In 1959, Hugh Hefner — publisher of the then-up-and-coming magazine Playboy — hosted a syndicated TV series from Chicago called Playboy's Penthouse. It ran for two seasons and was followed in 1969 by two seasons of Playboy After Dark, which was basically the same show except in color and produced in Los Angeles. On both shows, the premise was that you were invited to one of the famous, celebrity-filled parties at Hef's mansion and got to mingle, watch his more famous guests perform and listen in on conversations and interviews.
I had a few brief experiences with Hef's real parties — the ones at his home, not in a TV studio — and I quickly learned a few things about them. One was that everyone present felt really privileged to be there and that you had to keep saying that, especially if you at all interacted with Hef. The biggest thing about being at a party at the Playboy Mansion was that you were at a party at the Playboy Mansion. You felt special because of that…and often that was the only real reason to go.
I also learned that to be invited, you had to fall into one of three categories…
- You had to be really famous or…
- You had to be really gorgeous or…
- You had to be a crony of Hef's whom he'd granted the special privilege of being there so you could hit on folks in Category 1 for Show Biz connections and/or Category 2 for Love Connections.
I did not fit into any of these three categories, which is probably why I did not remain on the guest list for long. Actually, I got booted off and one of these days, I'll tell the story here of how I managed that. By then though, I'd learned that I didn't fit in there.
I had mixed feelings about Hef's TV parties. He was an awkward host — much nicer and funnier in person than he was on the show. He had on some of the best comedians then working but they were performing for Hef's TV Party Guests — paid extras who laughed like paid extras, phonier than any prerecorded laugh track ever. You can almost feel them being directed when to laugh (often in the wrong places) and for how long.
But what intrigued me was that in the midst of all that fakery, you often got performances by artists who were rarely if ever seen on television and a lot of stimulating conversation. Here's an excerpt from this review of the video I'm introducing here…
As few people under 60 will be aware of the two politically progressive talk-and-music syndicated shows Hef produced and hosted at the beginning and end of the 1960s, Brigitte Berman's documentary will be a bit of an eye-opener, primarily due to the shows' then-unheard-of racial mix and political talk but also as a curious cultural artifact of the Swinging Sixties.
Much of what Hefner pushed in the sixties is outta-date and outgrown and much of what was on those shows now stands as camp, especially when the tuxedo-clad on-screen guests groove to songs from Woodstock. But as the review notes, "Barry Melton of Country Joe and the Fish recalls having had a booking on The Ed Sullivan Show yanked due to fear the band would perform their trademark anti-Vietnam war song 'I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag,' which was exactly what Hefner wanted them to sing."
That kind of thing alone makes Hef's two series worthy of attention…and therefore, the documentary well worth watching. You can watch it below. Thanks to ace publicist Jeff Abraham for telling me its producers had put it online…