I have been a Playboy magazine subscriber for close to 20 years an thanks to ebay and flea markets have put together a pretty good collection.
While I wasn't a fan of his liberal politics Hefner was an amazing man. Forget for a minute the smoking jacket and girls. The man was one more in the long list of American successes. Using money loaned from his mother he bought some unused photos of Marilyn Monroe from a calendar and printed/published his first issue of Playboy in December 1953.
Had he not been able to get those photos of the biggest star at the time would we even know who Hugh Hefner is?