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Hugh Hefner

Arguably one of the most important figures in midcentury American popular culture, Hugh Hefner was the founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy, one of the most widely recognized and influential publications of the twentieth century. Playboy encapsulated Hefner's vision of the modern American male's mindset, which was as fascinated by sex as it was with politics, art, and social commentary, and with its first issue in 1953, appealed to all of these interests in a tasteful and mature presentation that established it as both head and shoulders above the average "stag" magazine and a worthy competitor with publications like Esquire. The combination of nude layouts, award-winning literature and insightful interviews quickly made Playboy one of the biggest selling magazines of the postwar period, and was cited as both a positive and negative influence on the sexual revolution of the 1960s and into the freewheeling 1970s. Its runaway success also allowed Hefner to pursue a wide variety of ventures - from nightclubs and jazz festivals to movie and television productions. Though Playboy's fortunes and significance in the cultural landscape rose and fell in the ensuing decades, the image of Hefner - frequently clad in his trademark silk pajamas and smoking jacket - remained an enduring icon of sexual freedom and the pursuit of "the good life" in its many varied forms. His death on September 27, 2017 brought forth a spirited debate about the role Hefner and Playboy had played, for better and worse, in American culture.