Cooper Hefner to Join the USAF!

[Texas Star]

I was quite surprised this week to read that Cooper Hefner, son of legendary late publisher Hugh M. Hefner, is joining the US Air Force! His wife fully supports him in this and said it makes her proud.

He and his three siblings and Hef's widow, Crystal, sold their financial interests in, Playboy about a year ago and are no longer involved there. The magazine is now down to being printed quarterly...for $29.95 a copy!

Cooper, 28, was widely expected to succeed his dad as publisher, but I guess circumstances didn't work out.

He's expected to leave for Basic in about a week, but no mention has been made of his plans beyond that.

He has a university degree and considerable publishing experience, so I suspect he'll get a commision via OCS and become a Public Information Officer.

I don't see him joining my old career field. I don't think he's inclined to wear a badge, or carry a pistol. Nor do I think he aspires to command SAC!

I hope his military experience will educate him to see the world differently from some of his current/past philosophies.

 

[Marshwheeling]

Maybe his presence will serve to broaden the views of his colleagues. One thing we have lost with a volunteer army is the democratizing influence of members from a broader swath of society.

 

[Rastoff]

If he has a degree, he will go directly to Officer Training School (OTS, officer's candidate school is an Army thing). From there the sky is the limit. I wish him well in what could be a great career.

Even so, it's been my experience that people with money that join the USAF have difficulty with the normal Air Force way of doing things.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

If he scores high high enough on the tests, he most certainly can go to OCS.
If he just goes to regular Basic, he may feel out of place being with mostly 18-20 year olds.

 

[usmc2427765]

The only memories I have of Playboy is the March 1970 issue with Barbi Benton. It was most definitely a morale boost for us Marines in RVN

 

[Texas Star]

The only memories I have of Playboy is the March 1970 issue with Barbi Benton. It was most definitely a morale boost for us Marines in RVN

Is that the cover where it's sort of orange and her face largely fills the cover and she's holding gloves? The gloves are folded to look like the Playboy rabbit head.

I remember many issues with pleasure, but one stands out. The March, 1965 issue, which had Robert C. Ruark's article on hunting safaris. I have a knife and boots like those in the big color photo. I thought the binocular should have been better chosen.

I think they just went to A&F's Chicago store and photographed some gear there. I doubt Ruark was present. But he did recommend Russell's Birdshooter boots, which they showed.

I also especially enjoyed the issues with excerpts of James Bond novels just as they reached bookstores.

I think you can find pics of most covers Online and most of the Playmates.

My first Playmate was Carol Eden, in 1960. I saw the issue at my uncle's home in Tulsa when I was 12.

I've met just two Playmates in person, but got to talk to them for quite awhile. Neither was officially "appearing." We were just shopping in the same bookstores and I saw one also at the grocer and recognized her after a few moments of chatting. Both were intelligent and friendly. One was later also a St. Pauli beer ad girl. My son talked to Julie McCullough at another bookstore.

I did visit two of the clubs. I hate to admit it, but the Chicago club was quite a bit better than the one in Dallas. A Bunny in Dallas explained that the conservative city atmosphere kept a lot of girls from applying. She was afraid she'd be drummed out of her sorority and maybe been prevented from graduating from SMU if she'd been a Playmate. Actually, she'd been photographed for the centerfold, but insisted they hold the pictorial until she graduated later that year.

Hefner's death was the end of an era for American and world culture. But I wish Cooper well. I hope he'll be a credit to the Air Force.

 

[steveno]

a roommate in West Germany got a 3 year subscription for Playboy because that was how long we was going to be there. I don't think he got more than half of them. we think they got "lost" in the APO before they got to the mailbox. they actually had some good articles to read to go long with the pictures.

we had the pinup's taped to the metal lockers. during one of the few room inspections that we had the squadron commander wasn't too impressed but he didn't make us take them down. I have a picture of them but no way to post them. I would probably get dinged anyway so you will just have to use your imagination

 

[DWalt]

I was only once a visitor to a Playboy Club, in New Orleans back in the mid-60s. I went with a friend who was a member (at that time you had to pay to become a member, and you got some kind of Playboy key to impress your friends with). I thought it was just a big pretentious ripoff.

 

[italiansport]

Does anyone know what became of the West Coast Playboy Mansion where Hef lived out his last days? Or additionally, what became of the bunnies he had on "payroll" there.
Jim

 

[Texas Star]

Does anyone know what became of the West Coast Playboy Mansion where Hef lived out his last days? Or additionally, what became of the bunnies he had on "payroll" there.
Jim

Jim-

Yes, that's been widely announced.

First, a neighbor who has a fortune in some food product line bought the Mansion West from the Playboy firm (Hef didn't really own it; he paid rent) with the stipulation that Hef could live there until his death. After he died on Sept. 27, 2017, the neighbor planned to remodel, but hasn't said if he'll sell it, make it a Playboy museum with paid tours, or live there.

Hef's widow, Crystal, moved to a five million dollar home that he'd bought for her and her mother and the kids had to get their own places. They all got substantial inheritances although Crystal wasn't in the will and was provided for separately.

No Bunnies lived there. Bunnies were waitresses in the clubs. The Girlfriends lived there. These varied from 3-7 women who Hef kept as, well, girlfriends. The three best known were the ones on the TV show, The Girls Next Door. Bunnies were very well tipped, probably the best paid waitresses of all time. Mine in Chicago said she was making about $60,000 a year...in 1968, when that was a considerable sum. Others made more. Some Bunnies became Playmates, but most Playmates (centerfolds) were never Bunnies.

I can't take time here to detail their fates, but you can see interviews with Holly Madison about her book, Down the Rabbit Hole. I have it and it's fascinating. See YouTube for her interviews.
Christie,Hef's daughter, is retired as CEO of Playboy Enterprises, Inc., where she worked for over 20 years. She's married and I think lives in Chicago.

She and Crystal are selling Hef's personal things, giving the money to scholarship funds at UCLA, I think for film scholarships.I haven't heard about Marston, and Cooper is going in the AF. The quiet son (David) who was never involved with Playboy lives somewhere in the Pacific NW, where I think he's retired from whatever career he had.

Crystal Harris Hefner was Hef's third wife and seems the one best suited for that relationship, despite a 60 year age difference. She gets along well with his kids, who were impressed with how she behaved as a loving wife, not the gold digger that some suspected she'd be. They were married about six years.

 

[Texas40]

He should be treated same as any other boot camp solider.

Name should not get him anything special.

Other than that I gotta wonder who really cares and what difference does it make to those here that do.

0 effect on my life so same amount of interest in the fact Hefner is an AF recruit.



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[6518John]

I would think Cooper Hefner would be an ideal officer to put in charge of the Air Force Enlisted/Officer Clubs world-wide! I bet he would be so popular we would see an Air Force base named after him some day.

 

[Texas Star]

I was only once a visitor to a Playboy Club, in New Orleans back in the mid-60s. I went with a friend who was a member (at that time you had to pay to become a member, and you got some kind of Playboy key to impress your friends with). I thought it was just a big pretentious ripoff.

Keep in mind that Hefner's degree was in Psychology, as was that of Crystal, his final wife.

He understood the pretensions and other aspects of manipulating public tastes for his benefit.

When I visited the Chicago club in 1968, I was a guest of my Journalism teacher's boyfriend, who held a Key. He said that it impressed clients who he took there, and I believe he wrote some of the expense off as a business deduction.

I found the Club fun and...eye pleasing. I think the food was about the price of a drink, a real bargain.

 

[Walter Rego]

Marston Hefner was arrested for domestic violence a few years ago. I visited the Playboy mansion a couple of times, I happened to be there in 1992 for the Playmate of the Year party when the Los Angeles riots broke out and was sequestered there for the day. It could have been worse I guess. At that time Hef's kids were living at the mansion and it was rather curious when I was walking the grounds and saw a Big Wheel and other toys scattered around the gardens.

 

[Texas Star]

He should be treated same as any other boot camp solider.

Name should not get him anything special.

Other than that I gotta wonder who really cares and what difference does it make to those here that do.

0 effect on my life so same amount of interest in the fact Hefner is an AF recruit.

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Okay, but then why did you post in a topic that holds no interest...for you?

 

[Texas40]

Okay, but then why did you post in a topic that holds no interest...for you?

Same reason anyone here posts here to begin with. A topic was started for discussion.

It would have been my only but you asked.


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[Texas Star]

For those who may care, at least 3 Playmates and/or Girlfriends have written books about being inside at Playboy

In the 1970's, we saw, "The Girl in the Centerfold", by Surrey Marshe. Her real name is Solveig Something, a Norwegian. Look for it in used book stores or Online. Hardback, 1969, paperback in 1970.

"Down the Rabbit Hole" by Holly Madison is pretty recent and good. See her promote it on YouTube videos that'll probably impress you. Try the library. It was a bestseller.

"Bunny Tales" is by Isabella St. James. She was among 7 Girlfriends, a record number. She's a Polish-Canadian, who passed law school in CA, but I don't think she ever took the bar exam.

I like Holly 's best, but all are interesting.