Hefner says new generation seeks Playboy nostalgia
LAS VEGAS - Growing up in the conservative mid-West during the Great Depression, Hugh Hefner looked back wistfully at the age of flappers as an era of freedom and fun that he missed.
Now, the 80-year-old founder of Playboy magazine sees young people seeking the same kind of nostalgia -- the kind that may lure them to a new Playboy Club atop the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, the first to open in about 20 years.
Bryan Wolff, a table games floor supervisor, and blackjack dealer Maya Kilam check cards at the new Playboy Club in Las Vegas October 5, 2006. (Steve Marcus/Reuters)
"What happened is a whole new generation grew up who had not experienced the Playboy phenomenon and it was perceived that it was a party that was missed," Hefner told Reuters in a pool-side interview before the official opening night party.
As his three blonde live-in girlfriends lounged nearby sipping strawberry cocktails from tall glasses that resembled a bikini-clad woman, Hefner said the opening of the club was emotional for him, but also a validation of the brand that helped bring the sexual revolution to the mainstream nearly a half-century ago.
Though times have changed and images of nude women in the Internet age hardly raise eyebrows or make the same political and sociological statement they once did, Playboy appears to be on a roll once more.
A successful licensing business and a popular reality television show that shadows Hefner's girlfriends has brought new fans to the bunny brand and a movie about Hefner's life is in the works.
Hefner dispelled the notion that the magazine, which is battling slumping sales and dwindling ad revenue, will ever stop being published.
"The brand will be here forever and the magazine will be here forever, whether it's printed on paper or it's electronic," Hefner said.
Earlier, a line of fans waited for Hefner's girlfriends to sign calendars and magazines inside the hotel's Playboy Boutique. Most were in their 20s, but some were old enough to remember the original clubs.
One of those was Ed Burr, who had a Los Angeles Playboy club key in 1980 and he wondered aloud what would happen when Hefner retires.
"Half of the business is him," Burr said. "The persona and perception of the good life that the brand represents -- and he's the brand."
Las Vegas resident Nadia Salvino, a 24 year-old brunette, said she started looking at Playboy magazine at age 5. She called the magazine "a legend." Her only complaint?
"Too many blonds," she sniffed.
