All language subtitles for American.Playboy.S01E01.Before.the.Bunny.Marilyn.Monro.1080p.WEB-DL.AMZN.DDP.5.1.H.264

[disco music]

♪ Ah, look at me get down ♪

♪ Whoo, check him out ♪

♪ Boy, I'm steppin' ♪

♪ All right ♪

♪ What you talkin' about? ♪

♪ Yeeoww ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
That's me...

Hugh Hefner.

♪ Are you ready ♪

[Hugh Hefner] I took a personal
investment of $600...

and turned it
into a global empire.

♪ Are you ready ♪

[Hugh Hefner] You may
think you know me...

the guy who has it all.

Would you welcome
Hugh Hefner.

[applause]

♪ Get on down ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
The lavish mansion.

♪Look at me get down ♪

♪ Whoo, check him out ♪

[crowd cheering]

[Hugh Hefner]
The legendary parties.

[James Caan]
He would invite all
these beautiful girls.

I mean, you talk about, like,
dying and going to heaven.

It was amazing.

[Hugh Hefner]
And, of course, the women.

[crowd chattering]

Can you estimate

just how many ladies
you have known?

No, I can't.

♪ Yeeoww ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
And what started it all...

Playboy magazine.

[Hugh Hefner]
But for everything
you've heard about me,

there's probably a lot
you don't know.

For all the people
who loved me,

there were plenty
who wanted to take me down.

Playboyopenly
advocates the overthrow

of Judeo Christian
standards.

There were times
when I felt worn down,

trying to escape.

You know, you pick yourself up
and you fight it again.

[Hugh Hefner]
I've been investigated
by the FBI and the DEA.

[reporter] Hefner said that
prosecutors kept pressuring

Miss Arnstein to testify
against her boss in drug cases.

[Hugh Hefner]
Attacked by the media
and religious groups.

[Mike Wallace]
Well, with this I think
that you'll agree,

it's a sniggering
kind of sex.

It certainly isn't
a healthy approach to sex.

[Hugh Hefner] And pushed
to the brink of bankruptcy.

Hef, you are
killing yourself.

[Hugh Hefner] But my magazine
wasn't just about naked women.

It was breaking down barriers,

starting a cultural
conversation about sexuality,

and standing up
for social justice.

[Jesse Jackson] Hugh Hefner
identified unequivocally

with the civil rights movement
of that time.

Giving a platform to Dr. King,
a platform to Malcolm X.

By any means
necessary.

[Hugh Hefner] I've been
called a pornographer...

a smut peddler...

and a sexist.

The day that you are
willing to come out here

with a cottontail attached
to your rear end...

[audience laughing]

[Hugh Hefner] And my lifestyle
hasn't always been easy

on the people closest to me.

He dates other girls,
and... I don't like it.

And he knows
I don't like it.

[Hugh Hefner]
I've gained enemies...

and lost friends.

An already
emotionally troubled woman

was pushed
beyond endurance...

and she killed herself.

[Cooper Hefner]
The conception of Playboy

came from my dad's irritation
with the status quo.

So, the entire magazine
came to be

because of one guy
who was pretty upset

with how most people
interpreted and defined sex.

[Hugh Hefner] I've lived a life
most could only dream of.

This is my story.

Or at least
how I remember it.

♪ Every little movement ♪

♪ Every little thing
you do ♪

♪ Is it sleight of hand ♪

♪ That commands
my heart to love you ♪

♪ Every little movement ♪

♪ Every little movement ♪♪

[crickets chirping]

[heavy breathing]

Hef?

Oh! Bobbie.

- Hef!
- What is it?

The cops
are downstairs.

Just tell them
I'll deal with it tomorrow.

They're here for you.

This morning a man
is on trial in Chicago,

charged with violating that
city's laws against obscenity.

He's Hugh Hefner, publisher
of Playboymagazine.

The issue has been the cause
of many court cases

involving motion pictures,
books, and magazines,

and various
court decisions have left

considerable gray areas

in determining just what
is salacious and obscene.

[man] Men who would
stand by and see their women

degraded and debased,
as they are with the breast

and the buttock
presentation by Playboy,

are not men at all.

[Hugh Hefner] What you're
accusing me of, in essence,

is taking things
that previously were taboo

and considered obscene
and objectionable

and making them tasteful
and acceptable.

[Mike Wallace] Tonight,
the first of three

special reports
on the controversy.

[Hugh Hefner] The only thing
wrong with sex is the fact

that we have a great tendency
to treat it as something

shameful and guilty
and taboo-ridden,

and this is what causes

the major problems,
not the sex itself.

Mr. Hefner...

why did you start Playboy?

Well...

that's
a tough question.

Just take your time.

[slow guitar]

♪ I'll never smile again ♪

[Hugh Hefner] Long before
the mansions, before the clubs,

the parties, before the women,
before the magazine...

there was just me.

Hugh Marston Hefner.

I was born
in Chicago in 1926.

My parents were hardworking
Midwestern protestants

who didn't allow dancing,

drinking, or swearing
in the house.

My father spent most
of his time at the office...

and my mother was
emotionally distant toward me

and my younger brother, Keith.

I think that the major thing
that I missed,

and that my parents missed
in their own childhood...

because it's been passed from
generation to generation...

was the inability
to show love

in an emotional
and physical way.

No hugging.

No show
of any kind of emotion.

[Hugh Hefner] With my home life
lacking the affection I craved,

I escaped into
a world of fantasy.

And for me,
that was cartooning.

[Keith Hefner] As a young man,
he was quite shy,

and so he created his fantasy
life by writing stories

and by cartooning his life...

...where he could
live out the kind of life

that he really wanted,
that he fantasized about.

This was a way of compensating
for that shyness,

and it has continued on
through his whole life.

[Hugh Hefner] By the time I
reached high school,

I'd even created an alter ego
named Goo Heffer...

who was confident and popular.

But when I wanted
to imagine a life

far more exciting
than my own,

there was only one place to go.

[traffic noise]

[film projector clacking]

When I was in my teens,

I got a job at the local
movie theater.

I was taken to movies
when I was very young,

and from very early on,
up on that screen,

were all the dreams
of the possibilities.

You'd come out of that movie
and you'd feel like

you were Bogart
or the leading man.

The heroine loved you
in a very pure way,

and I think that was what I
was really looking for.

[Hugh Hefner] The heroine
I wanted in my life...

was Betty Conklin.

Everyone who's ever
been a teenager

has known
a Betty Conklin.

[Hugh Hefner] I was just
overwhelmed by her.

There was a brief period
of time in which I thought

it might really be, you know,
a romantic relationship.

She picked my buddy
instead of me,

and that told me more
than I wanted to know.

And that was the period
when I reinvented myself.

[swing music]

♪ Let your tear fall, baby ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
Over the next few years,

I was determined
to transform myself

into the leading man
I'd seen on screen.

So I turned to my favorite
magazine for help...Esquire.

[David Granger]
Esquire was the first
men's magazine.

It was the only magazine
that sort of went after

the general interests of men.

The reason there weren't
more magazines for men

is because magazines,

and to a slightly
lesser extent, reading,

was seen as like a pursuit
that women did.

And it was kinda revolutionary
to create a magazine for men

and that it would
be successful,

and it was successful
pretty rapidly.

I had just
discovered Esquire

for the very first time,

and the world
suggested by Esquire.

The cartoons, the fiction,
the fashion,

and certainly the pin-ups,
which were called Petty Girls.

The Petty Girls became
my first favorite pin-up.

And I covered my walls with them
when I was first in high school.

♪ Let your tear fall, baby ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
Esquirejust opened my eyes

to a whole other world
that was only hinted at

in the movies of the time.

[Hugh Hefner]
ReadingEsquire changed
my whole approach to life.

I was more confident
and outgoing.

♪ If you said good-bye ♪♪

[Hugh Hefner] And,
by the end of high school,

I met someone.

Her name was Millie Williams.

♪ I've got a girl
that lives up on a hill ♪

[Hugh Hefner] I felt an instant
connection with Millie.

She got my sense of humor,

liked the way I dressed.

But most importantly...

she understood me.

I met Hef at a graduation party,
the week of graduation.

He made me feel very important
and that he liked me a lot.

[laughing]
And he was fun to be with.

[Keith Hefner]
I really think that Millie

was the first girl
that he really loved,

rather than just being
in love with from afar.

That he really loved,
who loved him back.

[Hugh Hefner] We started
getting serious,

and when Millie
registered for college

at the University
of Illinois...

I decided to follow her.

♪ Hey, man, I'm happy ♪

♪ I am happy as a baby boy ♪

[Hugh Hefner] But, like
most couples of the day,

our private life
was pretty innocent.

Everyone, I think,
had the same routine,

in which sexually
you did many things,

but you didn't
do the thing.

And this was very typical,
and somehow that kept you,

you know,
God wasn't frowning.

♪ Little woman I'm through ♪

[orchestral flourish]

[Hugh Hefner] My college life
was fairly typical

for the first few semesters.

But in my junior year,

everything changed...

when a groundbreaking
psychological study came out...

that would open my eyes

to a completely
different side of life.

[Carrie Pitzulo] In 1948,
sexologist Alfred Kinsey

published a massive study
of American male sexuality.

In this study, he showed
that American men and women

had a lot more
sexual experience

than most people
were willing to admit to.

Affairs, same-sex experiences,
multiple partners.

And it made news
all across the country.

[Hugh Hefner]
You have to remember,

back in the '40s, no one
was talking about sex.

In Hollywood pictures,
a man and a woman

weren't allowed to be
shown in bed together...

not even married couples.

[Hugh Hefner]
That attitude was reflected

in books
and other mass media.

There was a kind of a...

Norman Rockwell
view of the world

that didn't exist,

and it bothered me
very much.

♪ I was standing
on the corner ♪

♪ When I heard
my bulldog bark ♪

[Hugh Hefner] Kinsey's expose
of the hypocrisy in our country

was a revelation to me...

and I was inspired to start
voicing my own opinion.

We've got it down
to these six.

[Hugh Hefner] I became editor of
the college humor magazine...

calledShaft.

This one.

And, taking a lead
from Kinsey...

I used it as a sounding board
for my own sexual beliefs.

♪ Stagger Lee told Billy ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
Shaftmagazine had an editorial

about the Kinsey report
and about sexual repression

and the hurt
and hypocrisy of it.

I wrote a great deal
about the really moral issues.

That what we call moral,

in every other area
of human activity,

is what is good
for people.

And our traditional values
related to sex

are not good for people.

They hurt people.
They're hypocritical.

♪ Go, Stagger Lee ♪

[Hugh Hefner] I started
drawing racy cartoons,

writing essays about sex,

and challenging conformity.

I think what my father taught me
about freedom of expression...

is that it's okay to not be PC

when you're having
a conversation

about something
that really matters.

It's okay to challenge
other people's beliefs

and your own beliefs.

[Hugh Hefner] I also
introduced a feature

that was an instant hit
on campus.

♪ Stagger Lee and Billy ♪

When Hef was working
on Shaftmagazine,

he started Coed of the Month.

And it would be a girl,

and it would have
career information

and her statistics

and what she was into
and what she liked.

So he already had
that idea pre- Playboy.

[Hugh Hefner] I loved
the creative freedom

that writing for Shaft
offered me.

♪ Now, look out, Stagger, go ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
And the best part was

I could use my cartoons to send
hidden messages to Millie.

[Millie Gunn Williams]
As he was talking
about these laws,

these restrictive laws
and repressive things,

it was very easy
to discuss this together

and say how wrong this
all was, because we both,

we felt the same way,
despite my Catholic background

and his background.

And um, we found we had
a lot of the same attitudes.

[Hugh Hefner] Our shared views
brought us closer...

both emotionally
and physically.

My romance with Millie, then,
was an extended, uh, foreplay

until she graduated
from college.

We had sex for the first time
the summer of '48.

I would've been 22.

[Hugh Hefner] A few months
after graduation...

I did what everyone else
did in those days.

I proposed
to my college sweetheart.

[woman in film]
And we should be able
to trust one another.

[man in film]
Don't smile it away...

[Hugh Hefner]
But then one night...

Millie dropped a bombshell.

[man in film]
You were in love with
a schoolgirl notion

of a popular novelist!

Millie.

[crickets chirping]

Millie!

What was that about?

I just want
to go home.

Everything okay?

[Hugh Hefner]
That night...

Millie told me
she had an affair.

Can we please
go home?

I was completely blindsided.

♪ You told me ♪

♪ That you would leave me ♪

♪ Here in tears ♪

[crowd chattering]

♪ Now you're gone
and hours seem like years ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
Nothing in my life had
prepared me for that moment.

I was just
absolutely devastated.

It may be difficult
to imagine,

related to the publisher
of Playboymagazine.

But I had been intimate with
only one woman in my life,

the woman I was gonna marry.

How I dealt with it,
I don't really know.

I just dealt with it by,
I think somehow,

putting it out of my mind.

♪ Where did you go ♪

[Hugh Hefner] This was,
after all, the 1950s.

And back then, you married
the girl you were in love with,

no matter what.

And, truth be told, I was
still in love with Millie.

♪ Johnny ♪

♪ Johnny, you're too young ♪

♪ But I'm gonna
get married ♪

♪ You're so young ♪

♪ My name she'll carry ♪

[Hugh Hefner] Our wedding
was in the summer of '49.

♪ Johnny, you're so smart ♪

[Hugh Hefner] We had our
whole lives ahead of us.

And in January of 1951...

That's great news.

...I landed my dream job.

I'd just be writing copy
in the ad department,

but I'd be working for
my favorite magazine...

♪ It sets my soul on fire ♪

[Hugh Hefner] ...Esquire.

♪ How come every time
she leave me ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
This was my chance to do
something creative.

♪ ...too young to marry ♪

♪ But not to hide
an aching heart ♪

[typewriters clacking]

[Hugh Hefner]
But I quickly realized

it wasn't what I'd imagined.

Esquire had changed.

[David Granger]
The 1950's was kind of
a down period for Esquire.

I think they were
probably reeling

from the end of World War II

and the beginnings
of a more repressive society

and probably tended toward being
a little more conservative.

[Hugh Hefner]
They'd moved away
from all the things

I'd been drawn to
growing up.

The full-page cartoons,
the jokes,

and most of all,
the pin-up girls.

The job turned out to be
a huge disappointment.

And when they
refused my request

for a five dollar raise...

I quit.

But everything changed
in 1952...

♪ You couldn't be cuter ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
...when Millie gave birth

to our first child.

♪ Plus that
intelligent face ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
We named her Christie.

♪ ...charm for me ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
And while I loved
being a father...

suddenly, I had a family
to provide for.

♪ You are the little
grand slam ♪

♪ I'll bring to my family ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
And I needed to find a job...

...any job...
as quickly as possible.

So I took a low-level position
at a publishing house...

crunching numbers
and trying to improve sales.

But the job was about
as mind-numbing as it gets.

[time clock clicks]

And, as time went on...

[click]

I realized I'd become
just one of the masses.

[Patty Farmer]
The 1950's was a time
of conformity.

The course was set out...
you went to school,

you got married,
you had children,

you got the best job you could
to support your family.

There was not a lot of room
for individuality,

and that did not
appeal to Hef at all.

[patrons chattering]

[upbeat record playing]

[Hugh Hefner]
I only went into that bar
to be alone.

♪ Just one look ♪

♪ And I fell so hard ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
And I certainly
wasn't expecting

what happened next.

♪ With you ♪

♪ Oh oh, oh oh ♪

♪ I found out ♪

♪ How good it feels ♪

♪ To have... ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
I knew what I was doing
was wrong...

but for the first time
in a long time, I felt alive.

[light switch clicks]

The affair ended
as quickly as it started.

But it sparked
something in me.

I'd always been happiest
being creative,

and as I looked back on
my cartoons, short stories,

and articles
fromShaft magazine,

I saw what I was missing.

[Hugh Hefner]
I became convinced very early

that older people
became cynical

and somehow
sold out those dreams.

And that's what
I was unwilling to do.

I was not willing
to make that tradeoff,

to get in line
and lock step march away

the rest of my life.

My father was still
trying to find himself,

and had a number of jobs

that I think were
less than satisfying.

He was always, I think, drawn
to both visual expression

and also to big ideas.

[Hugh Hefner]
It was then that
I made a decision

that would change the course
of my life forever.

I decided to create
a magazine of my own.

One that would appeal
to guys like me...

featuring articles about music,
literature, art, and culture.

[Richard Rosenzweig]
When he started the magazine,

he actually created
the magazine for himself.

There was no magazine
out there

that he found
of interest for a young guy.

Most of the men's magazines

were hunting and fishing
magazines,

gun magazines,
not sophisticated magazines.

The only
sophisticated magazine

that was out there
at the time was Esquire.

[Hugh Hefner]
It was going to be, uh,
what Esquireused to be.

And it was a magazine

that would really be
for the young urban male.

[Hugh Hefner] But my magazine
would be so much more.

In the same way
that Kinsey blew the cover

off sexuality in America...

I wanted my magazine

to confront
the topic of sex head on.

[Bill Maher]
For Hef, I think
the message about sex

has always been
that it's healthy.

And natural.

And, that we shouldn't
be ashamed of it.

And we should embrace it.

That was not the popular
opinion in the 1950s.

And it's hard to remember now,

when you look back, that this
was fairly revolutionary.

[Hugh Hefner] It was one thing
to talk about sex,

but I wanted to do more

Growing up, my favorite
parts ofEsquire

were those drawings
of the pin-up girls.

But I thought my magazine
could go one step further...

by showing photos
of nude women.

[Christie Hefner]
I think the brilliance
of the magazine was

it spoke to all the interests
of young men.

So those were
cultural and political.

It was fashion,
it was travel.

But it also was an unabashed
recognition of the interest

that young men had
in beautiful women.

[Hugh Hefner]
I knew that there
would be nothing that was

outside,
uh, the boundaries

of what was already
being published.

In other words,
there were magazines,

art photography magazines,
sunbathing magazines,

with nudes in them.

I wanted to package it
in a way that...

suggested that this
was not art.

It was... something
with an editorial message,

and the editorial message
was that sex was okay.

[Hugh Hefner]
I was going to combine
a modern lifestyle magazine

with nude photos
of women.

And I had
the perfect name for it.

Stag Party.

[Hugh]
What magazines do you read?

Why?

Just name some.

I-- I don't know.

[Hugh Hefner] I knew
I liked the idea...

Now I just needed to see
if anyone else would, too.

And the first guy
that I thought of

was my old friend
Eldon Sellers.

What if there
was a magazine

that didn't fall
into any one category?

That took all
your favorite things

and put them
into one place.

And it'll have
a full-page color photo

of a real life
pin-up girl...

completely nude.

[both chuckling]

It's gonna be great,
Eldon.

It sounds like it.

It's going to be
a progressive magazine for men.

He came to me and said that he
would like to have some help

raising some money
for a magazine.

He did a terrific job
of promoting the idea

and explaining it,
and he was...

he was extremely
articulate about that.

I like that.

[Hugh Hefner]
Eldon liked it so much,

he chipped in $2,000

and even offered to help me
find more investors.

And, honestly, I was going to
need all the help I could get.

Just to give you a sense of how
much money I needed to raise,

Time magazine was started
with an initial investment

of $86,000.

And that was all the way
back in 1923.

Today, that's the equivalent
of over $1.2 million.

[Christie Hefner]
Even when Playboywas started,

it was unusual to have
that little capital

and those few resources.

Today, it would be almost
impossible to consider

starting a magazine
without having millions
and millions of dollars

and the capacity
to sustain losses for three,

four, five, six years.

[upbeat music]

♪ My man called me
this morning... ♪

[Hugh Hefner] I figured
after Eldon's investment,

I was still going to need
at least $6,000

to get my idea off the ground.

♪ Said hello, baby ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
So we started meeting
with investors in Chicago.

What do you think?

A lot of them said no.

♪ My head went
round and round, yeah ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
But a few of them said yes.

♪ My man called me
this morning ♪

Hello, Fred?
Hugh Hefner here.

Well, I'm happy
you asked.

Okay...

I was hoping for
slightly better than that,

to be honest with you.

Okay...
that sounds great.

[Hugh Hefner]
No matter what,

I was going
to make this happen.

And, after weeks
of calling...

we got my younger brother,
Keith,

and my neighbors
to pitch in.

Even my puritanical mother
gave me $1,000.

[Christie Hefner]
I never had a long conversation
with my grandmother

about her investment
in the magazine,

but, knowing her as I did,

I would say that...
she would have said

it was not a magazine for her,

but that she
believed in her son.

[Hugh Hefner] But even
with my family and friends

pitching in,

I was still
about $600 short.

So, out of desperation,

I put my furniture in hock.

It included some pretty nice
pieces by designers

like Herman Miller and Eames.

♪ My man called me
this morning, stop ♪♪

[Hugh Hefner] And finally,
I hit my goal.

With the money
finally in place,

I was ready to start
making my magazine.

But I quickly realized

I couldn't do this
on my own.

[Hugh] So... what
did Frank tell you?

Well, not much.

Just that you're...
you're starting a magazine,

and you might be looking
for an art director.

Well it's not just
any magazine.

It's a lifestyle magazine
with a full-color

nude spread
of a girl in each issue.

But I want this magazine
to be more than that.

A look that nobody
has ever seen before.

I want this magazine
to be beautiful.

You want to do a magazine
with nude girls,

and you want the magazine
to be beautiful?

[chuckles]

That's right.

[Hugh Hefner]
I had my art director...

a popular graphic designer

from the Southside
of Chicago...

named Art Paul.

[Stephen Martinez]
Art Paul was ahead of his time.

His designs were modern

and different from Esquire,and
that's what Hef was looking for.

And Hef has a knack
for finding that talent.

[Hugh Hefner] With Art Paul
on board, I had my team.

I'd write the copy,

Art would create the design...

and Eldon would
handle promotions.

My small apartment became
Stag Party's offices...

and it was finally
time to get to work.

[Jason Buhrmester]
Playboywas never

a corporate magazine.

It was never part of
a giant publishing house.

You're talking about a magazine
that is as DIY as it gets.

It's one man started it
at his kitchen table in Chicago.

[Hugh Hefner] We came up
with countless ideas

for how to make
the magazine stand out.

At that time, 3-D movies
were hugely popular...

so we considered featuring
our girls in 3-D.

But attaching a pair
of glasses to every issue

proved too expensive.

In the end, we realized it
wasn't about the gimmick.

We just needed to find
the perfect girl.

♪ Hurry on down to my house,
baby, ain't anybody home... ♪

[Hugh Hefner] In the 1950s,

if you wanted
a nude photo of a model,

and you didn't have
your own to photograph...

the only places
you could get them from

were calendar companies.

And, for a price,
you could purchase

the rights to their pin-ups.

♪ Ain't nobody home
but me ♪

[Hugh Hefner] We reached out
to countless calendar companies

and gathered
hundreds of options

for our first cover girl.

♪ There's nobody home
but me ♪♪

What about her, huh?

No, she's not right.

This one?

No, no.

Maybe if you
tell me exactly what

you're looking for,
we can find the girl.

Well,
that's the problem.

We're not looking for a girl,
we're looking for the girl.

What does that mean?

We need to find a girl that
no guy would be able to resist.

Someone who will
make it impossible

for a guy not to open
the cover.

Oh, well, if that's all...

I don't know where she is,
but she's not here.

[Hugh Hefner] I'd spent weeks
looking for a cover girl...

and I was starting
to lose hope.

But in the fall of 1953,

the solution would
come out of nowhere.

♪ I touch your lips
and all at once ♪

♪ The sparks go flying ♪

♪ Those devil that know
so well the art of lying ♪

♪ And though I see
the danger still... ♪

[Hugh Hefner] In those days,

Marilyn Monroe was every man's
ultimate fantasy.

♪ ...your kiss of fire ♪

♪ Just like a torch
you set the soul... ♪

[Hugh Hefner] She was the very
pinnacle of sexuality.

♪ I must go on
along the road... ♪

[Hugh Hefner] But years
before she was famous...

when she was still known
as Norma Jean Baker...

the young model had posed
nude for a calendar.

♪ ...your kiss of fire ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
She was the hottest star
in Hollywood.

I heard about, uh,

the Marilyn Monroe
calendar picture,

which everybody had heard about,
but nobody had seen

because they were afraid
to show it back then.

♪ I can't resist you... ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
But I knew I had to put it
in the magazine,

because she was
the absolute perfect choice.

[Brett Ratner] Hef had a real
understanding of pop culture

and the public's fascination
with celebrity.

So that
Marilyn Monroe image,

he knew that was
the golden ticket.

That was thing that was going
to launch that magazine.

♪ Yeah, oh ♪♪

[Hugh Hefner]
You have to remember,

this was before the Internet,

so getting access
to photos this rare

was almost impossible.

But now, I knew
who had the originals,

and what's even crazier...

was that he was
right here in Chicago.

But I only had $1,000 left
in my budget.

I just had to hope
that would be enough.

[man]
Okay, uh, what
can I help you with?

Well, I'm interested in
purchasing one of your photos.

That's all?

[distant phone ringing]

It's, uh, it's not just
any photo, Mr. Baumgarth.

It's Marilyn.

Look... people pay me
a lot of money

just to look
at those pictures.

Buying them
won't be cheap.

Well, uh,
I only need one.

But I have to have
full rights to print it.

[chuckling]]

This is Marilyn Monroe
we're talking about.

Uh, I couldn't
let you have it

for any less than, uh...

600.

600?

Yeah.

That's a lot of money.

[sighs]

Make it 500.

Done.
But you pay me now.

In cash.

Agreed.

♪ Don't you know ♪

♪ Don't you know
I love you so ♪

[chuckling]

♪ Don't you know ♪

♪ Don't you know
I love you so ♪

There she is.

♪Why did you have to go ♪

[Hugh Hefner] Marilyn
didn't disappoint.

Apparently, the photographer
was so nervous,

he forgot
to change the film...

leaving some of the photos

with two images overlaid
on top of each other.

Thank you.

I could hardly believe it.

There I was, holding
what was probably

the most valuable
photograph on the planet.

♪ Don't you know
I love you so ♪

[Hugh Hefner]
After months of planning,

I was ready to take
the world by storm.

♪ Every little movement ♪

♪ Every motion of your hips ♪

♪ I feel the compulsion
to pull you ♪

♪ To my sweet lips ♪

♪ Is it a black magic spell ♪

♪ You put me under ♪

♪ This miracle moment ♪

♪ Never let it end ♪

♪ Every little movement ♪

♪ Is beyond improvement ♪

♪ You are the magician ♪

♪ I've been wishing for
forever ♪

♪ Every little movement ♪

♪ Every little movement ♪♪