At 83, Hefner remains a study in smart sensuality

By John Katsilometes

Friday, April 3, 2009 | 6:05 p.m.

It seems every teenage boy remembers his Playboy Moment, the time when you first flip open the magazine and it’s, hello, Chicago, hello. I once talked to George Maloof about this, because today Maloof’s Palms resort is in partnership with Playboy Enterprises and is home to the sky-high Playboy Club, and also is where Hugh Hefner celebrates birthday No. 83 this weekend (see advance coverage from my main brother from another, Robin Leach, on sister site Vegas DeLuxe).

Maloof told me he was about 16 when he first spied a Playboy magazine, and said what he recalled most vividly was how off-limits the magazine was to younger folks in those days -- nervous boys often steeled away to the garage, a flashlight in one hand and the magazine in the other, just to enjoy a mere peek. Playboy’s taboo quality added to the magazine’s mystique and made it seem especially tantalizing.

The photography helped in that regard, too.

Then I remembered, my first Playboy Moment was not the magazine itself, it was from TV. Hugh Hefner was a host of “Saturday Night Live” during the show’s second season. Andy Kaufman was a guest that night, performing his classic sing-a-long to the “Mighty Mouse” theme. It was 1977, the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players were essentially intact, and the sketch I best recall was a scene set in one of Hefner’s Playboy Clubs. Seated were John Belushi and Gilda Radner, playing a middle-aged married couple enjoying a rare night on the town. Hefner introduced himself, and Belushi -- aggressively portraying a typically overstimulated, geeked-out Playboy subscriber -- insistently referred to Hefner as “Ner!” rather than the universally recognized “Hef.”

Belushi went on and on about the Playboy Playmates and Hefner’s reputed relationships with upper-echelon Bunnies. “Ner! Ner!” Belushi shouted, “isn’t it true that the stars in the P in Playboy are for how many times you slept with that month’s Playmate!?” Hefner said no, correcting Belushi that those stars, which appeared in the magazine in the ’60s and ’70s, were to identify in which region the magazine was being distributed. There were 13 such regions around the world, he informed. That explanation seemed to deflate Belushi, and Hefner started a high-minded conversation with the wife, Radner, about some of the magazine’s politically driven coverage. One of the great claims of Playboy is that it’s the magazine that inspired the claim, “I only read it for the articles.”

Ah, the articles. One of the first issues of Playboy I ever picked up was the magazine’s famous interview with President Carter, where he admitted “lusting” after women. It wasn’t a coincidental reading, as this interview had been reported everywhere, even by Walter Cronkite. At the time, I didn’t exactly know what “lust” meant, but thanks to Mad magazine, I was familiar with “horny.” After looking up the definition of “lust,” I thought, “Wow, the president is horny.”

I’m still impressed that Hefner’s magazine persuaded a sitting president to be interviewed for a piece that appeared just pages from full nudity, in living color. Hustler, for one, would never have been able to make that happen.

These days Playboy, as a magazine, is fighting a trend that has its readers leaking away to the Web. It has diversified, having revived its club here in Vegas and started the cable Playboy TV channel, which is focusing on the Gentiles and the Palomino Club for the reality-based series “The King of Clubs,” which is scheduled to debut in October. But as a brand, those silhouetted rabbit ears still stand for something, for a sensuality that is sharp and smart. Even at 83, Hefner is all of that -- he’s got three hot young girlfriends and has marketed a reality TV show around that unlikely configuration (this triumvirate includes twins Karissa and Kristina Shannon). The other day I tried to come up with a list of women in Hef’s age division who would make a fitting girlfriend for him. I finally gave up. It’s impossible. Hugh Hefner’s 83, but he’s not really 83, you know what I mean?