"Playboy's" Cooper Hefner: A Lot of People Don't Know That Martin Luther King Jr. Wrote for Us

Playboy, politics and growing up in the mansion.

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Complex Original

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For those frequenting the cultural spheres of London, you might have seen a sharp rise in the use of that bunny recently—and in a context you might not have expected. In the last 18 months, there was the release of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy—the six-volume anthology from art publishers TASCHEN marking 60 years of the brand. There was the hugely popular Kate Moss bunny shoot, which found itself plastered across all corners of the web and fashion magazines internationally. Then of course there were the scores of successful art exhibitions at Playboy Club, with even Vogue UK’s Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Shulman singing the praises of the brand at last year’s London Fashion Week.

But the presence of Playboy in the arts and culture scene of London is no fluke. Before it all started, in the summer of last year, one of the editors of Complex UK met Cooper Hefner, son of Hugh and the new face of Playboy, to talk about this high-brow resurgence and to reveal some little-known facts about the magazine—including trivia about Martin Luther King Jr.'s work with Playboy.

What are you doing with Playboy at the moment?

I just finished school three months ago and for the last couple of years I’ve been learning a lot about the business. I’m still making this transition with my dad where publicly and privately I’m representing him; I still have an immense amount to learn. You sit in rooms and in meetings and you have to figure out when it’s appropriate to throw your weight around, but also when it’s appropriate to sit and be a student and listen. It’s an interesting sort of place to be.

Will you take over?

What I’m doing at the moment is trying to figure out what my interests are. When my dad first started the company, he never really sat on our board, he never really did any of those things. He elected people to do that for him—he put people in charge of running his company. I mean he always took care of the magazine, that was his baby, but for me I am still trying to find where I want to be, if there’s something that I really like. I haven’t found that niche yet.

Many are unfamiliar with Playboy’s literary background—

I know! That’s one of the responsibilities that I’m tasked with, reintroducing the quality of that lifestyle and reminding people about the history of the brand. A lot of people didn’t know that Martin Luther King Jr. wrote for the magazine or that my Dad was involved with him, strategizing the Civil Rights Movement in the sixties in the U.S.

I think that because of what pop culture has talked about in recent years, in the last 15 or 20 years we have forgotten that side of the brand and the more I get involved, and the more I have got involved, that side has definitely become something of the main importance. It’s something that we should stand for.



I think We kind of lost our waY


Is it that people forgot about it because they just wanted to focus on the sexy stuff or did it just fade out?

I don’t think it faded out. When you have a company like this there’s an understanding that you go through transitions, we went through a transition and because of shows like The Girls of the Playboy Mansion … [pause] if I’m candid with you I think we kind of lost our way.

You walk into a club like this [Playboy Club, Mayfair] and it exemplifies what kind of lifestyle the brand catered to in the fifties and sixties when my dad first started the company—and what it now will continue to. We’re bringing back that vintage feel, but doing it in a modern way. Because there is a generation that is my age that is obsessed with the yesteryear.

How prominent is the arts and culture stuff going to be?

That’s always been a part of the brand, the funny thing is, that’s not new. I think that’s what surprises people. You have people like Jack Kerouac and Ray Bradbury—who is arguably the most iconic science fiction writer in the U.S—you have people like that who are incredibly influential who want to associate with the brand, who want to write for the brand, and that’s one of the reasons why the brand is so iconic. I think there are still people who maybe don’t know what the brand stands for, and aren’t informed about what the brand is, and that’s kind of the stuff that I’ve taken on. I feel an immense amount of responsibility for this because at the end of the day this is my legacy, and I want to make sure it’s represented in the right way.

What makes a playboy?

I think in the same way that I said the brand has gone through many changes I would say that the definition of a playboy, of what a playboy is, goes through many transitions. We



I don't know how cool it is to have multiple girlfriends


live in a time where, at least for me, I don’t know how cool it is to have multiple girlfriends. I’m in a place where I’m single I’m dating around, I’m enjoying that scene. But when you like someone and you want to keep them around you make them your significant other. The idea of what a Playboy was, is not what it is today.

We have to ask you about the Playboy Mansion. How was that?

It was good! It was home. It was my home. What else can be said.

For most people growing up, the idea of the opposite sex conjured up nothing but fear and dread—guess that wasn’t the same for you...

Not at all. I think anybody going through puberty looking at the opposite sex is filled with fear and dread so I promise you that was no different for me. I was 12 years old and went through my awkward stage thinking "eww gross, girls."

So having been exposed to all this stuff you wouldn’t say has had a profound effect on you now as an adult?

I’m sure it has, I just don’t know in what capacity. I’m sure if we had a psychologist here he could tell me what’s wrong. I think that in regards to what it was like growing up in the Mansion, it was normal in the sense that it was the life that I knew and that’s what I was used to. And then you get older and you realize that life is different when you compare it to other people’s circumstance.

The reason we’re asking is because right now here in the U.K. there’s a fierce debate about whether kids are getting sexualized too early, and whether the media is to blame—

It’s interesting, I didn’t know that was being debated here but in the last few days I’ve been asked questions like "what’s your perspective on children wearing the bunny merchandise?" Well we don’t produce clothing for children, that’s not a reflection of us, it’s a reflection of their parents. There’s this show that is very popular in the U.S for reasons that as an American I am not proud of—people kind of like train wrecks in the States—it’s called Toddlers and Tiaras. It’s terrible, parents take these kids to these pageants and make their three year olds put on makeup and dress them up in these ridiculous outfits… I was watching it a few days before I came here, and there’s this four-year-old dressed up in a [Playboy] bunny outfit. That doesn’t have anything to do with us. It’s not a reflection of us, that’s not what we’re promoting. That’s a reflection of poor parenting.

We did some research on you and we notice you went to film school—

I studied film and history. A lot of people don’t know that the company and my dad have always been involved in film. More short stories have been adapted out of the pages of Playboy than any other magazine in the world. Stephen Spielberg’s first film came from a short story that we published. My dad always said that if he wasn’t doing this, he would be in the film industry.

How does that tie into your work now? Are we going to see Playboy Films?

I would love that! I mean, we have connections to that world—I was out at Comic Con recently, and I mean it’s not really about comic books, it’s really about films—and we hosted a party with universal for their Kick Ass 2 movie. If you look at the direction the company is going in it's kind of already happening and being someone who loves film, I 130% endorse that direction. 

So are we going to see less of the stuff people find inappropriate and more cultural stuff?

Depends on what people find inappropriate, that depends on who you’re talking to.

There’s an interview of you online, alongside your dad and Piers Morgan, where Hugh mentioned something about "puritanical America"could you elaborate on that?

My dad and I differ on a lot of things but I think that’s one of the roots of the misconception about the magazine. I’m very comfortable with my sexuality but at the end of the day there are a ton of people who are not. These religious roots that have continued to exist from 300 years ago, that make people grow up sexually conservative, who have a problem with the company, it says more about them then it says about us.

How is the brand received in terms of politics in the U.S?

Depends who you’re talking to! I’m a Democrat but I wouldn’t say that every democrat would say Playboy was great. Playboy and politics is a difficult thing.



Playboy and politics is a difficult thing


You know you also have the other side—the Republican Party—who are pushed by religion, but we have a lot of republican readers and fans. It’s not black and white.

If someone said that Playboy was responsible for a rise in pornography what would your response be?

I would say I didn’t know. Candidly, I would say I didn’t know. I honestly don’t know.

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