Research Catalog

Title

Mr. Playboy : Hugh Hefner and the American dream / Steven Watts.

Author

Watts, Steven, 1952-

Publication

Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley, [2008], ©2008.

Supplementary Content

Publisher description

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

ix, 529 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color); 25 cm

Summary

"In Mr. Playboy, historian and biographer Steven Watts argues that, in the process of becoming fabulously wealthy and famous, Hugh Hefner has profoundly altered American life and values. Granted unprecedented access to the man and his enterprise, Watts traces Hef's life and career from his midwestern, Methodist upbringing and the first publication of Playboy in 1953 through the turbulent sixties, self-indulgent seventies, reactionary eighties, and traditionalist nineties, up to the present. He reveals that Hefner, from the beginning, believed he could overturn social norms and take America with him." "Throughout, Watts offers singular insights into the real man behind the flamboyant public persona. He shows Hefner's personal dichotomies - the pleasure seeker and the workaholic, the consort of countless Playmates and the genuine romantic, the family man and the Gastby-like host of lavish parties at his Chicago and Los Angeles mansions who enjoys well-publicized affairs with numerous playmates, the fan of life's simple pleasures who hobnobs with the Hollywood elite."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

• Journalists > United States > Biography
• Hefner, Hugh M (Hugh Marston), 1926-2017

Note

• Includes 1 folded color plate.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 455-514) and index.

Contents

Introduction. The Boy Next Door -- Pt. I. Beginnings -- 1. A Boy at Play -- 2. Boot Camp, College, and Kinsey -- 3. The Tie That Binds -- Pt. II. Ascent -- 4. How to Win Friends and Titillate People -- 5. Hedonism, Inc -- 6. The Pursuit of Happiness -- 7. An Abundant Life -- 8. Living the Fantasy -- Pt. III. Triumph -- 9. The Philosopher King -- 10. The Happiness Explosion -- 11. Make Love, Not War -- 12. What Do Women Want? -- 13. Down the Rabbit Hole -- 14. Disneyland for Adults -- Pt. IV. Malaise -- 15. A Hutch Divided -- 16. The Dark Decade -- 17. The Party's Over -- 18. Strange Bedfellows -- Pt. V. Resurgence -- 19. The Bride Wore Clothes -- 20. All in the Family -- 21. Back in the Game -- Epilogue: Playboy Nation.

ISBN

• 9780471690597 (cloth)
• 0471690597 (cloth)

LCCN

• 2008009572
• 40016006569

OCLC

• ocn212628059
• 212628059
• SCSB-5441402

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries