Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/94797
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF PLAYBOY ENTERPRISES, INC. F ront Runners Hugh Hefner and his bunnies at the first Playboy Club. heads and tails WITH THE LAUNCH OF PLAYBOY IN DECEMBER 1953, SOUTH SIDE'S HUGH HEFNER FOREVER CHANGED THE FANTASY LIFE OF THE AMERICAN MALE. BY MEG MATHIS W 8 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM hen the premiere issue of Playboy hit Chicago newsstands in December 1953, it featured a sensational dia- mond in the publishing rough: a widely rumored but never-before-published nude portrait of Marilyn Monroe from her 1949 session with photographer Tom Kelley. In an act of bravado, Hugh Hefner had convinced John Baumgarth (of the West Side's John Baumgarth Calendar Company) to let him publish the image of Monroe with the intent of featuring the actress as his new men's magazine's first "Sweetheart of the Month"; still, as he produced the first issue from the kitchen of his South Side apartment, Hefner had doubts about Playboy's future and chose not to include a date on the cover. The 27-year-old had a hit on his hands, though, and that inaugural issue— which introduced the iconic rabbit-head logo—sold approximately 52,000 copies, covering costs and funding a January edition, which saw the first "Playmate of the Month." Throughout its nearly 60-year history, Playboy has featured writers such as Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, and Margaret Atwood. Hefner didn't stop with the magazine and, by 1960, he had established an empire in the Gold Coast with the original Playboy mansion at 1340 North State Parkway and the first Playboy Club at 116 East Walton Street (renamed "Honorary Hugh M. Hefner Way" in 2000). The brand took off internationally and later relocated its headquarters to Los Angeles. Though he didn't know it at the time, Hefner—the son of conservative parents and a descendant of Puritan patriarchs—sparked a revolution at his kitchen table. MA