All language subtitles for Secrets.of.Playboy.S01E06.WEBRip.x265-ION265_English

All right, Miki.

Are you ready?

I'm ready.

Who is Miki Garcia?

Who is Miki Garcia?

Her name was always
in the air.

Miki Garcia,
she has the facts.

She was
Miss January of 1973

and served as director
of Playmate promotions

from 1976 to 1982.

I myself believed
the Playboy promise--

all these opportunities
for women.

I was touting the brand.

I had dreams of going up
the corporate ladder,

but Playboy was the culture
of sexual power,

where somebody could
fondle you or grab you.

It was nothing if you didn't
have someone come up

and grind you from behind,

but I could never
have said anything.

We didn't have a voice.

Women were disposable.

The sexual harassment
and the abuse

that they suffered,
it had to stop.

♪ ♪

My name is Hugh Hefner.

I'm editor/publisher
of "Playboy" magazine.

When Hugh Hefner
was just 27,

he fashioned himself
and Playboy

as the face
of sexual liberation.

Playboy is one
of the most famous

brand names in the world.

I would like
to be remembered as somebody

who played some positive part

in changing the social
sexual values of my time.

I believe that Hef pulled
one over on the whole world.

The fantasy of Playboy
that he created did not allow

for the consent of the women.

When it came
to Hefner's buddies,

you had to keep
those secrets quiet.

What have you got for free?

When you get someone
that powerful,

anything could happen,
anything.

The people who were
really there,

they're the ones
who know the real truth.

I want to be a voice

for the women that
suffered the most at his hands.

♪ ♪

This is
my model release, okay?

This has never been
shown before

because Playboy would not

give the Playmates
a copy of their contracts.

I kept notes the whole time
I was there.

I've done this research
and documentation for so long.

It's really hard
to trust anyone with it.

If I could, I'd sleep with it.

And all of this work that I do,
it was meant

to bring Hefner to justice.

♪ ♪

Being director
of Playmate promotions,

I really felt a responsibility
to the Playmates.

I recognized whatever
I could do for these women

in their ambitions
and their careers,

that it would be good
for Playboy.

I believed in the pitch because
I had not seen the future.

♪ ♪

I didn't know the fallout
that could come from it.

♪ ♪

When Playboy found me,
I was competing

for the Miss California
World Pageant

in the summer of 1972.

I really wanted
to be a psychiatrist.

My father said,
"You get the education, Miki."

We just didn't have
the funds to do it.

And so I went ahead,
and I did modeling.

When I entered the pageant,
Marilyn Grabowski,

who was the West Coast
photo editor at the time,

she was one of the judges.

I didn't win the pageant,
but I got first runner-up.

She came backstage,
gave me her card,

and she said,

"You should be
a Playboy Playmate."

And I told her, "I'm never
taking my clothes off."

I used to go to Mass
every morning,

and my parents
were very strict.

So I had that foundation
of Catholicism,

but Marilyn really gave me
an incredible pitch.

She kept saying, "Listen,

"do you know the money
these women make?

"Do you know the opportunities
that you would have?

"This is the time for women to
be able to express themselves.

"Nudity is beautiful.
What we do is art.

"This is not
a sleazy operation.

The Playmate of the Month
is the girl next door."

And I looked at her,

and I asked her
about what she did for Playboy.

I don't know about you,
but I was kind of surprised

to find out that
the picture editor of "Playboy"

would turn out to be a girl.

Well, I think a woman can be

just as objective
in a man in these matters.

And besides, I can second-guess
Mr. Hefner pretty good.

Marilyn Grabowski
was a woman in a top job.

Here was this incredible woman,
very strong woman.

It was crazy how much power
this woman wielded.

When she walked in the room,
everybody was like...

"Marilyn's here."

She was powerful.

I was watching her
very carefully, and I said,

"You know,
I think I want to be you."

She looked at me
a little bit differently...

But she didn't care.

She was thinking,
"Hey, let's get her through.

Let's get her through."

I truly believed in my heart
that I would do well

because I would apply mys--
my dad used that.

"Apply yourself, Miki."
So I applied myself.

♪ ♪

I was Miss January, 1973.

I was one of the first
Hispanic Playmates.

I was proud of that.

To get my leg up
a little bit higher,

you know,
when I was in that side pose,

they had me
put my foot on a red bucket.

You know, isn't this funny?

Everybody thinks, you know,

"Playboy" is so glamorous
and all this,

and here I am--I've got my foot
on a stupid red bucket.

I did do full frontal

because I believed
that I had the right to do it.

Absolutely
I was judged by people.

But this was the '70s,

and there was that liberation
about the body

and the sexual revolution.

We were free.

♪ ♪

Over the years, there's been
an increase in attacks

from radical feminists,

who view Playboy
and Hugh Hefner as the enemy.

♪ ♪

My mother and I,
we had had a tiff.

She got so involved in talking
about the feminist movement.

I represented everything
that she found disgusting

and what she was
fighting against.

At Playboy,
our opposition was feminists.

People were burning their bras,
you know.

It was this whole idea
of liberation for women

and women being equal to men.

They felt that women
taking their clothes off

to pose for the pleasure
of men

was sort of antithetical
to feminism.

I was very proud to have women

who'd posed
in the magazine saying,

"I have a right to do this.
This is my body."

I was actually insulted.

I felt as if I was a feminist
myself, for goodness sakes.

Why couldn't they see that
I was forging my own path?

♪ ♪

I remember we were
in Marilyn's office,

and she said,

"Miki, you're different
than the rest."

♪ ♪

She got Hef on the phone.

She says, "I've got
Miki Garcia in front of me,

"and, Hef, this is our next
Playmate of the Year.

She's no bimbo."

♪ ♪

And he said,

"Yeah, she's the next
Playmate of the Year."

♪ ♪

Well, you sure know
how to pick 'em.

Well, let's say I've had more
practice than most people.

- I'd say.
- But, actually, of course,

I don't pick the Playmate
of the Year by myself.

The editors of "Playboy"
do the final selection.

We have...

Ultimately, Hef is the one

who chose
the Playmate of the Year.

Was it a fair competition?
I don't think so.

The girls did a lot
to win that favor,

and he knew that they would,

so he usually played that up.

I know he's the one
that made the final decision.

If you became
Playmate of the Year,

you got more fame,
you got more money.

You got more power.
Who didn't want that?

♪ ♪

After they promised me
Playmate of the Year,

Marilyn called me, and she said
that Hefner wanted to meet me.

I was worried.

I had been asked
to go to the Mansion.

I avoided it,

but I really had
no more excuses left,

so I went with her.

I was extremely nervous
because I just simply knew

that if I didn't go
to bed with him,

I wasn't going to get
Playmate of the Year.

I mean, I had that in my gut.
I wasn't for sure.

I just thought,
"If he asks and I say no,

"there goes
that money out the door

and everything
I worked for," right?

What a joke--
it comes to that.

♪ ♪

I mean,
when I first arrived,

it seemed like
most of the women

who are coming through
and testing for Playmate

felt like they had to sleep
with him

to get Playmate of the Year.

Not every single
one of them did.

There were a few exceptions,

but I think a lot of people
felt like they had to.

I think it was known that
they were sort of expected to.

Yeah, in order to get
Playmate of the Year,

you had to do some pretty wild
things up in the bedroom

with Hef and his friends.

You had to vie
for that position.

♪ ♪

It was Christmastime.

Hefner was opening up
some presents,

and Marilyn said to me,

"Miki, you have to go talk
to Hef now."

And I knew what that meant.

I said, "I don't think so."

And she said, "I'm telling you
right now, it's now or never.

"I mean it.

Go talk to him."

And I knew it meant
that I had to go over there

and beg for that
Playmate of the Year title

and be vulnerable to him.

I knew that.

She didn't have to say it.

I just kept looking at Hefner,

and he was unwrapping
this one present,

and it would say
"large dildo."

And he had this big smile,
this giggle.

It just turned me off
so much inside,

I said,
"No, I'm not going to do it."

And she says,
"Well, then, okay."

That was it.
We drove back.

She didn't say anything to me.
We went into her office.

There were other women there,
the gals.

It was all champagne flutes,

and poured it.

And then she made a toast...

to the new
Playmate of the Year,

Cyndi Wood.

♪ ♪

That was--that was
my first business lesson,

so to speak,
from you Hugh Hefner.

I'm not saying that Cyndi
slept with him.

I don't know what
the relationship was.

All I know is

that I didn't like
anyone putting me in a corner.

I hate corners.

No, I wasn't going to be
a bed partner to him,

but he was gonna
damn well respect me.

I was going to move forward
and get more power

as an executive
and call the shots.

I had an opportunity
when the person

who was running Playmate
promotions left.

The promotions department was
the big revenue for Playboy.

The job was to go out there

and be the best representative
of Playboy that they could.

And so any kind of event
that somebody might have,

oftentimes they would want
a Playmate

at that event
to draw in customers.

Not everyone got to do
Playmate promotions,

but if you could have
a pleasant personality

and be able to work with people
and take pictures with fans,

you know, hey,
you're gonna make $200 a day.

I did Playmate promotions
for 31/2 years.

I was sent to do car shows.

We would visit veterans,

hospitals,
stereo shops, whatever.

I had done it all,
and I thought,

"Okay, I have
this opportunity."

I become head of it.
I'm gonna make them look great.

If I could bring something
to the interview

that they couldn't discount...

then maybe I had a chance.

So I went to
a good friend of mine,

Robert Larivee who started
all the Autoramas.

He said, "I'll tell you what,
if they make you head

"of Playmate promotions,

"I'm going to swing
all of my business

"to Playmate promotions.

You go tell them that."

And so I did.

I went in, and I sat down,
and I laid it out,

and I said, "I will be
director, not coordinator.

"The position
deserves that respect.

"These women
deserve the respect.

They are the heartbeat
of Playboy."

♪ ♪

"I'm one of them.
I know who they are."

I was then told
that I got the job.

♪ ♪

They let me have the title.

I had reached my goal,
I thought, right?

I did it.
I did it.

I was going to be an executive
with Playboy.

I was gonna be like
Mo Grabowski.

Yeah, that's what
I was gonna do.

Next thing I knew, I was
behind these double doors,

and they seated me
right in the reception area

like a secretary.

The woman who was heading up
the agency at the time--

she says, "Okay, well, make up
get these composites,

"put them together in a book.

Do this, do that, do"--

And I went ahead and did it.
I just went ahead and did it.

♪ ♪

When I was director
of a Playmate promotions,

I booked publicity
with Dorothy Stratten,

with Deborah Jo Fondren,

with Sondra Theodore.

I was traveling with the girls

and also searching
for Playmate candidates.

I was working with women,
women who wanted to work.

They loved to do promotions

because that's how
they paid the bills.

If you stayed in good
with Playmate promotions,

you weren't a problem
on the road,

you showed up
when you said you would,

you were guaranteed
to have work.

There was a lot of
promotions, a lot of signings.

I was so humbled by the fact
that these people

are waiting for my autograph.

Like, me?

We would rehearse with them
before radio and television.

The trick with the spin
that we were teaching them

was always to be...

gracious, ladylike,
but also,

"I'm your ready

"and willing girlfriend.

However you like me,
I'm right here."

You just can't get
enough pictures

of them beautiful things.

That's the message.
And I'm "the girl next door."

I'm so clean.

You know,
I'm rosy-cheeked, et cetera.

I always told the women

that this was a very
sexually charged environment.

You had to be careful
on the road.

They expected you to be
their personal Playmate.

It had happened to me.

Some guy comes in
after a long day,

walks me to the door,

just rushes right in,

sits down on the bed and
starts taking his clothes off.

♪ ♪

This guy just took for granted

I was going to be
his sex partner for the night.

Anyway, I said,
"Get out, get out."

There he was on the balcony,

and I slammed it shut
and locked it.

I mean, nine floors up?

Nine floors up,
what did I expect?

He was going to fly?

I didn't give a

that he was
going to have to grow wings.

♪ ♪

I was so angry
with all of the garbage

that I had put up with,

and I heard
the other girls saying,

"The guy, you know,
just wanted to touch me,"

or, "He made me do this."

These women were trying
to do a job.

They were trying
to get paid for it.

They didn't need the
sexual harassment on top of it.

So that spurred me forward,

that I would
get into the position

where no woman
had to put up with that crap.

♪ ♪

Oh, I was so proud
of Miki Garcia's career.

I mean, she was
the first female director

of Playboy promotions.

I saw that the glass ceiling
was cracking

and it was great to see.

I wanted to meet her

'cause I thought
we had a lot in common,

and, sadly, it was
a male-dominated atmosphere,

and they kept us separate.

I thought
they didn't want us together

because we could share stories

about what was really
going on with Playboy.

This my ID card

when I was the assistant
Bunny Mother in New York City.

I had dreams of going up
the corporate ladder,

from being a bunny
to an assistant Bunny Mother.

You just worked your way up,

and that's what my dreams
and aspirations were.

They changed my name 'cause
it wasn't corporate enough.

They said that it sounded
like "Petticoat Junction,"

so they changed it to PJ,
and it lived.

In 1979, I moved to Chicago
as a Bunny Mother.

That's me up on the top there
with Christie Hefner

and me as the Bunny Mother.

Part of the reason I thought
I'd have an opportunity

as a female was
because we had Christie Hefner.

I thought it was a great opportunity.

I saw a female
in a position of power,

and that's what I wanted to do.

I wanted to be like Christie.
I wanted to move up the ladder.

♪ ♪

Christie went to work for
Playboy after she graduated

summa cum laude
from Brandeis university.

In six years
of on-the-job training,

she has worked her way up
the organization chart,

from assistant
to the president

to vice president
and member of the board

of Playboy Enterprises,
Incorporated.

It was wonderful
at 30 years old

to see a female breaking
through that glass ceiling.

My father said after I'd been
with the company

only about a year
that if I hadn't existed,

he would have wanted to go
to the promotion department

and have me invented.

For Playboy,
Christie Hefner's advancement

to company president

should represent
a formidable publicity weapon

in Playboy's ongoing battle
with the feminists.

Christie was this
new branding,

this new image
for the magazine.

We still had the feminists

with their attacks
against Playboy,

and so putting her face as
the leadership of the magazine

was very smart,
and she was very smart.

How can you justify
a magazine

which doesn't liberate women
but exploits them?

I have never felt that way
because it's never seemed to me

that a photograph
of a beautiful woman

without her clothes on
is exploitive of the woman,

the reader, or anybody else
who has any part of it.

She was the reset

of the whole idea of Playboy.

Because Playboy
is so misunderstood

in a number of quarters

related to the women's movement
and related to sex,

I think the fact that...

the Hefner who will one day
run the organization

is a woman is
a very positive thing.

I was never, like, crazy
about Hefner.

You know, I sort of thought
he was a joke,

but Christie, she was together,
and I admired her.

I still do admire her.

She had a lot
of wonderful ideas

on what she wanted to do.

She did a lot of charity work.

She was a philanthropist,

and she was
a young female executive.

I saw hope in that.
I saw a promise in that.

So I aspired to be like her.

♪ ♪

As a Bunny Mother in Chicago,
I was excited

because it was
the largest club

and I had about 70 bunnies
who were under my supervision.

♪ ♪

I had all these lovely girls
working for me.

I developed a merit system
so that I can raise them up

so that they would have
an opportunity

to go on promotions,
make extra money.

I helped them with babysitting
if they had to go out of town.

And for me, it was exciting
because I thought,

and I was told,
"You work for corporate,

you'll move up the ladder."

♪ ♪

But then they pushed

that ceiling
right back into my face.

♪ ♪

I don't think Christie
ever knew about the behavior

of the executives
towards the females.

♪ ♪

Working at Playboy, a man
in upper management above me,

clearly my boss,

touched me on the rear end
with an object

and then asked me

if I considered
that sexual harassment.

You just expected it.

I worked for a man
in silk pajamas.

You know, so, when
you see the photos,

that automatically
lended itself

to a degree of casualness

that you would never experience
in any other office atmosphere.

You know, I mean,
it was nothing

to be loading the Xerox machine
and have someone come up

and, you know,
grind you from behind.

And even now
I get so squirmy inside

at that moment,

but I did--I could never have
said anything.

I couldn't have said like,
"What the hell?"

You know, I mean,
I just couldn't have.

I wouldn't.
I couldn't.

♪ ♪

When I was director
of Playmate promotions,

I wanted to change

the way the company
treated their women--

how they made sure
that they had safety

and to make sure
their environment

was the appropriate environment,

because I had been out there.

I knew how tough it was.

And...

there were some sponsors
that had to go.

Well, one was my rapist.

There is always a situation
where you become powerless.

♪ ♪

Somebody comes in,

and they can do
what they want to with you,

because in their mind,

they're living this fantasy
of what Hefner projected.

♪ ♪

I was raped early on
as a Playmate.

I was going to appear
at this particular auto show.

It was late.
I had taken the red-eye.

There was a group of men
in the hotel bar area.

♪ ♪

I said, "Does anyone have
any shampoo?"

This particular person,
I recognized him.

He was a very popular actor

on a very well-known series.

♪ ♪

He was booked just like
I was, as a celebrity.

And I knew that he had worked
the circuit.

And he said, "I'll go get some
for you, and I'll bring it.

What room are you in?"

And I told him.

♪ ♪

He knocked on the door.

And I opened it,

and he just came in
very forcefully.

♪ ♪

And in that moment...

I knew I was trapped.

♪ ♪

And I went to the phone,
and I said,

"I'm going to call the police."

And he said,

"Look, you've invited me
in your room.

"You wear the rabbit head logo

"on your sweater.

"Who are they going to believe?

You or me?"

♪ ♪

I didn't want to become
a problem to Playboy.

I didn't want for them
to perceive me as a whiner

or a person
that couldn't handle the job.

And so the tough part
of me kicked in.

I knew this is the way it was
going to go and that was it.

♪ ♪

What happened to me...

♪ ♪

Is that I got raped twice.

After the first rape...

he sent me into the bathroom
to take a shower.

♪ ♪

Apparently he liked
someone fresh

after he had done
what he had done to me.

♪ ♪

Next day, I went out there
and got onstage.

I had a stack of autographs,
and I signed them.

This disgusting pervert,
my rapist,

was working close by me,
and I worked all day.

♪ ♪

If I allowed that to break me,

I couldn't move forward in
my life.

What I wanted to do...

I was going to get
into a position of power

so that no woman had to put up

with that kind of behavior
from any man

just because she had
a rabbit head logo on her.

And so, when my rapist

ordered up a Playmate
for a job,

I simply instructed
my secretary

to tell him
to never call again...never.

He would never, never, ever get
a model from Playboy...

never.

Hey, Miki,
how you doing, doll?

You always call me doll.

You're so full of New Jersey.
- You are a living doll.

♪ ♪

It wasn't until later years
and social media

that I finally got ahold
of Miki Garcia,

and we became very, very,
very close friends.

When PJ and I speak,

we are also filling in blanks.

We share a lot,
and so many of the stories

were exactly the same,

like this guy who was
way up there in corporate...

I can name the name
of this man.

His name is Nat Lehrman, and...

I have a picture of him.
I found it.

And he put a note on it.
I have it right here.

No, but he was
grabbing me as he always did.

- Oh, my...
- Yes.

Whenever he hugged me,

he was always trying
to touch my breasts.

I would just shove it away

and say, "Oh, Nat,
you keep on going"

Well, your greeting
was a boob grab.

My greeting was push the back
of my head down.

Did you gals report this?

Who are you gonna tell
when they're all doing it?

No, that's true.

♪ ♪

At the corporate office
in Chicago,

it was a male-dominated
atmosphere

where somebody
could fondle you,

or somebody can grab you,

and it was made very clear
to me

after I transferred up there.

♪ ♪

They appointed
a general manager, Mr. Walk.

He had no experience
at all working for Playboy.

He had control
over every one of us.

He didn't know
what bunnies were.

He thought of them
as sexual objects.

It was always, "Why, PJ,
why can't you go out with me?

You have boobs.
You don't have to wear a bra."

He would go
up to the young ladies

and ask them
if they got any last night,

and he would touch them
and grab them.

It's exactly what Playboy
was all about.

The "Mad Men" experience.

Women didn't have a voice,
and they were accosted,

and they were made fun of.

Women were subservient.

♪ ♪

One day I was walking
out of the club,

and one
of the upper executives,

he says, "I'll walk you home."

He said, "Listen,
it's pretty hot out.

Can I get a drink of water
from you?"

And I said, "Sure."

So he came into my apartment,
and he started kissing me,

and he started grabbing me,
and I said, "Please"--

This was a big executive.
I said, "Please don't do this."

And he said, "Why do you think
you came to work in corporate?"

He said,
"You have to play the game

if you want to do anything
in corporate."

And I was not
an active participant.

He just did what he had to do
and turned around...

♪ ♪

Raped me...

♪ ♪

And walked out.

I was not an isolated case,
I will tell you that right now,

'cause I heard many stories
about the corporate executives

and their hands
all over these girls.

It was rampant in Chicago,

with the sexual abuse
of women.

It changed my world...

changed my perception.

This is the way
the corporate executives were.

They could do
whatever they wanted to do,

and they didn't answer
to anybody--that's the thing.

♪ ♪

I was concerned
about the Bunnies.

Our general manager, Mr. Walk,

he continued to harass
all these young girls

that are trying
to make a living.

♪ ♪

So I called a mandatory
Bunny meeting

about the general manager.

I asked the girls, if they had
any personal situations

that they wanted to talk about,
to write them,

but don't sign them, because if
they had their name on there,

I knew that
they would be attacked.

You're never gonna believe
what I found in the garage

as I was going through boxes.

I found all of the notes from
the general manager's meeting.

All of the complaints
and the sexual assaults,

every-[bleep]-thing
is on there.

Oh, here's one of them,

"We're tired of
the condescending attitudes."

"Could conversations
regarding Bunnies' sex lives

and if they got a little last
night stay out of the club?"

♪ ♪

"We want it to be understood,"

and this is in big letters,

"Hands off all the Bunnies."

♪ ♪

I thought that was it.

When I brought
all of these notes

from the Bunny meeting
to my boss, Harriet Bassler,

she got angry.

She said, "This can't be true"

and took all my notes
and turned around

and sided
with the general manager.

♪ ♪

He denied everything,
and everybody believed him.

Forget about, you know,
the 30 Bunnies

that had complaints
against him.

They just wanted me out
of the picture and shut me up.

♪ ♪

I really cared
about these girls,

and I tried to protect them.

Instead, they told me
that they were transferring me

out to Great Gorge.

And they kept him.

♪ ♪

I had so many plans
and dreams.

None of it was true.

♪ ♪

There was no power there.

I thought I broke
the glass ceiling

when I went to corporate.

I didn't.
I was silenced.

And I didn't know what to do.

I wanted to be an executive.

I worked so hard
for nine years.

I wanted to be an executive.

But in order to be
an executive for Playboy,

you had to play their game.

And women were disposable.

If one was gone, they'd replace
it with another one.

Women were disposable.

When I became director
of Playmate promotions,

I believed that I could take
that woman from the centerfold

and give her opportunities.

I thought that's
what Playboy was about.

And it was hard.

It was so damn hard,
because I carried the stories,

the heartbreaks, the pain...

♪ ♪

The desperation.

These women who thought
it was Shangri-la there

and all these opportunities
they could get

only to end up
in a very bad way.

♪ ♪

My job required making sure
that nothing negative

was printed in the media

that would hurt the brand
or Hugh Hefner.

I did damage control.

If a girl got in trouble,

I protected Playboy
and squelched it.

Oh, yes, there were--

Yes. Yes.

♪ ♪

I didn't believe
they would ever get through.

♪ ♪

There was one
particular Playmate

that was holding
over Hefner's head

that he had given
these young women drugs,

including herself.

And that was
a very serious threat.

That's part
of the cleanup I did.

Women did bring things to me
that were not good,

but they didn't want
the exposure and the scrutiny.

So I counseled them

and informed Hefner...

and then he took care of it.

♪ ♪

I felt guilty.

I was complicit in it,

but I did it believing
that it was right.

And if I could buy into it,
what chance did they have?

♪ ♪

Many of them started
taking drugs to cope.

♪ ♪

It was painful.

♪ ♪

There was a pattern.

They walked through
the damn Mansion door,

and they exited

in a horrific, horrific way.

Dorothy Stratten,

20 years old
from Vancouver, Canada,

was on her way
to becoming a celebrity.

At 19, at the urging
of her husband, Paul Snider,

she entered "Playboy"
magazine's search

for a Playmate of the Month.

She was named
Miss August 1979,

and less than a year later,

she was chosen
the Playmate of the Year.

Early today, the bodies
of the Playmate of the Year

and her estranged husband
were found in his house.

Dorothy Stratten's death...

♪ ♪

Was the final straw.

That did it.
That did it.

It was...

♪ ♪

So shocking to me.

Dorothy Stratten was
a very beautiful young woman

who came to Playboy

with very high hopes.

She had the potential
to be a big star.

She made the fantasy
come to life.

♪ ♪

Hefner saw her as someone
who could sell

an incredible amount
of magazines.

She was his meal ticket.

♪ ♪

This is August 24, 1979.

I resorted
to writing the memo,

and the subject matter
is Playmate Dorothy Stratten.

"Dorothy's husband"--
and I put Paul Snider.

"It is rumored
among the car-show people

"that Paul was arrested
in Vancouver

for dope peddling
and pimping."

This is a memo that I wrote

because I wanted to warn Hef

that...

Dorothy Stratten
was with a very dangerous man.

No one ever answered me,

and security came back with--
they knew nothing.

Really?

That's impossible.
It's impossible.

They knew all along
that he was a dangerous pimp

and he was attached
to Dorothy.

Hef didn't care.
He just didn't care.

That's it.

♪ ♪

She was a Playboy centerfold

and an aspiring actress
at the age 20

when she was killed
by her husband,

who then killed himself.

Snider killed her.

And Dorothy's death
made such a huge impact on me.

By that time...

I had seen a lot
with the women.

♪ ♪

And to actually have one tortured,

raped, and...

♪ ♪

A shotgun blast to face...

♪ ♪

It was all wrong.

It was so wrong.

♪ ♪

Everything was handled
so poorly.

♪ ♪

When I got the call...

♪ ♪

Around 6:30 in the morning...

♪ ♪

I was told,
"Call all the Playmates

"and make sure
that they understand

"that they are not to speak
to any...

newspaper people."

You could not do
any interviews.

♪ ♪

Well, again...

My job was to go
in there and silence them.

And I did.

♪ ♪

I came into the corporation

wanting to make things
better for women.

There was no way that I wanted
to further harm them,

but being a Playboy Playmate
is a dangerous thing.

♪ ♪

And I was starting
to realize that...

[sniffles]
Playboy was a business...

where it was easy
for someone to get hurt.

♪ ♪

And I was part of it.

I began hating myself.

♪ ♪

And I couldn't leave
at the time

because I had a damn job...

♪ ♪

To help clean it up, to--

And I'm not just talking about
damage control with the press.

I'm talking about trying
to watch over the women

and trying to..

♪ ♪

Trying to make something right

that could never be right
in a million years.

♪ ♪

It was a wake-up call to me.

I was one of Hefner's
best ambassadors.

♪ ♪

Maybe take a good look
at the business aspect.

♪ ♪

I had to reevaluate everything,

everything in my life.

♪ ♪

I had to look at everything.
I had to look at who I was.

I had to look
at who I worked for.

♪ ♪

Most of all, I had to look
at the Playmates.

♪ ♪

This guy, he drugged me.

He did a lot
of really horrific things.

It was, like, 20 guys.

They wanted to take a picture
with us in this hot tub.

And he said, "Get in here.
I paid for you."

Really, is we were prostitutes.

I was doing drugs,
and I was so thin and ill.

I was wilting away.

It scared me so much
to see myself like that.

I felt like I was lost
in this world

that I would never get out of.

I knew that there
were other women

and that they had no power.

They had no voice.
They had no one to go to.

♪ ♪

Who could that be?

♪ ♪

It was me.

It was me.

Appearing before

before the U.S.
Attorney General's commission

on pornography,

Miki Garcia has come forward

with what she claims
is the inside story

of Playboy's Playmates.

♪ ♪

Playboy was becoming
more explicit,

and it became what
I considered flesh peddling.

There was a push
to show more

and be a good girl
and get the shot.

They had made me a porn star
against my will.

Hefner and his staff
encourage Playmates

to use illegal drugs.

I testified about rape,

abuse, coercion.

Playboy was dangerous
to women...

and I was going to stop it
any way I could.