In January 1952, Hefner left his job as a copywriter for
Esquire after he was denied a $5 raise. In 1953, he took out a mortgage loan of $600 and raised $8,000 from 45 investors (including $1,000 from his mother—"not because she believed in the venture," he told
E! in 2006, "but because she believed in her son") to launch
Playboy, which was initially going to be called
Stag Party. The first issue was published in December 1953 and featured
Marilyn Monroe from a 1949 nude calendar shoot she did under a pseudonym. That first issue sold more than 50,000 copies, but Monroe was not paid by Playboy or Hefner for the photos. (Hefner never met Monroe, but he bought the crypt next to hers at the
Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in 1992 for $75,000.)
Esquire magazine rejected
Charles Beaumont's science fiction story "The Crooked Man" in 1955, so Hefner agreed to publish it in
Playboy. The story highlighted straight men being persecuted in a world where homosexuality was the norm. The magazine received angry letters, so Hefner responded, "If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society then the reverse was wrong, too." In 1961, Hefner watched
Dick Gregory perform at the Herman Roberts Show Bar in Chicago, and he hired Gregory to work at the Chicago Playboy Club. Gregory attributed the launch of his career to that night. Hefner promoted a
bon vivant lifestyle in his magazine and in the television shows that he hosted, ''
Playboy's Penthouse (1959–1960) and Playboy After Dark'' (1969–1970). He was also the chief creative officer of
Playboy Enterprises, the publishing group which operates the magazine. On June 4, 1963, Hefner was arrested for promoting obscene literature after he published an issue of
Playboy featuring nude shots of
Jayne Mansfield in bed with a man present. The case went to trial and resulted in a
hung jury. In the 1960s, Hefner created "private key" clubs that were racially diverse. During the civil rights movement in 1966, Hefner sent
Alex Haley to interview
American Nazi Party founder
George Lincoln Rockwell, much to Rockwell's shock because Haley was black. Rockwell agreed to meet with Haley only after gaining assurance that he was not Jewish, although Rockwell kept a handgun on the table throughout the interview. In
Roots: The Next Generations (1979), the interview was recreated with
James Earl Jones as Haley and
Marlon Brando as Rockwell. Haley had also interviewed
Malcolm X in 1963 and
Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966 for the newly established 1962 "playboy interview". In 1970, Hefner stated that "militant feminists" are "unalterably opposed to the romantic boy-girl society that
Playboy promotes" and ordered an article in his magazine against them. In his later years, Hefner's star dimmed, but he remained a well-known personality, often appearing in cameo roles. In the 1993
The Simpsons episode "
Krusty Gets Kancelled", Hefner voiced himself. In 1999, Hefner financed the
Clara Bow documentary
Discovering the It Girl. "Nobody has what Clara had," he said. "She defined an era and made her mark on the nation". Hefner guest-starred as himself in the 2000
Sex and the City episode "Sex and Another City". In 2005, he guest-starred on the HBO shows
Curb Your Enthusiasm and
Entourage. Brigitte Berman's documentary
Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel was released on July 30, 2010. He had previously granted full access to documentary filmmaker and television producer
Kevin Burns for the A&E
Biography special
Hugh Hefner: American Playboy in 1996. Hefner and Burns later collaborated on numerous other television projects, most notably on
The Girls Next Door, a reality series that ran for six seasons (2005–2009) and 90 episodes. Hefner also made a voice-only appearance as himself in the 2011 film
Hop. In 2012, Hefner announced that his youngest son
Cooper would succeed him as the public face of
Playboy. ==Personal life==