The Founder of Play boy Magazine Hugh M. Hefner, who helped steer nudity into the American mainstream media, has died. He was 91 years old.
Hefner died of natural causes at his home in the Playboy Mansion near Beverly Hills in Calif . According to a statement issued by Playboy, he died while surrounded by family on Wednesday night.
His magazine brought female nudity out of bachelor parties and into living rooms. It played a leading role in the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Hefner the man and Playboy the brand were inseparable and they advertised themselves as emblems of the sexual revolution.
American Icon and Playboy Founder, Hugh M. Hefner passed away today. He was 91. #RIPHef pic.twitter.com/tCLa2iNXa4
— Playboy (@Playboy) September 28, 2017
Though they were scorned over the years as vulgar, adolescent and exploitative, Hefner was a stunning success from his emergence in the early 1950s. Within a year of inception, Playboy magazine’s circulation neared 200,000 copies. Within five years, it had topped to 1 million and by the 1970s, the magazine had more than 7 million readers. This had inspired other vulgar imitations such as Penthouse and Hustler.
“My father lived an exceptional and impactful life as a media and cultural pioneer and a leading voice behind some of the most significant social and cultural movements of our time in advocating free speech, civil rights and sexual freedom,” his son Cooper Hefner, Playboy Enterprise’s chief creative officer, said in a statement.
Over the years, Hefner remained editor in chief even after agreeing to the magazine’s startling decision In 2015 to stop publishing nude photographs. In 2016, he handed over creative control of Playboy to his son Cooper Hefner.
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