Under the slime and smarm of "Hef" (which I find as artificial and repulsive as Jabba) and the stereotypes and lifestyle he promoted, is small but significant story that helps makes sense of the larger one in retrospect. At least it does for me.
I knew a restrictive religious upbringing was involved (with his mother wanting him to be a missionary?), but was unaware of his devotion to chastity and the infidelity he experienced while in the army before attending college, or his connect back to a real bar named Bunny's.
According to Hugh Hefner, the Bunny was inspired by Bunny's Tavern in Urbana, Illinois.
Bunny's Tavern was named for its original owner, Bernard "Bunny" Fitzsimmons, who opened for business in 1936. Serving daily food specials for a mere thirty-five cents, as well as ten-cent draft beers, Bunny's catered to locals and University of Illinois students alike. One of those students was Hugh Hefner.
After high school, he'd served from 1944 to 1946 in the U.S. Army as a writer for a military newspaper and went on to graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a double minor in Creative Writing and Art, after having earned his degree in two and a half years.
Although he'd vowed to ‘save himself’ for childhood sweetheart Mildred ‘Millie’ Williams until they got married, days before their wedding in 1949, Williams revealed that she had slept with someone else while he was away in the army. “I had literally saved myself for my wife, but after we had sex she told me that she'd had an affair. That was the most devastating moment in my life,”
A 2006 E! True Hollywood Story profile of Hefner revealed that Mildred allowed him to have sex with other women, out of guilt for her own infidelity and in the hope that it would preserve their marriage. The two were divorced in 1959. Hefner remade himself as a bon vivant and man about town, a lifestyle he promoted in his magazine and two TV shows he hosted.
All of which says to me that "the cake is a lie" and was all along--with his portrayal and use of women as sexual rabbits (bunnies no less if you want to factor in the childhood sweetheart component) as his attempt to reconcile and respond to his own life experiences, needs and desires.
5 comments:
That's Princess Lay Ya.
From Hef to Jabba the Hutt - compare and contrast...
That's pretty funny. She was funny.
That's a hoot, Sixty. I was thinking the same thing. Both slimy. One fat, one skinny.
Under the slime and smarm of "Hef" (which I find as artificial and repulsive as Jabba) and the stereotypes and lifestyle he promoted, is small but significant story that helps makes sense of the larger one in retrospect. At least it does for me.
I knew a restrictive religious upbringing was involved (with his mother wanting him to be a missionary?), but was unaware of his devotion to chastity and the infidelity he experienced while in the army before attending college, or his connect back to a real bar named Bunny's.
According to Hugh Hefner, the Bunny was inspired by Bunny's Tavern in Urbana, Illinois.
Bunny's Tavern was named for its original owner, Bernard "Bunny" Fitzsimmons, who opened for business in 1936. Serving daily food specials for a mere thirty-five cents, as well as ten-cent draft beers, Bunny's catered to locals and University of Illinois students alike. One of those students was Hugh Hefner.
After high school, he'd served from 1944 to 1946 in the U.S. Army as a writer for a military newspaper and went on to graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a double minor in Creative Writing and Art, after having earned his degree in two and a half years.
Although he'd vowed to ‘save himself’ for childhood sweetheart Mildred ‘Millie’ Williams until they got married, days before their wedding in 1949, Williams revealed that she had slept with someone else while he was away in the army. “I had literally saved myself for my wife, but after we had sex she told me that she'd had an affair. That was the most devastating moment in my life,”
A 2006 E! True Hollywood Story profile of Hefner revealed that Mildred allowed him to have sex with other women, out of guilt for her own infidelity and in the hope that it would preserve their marriage. The two were divorced in 1959. Hefner remade himself as a bon vivant and man about town, a lifestyle he promoted in his magazine and two TV shows he hosted.
All of which says to me that "the cake is a lie" and was all along--with his portrayal and use of women as sexual rabbits (bunnies no less if you want to factor in the childhood sweetheart component) as his attempt to reconcile and respond to his own life experiences, needs and desires.
Post a Comment