Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel (2010)

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TRIVIA

Berman won an Academy Award for her feature documentary Artie Shaw: Time is all you¹ve got.

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SPECS

• Project Phase: Completed
• Release Date: 2010-07-30 - NY and/or LA
• Distributor(s): Phase 4 Films
• Film Genre(s): Documentary
• Country: Canada
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SYNOPSIS

From the first issue of Playboy he pasted together in his living room in December 1953 through the 1960s sexual revolution some say it sparked and the philanthropy he now practices from the fabled Los Angeles mansion that seems still to be stocked with the latest generation of the fabled Bunnies, Hugh Hefner has been a lightning rod for popular culture, sexual controversy and social change for nearly 60 years.

In HUGH HEFNER: PLAYBOY, ACTIVIST AND REBEL, Brigitte Berman—who met the icon when he contacted her to get a copy of her documentary on cornetist/composer Bix Beiderbecke—has for the first time assembled a chronological look at Hefner’s incident-filled life. Take a look at the list of talking heads above to see that Berman’s succeeded in lining up celebrity fawners and dissenters to the Playboy lifestyle. That’s on purpose: “What fascinates me about Hef,” says Berman, is that many know him only as a hedonistic, sensual playboy, a legendary lover of countless beautiful women. There is a whole other and far more interesting, far sexier side to him as well: a driven, talented publisher of a groundbreaking magazine, who is also a social activist at the forefront of countless progressive causes.”

Highlights, revelations and vintage clips are too numerous to mention, but two stand out; coincidentally, they’re both from the years when Hef broke color barriers and popularized jazz and folk by hosting his two TV shows, Playboy’s Penthouse and Playboy after Dark. In the first, Pete Seeger says “Hef had me on his show with all his bosomy young women. My family’s been kidding me about it ever since.” For the second, don’t leave before the end of the credits, as Tony Bennett does a swingin’ version of the Sammy Cahn/ Jimmy Van Heusen chestnut You Can’t Love ‘em All. Maybe you can’t, but Hef probably came closest.

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