In light of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's death on Wednesday at 91, we revisit two conversations that Brooke and Bob had with and about the sex industry magnate. First, Brooke's conversation with Hefner from 2003, in which he insisted that he helped transform the country away from one in which "our notion of playing hard was largely bowling and watching television," and Brooke challenged his notion that his sexual empire had benefited the women that participated in it.
Then, Bob's conversation with writer Gay Talese, who told Bob that, although he never read Playboy or published a piece in the magazine, "Playboy made my life and the life of every writer easier."
Songs:
Thanks For the Memory by Erroll Garner
Tymperturbably Blue (Live 1959) by Duke Ellington
Correction: Brooke states that the first issue of Playboy, featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover, was published in 1963, one year after Monroe's death. In fact, the first issue appeared in 1953, when Monroe was still alive.
