex marriage is ridiculous. Heterosexuals haven't been doing that well at it on their own.
Follow your own particular dreams. We are handed a life by peers, parents and society, you can do that or follow your own dreams. Life is short, be a dreamer but be a practical person.
You stay in touch with the boy who dreamed impossible dreams.
After all the Puritans came to America to escape from persecution and then turned around and started persecuting other people. So I understand that conflict that we have related to play and pleasure and sexuality. And I think what has made my life worthwhile is trying to deal with some of those questions.
It's perfectly clear to me that religion is a myth. It's something we have invented to explain the inexplicable. My religion and the spiritual side of my life come from a sense of connection to the humankind and nature on this planet and in the universe. I am in overwhelming awe of it all: It is so fantastic, so complex, so beyond comprehension. What does it all mean -- if it has any meaning at all? But how can it all exist if it doesn't have some kind of meaning? I think anyone who suggests that they have the answer is motivated by the need to invent answers, because we have no such answers.
Living in the moment, thinking about the future, and staying connected to the past: That's what makes me feel whole.
The notion of the single man began in the 1950's. The idea of the bachelor as a separate life was new and obscure.