From the Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube Channel.
As soon as one hears the smooth
jazz opening theme music and sees the flashing lights of the Playboy building located at Sunset and Alta Loma, which also sported a Playboy Club, it’s hard not to feel a lot cooler and suave than one
actually is in real life.
Both the 1959 and 1969 series centered on the now
iconic cocktail party, with well-dressed men and women schmoozing, drinking,
smoking, and flirting with each other while discussing the latest social and
political topics. More notably satirized as a sketch in Laugh-In, the Playboy cocktail party was the fantasy that populated the minds of many young people of the era as the Holy Grail of single adulthood. Sharp-eyed Laugh-In fans will recognize tall, lanky, mustachioed African American dancer Bryon Gilliam, a Laugh-In cocktail party dancer and regular performer who also appears in Playboy After Dark, providing some continuity between the two programs.
Few people and publications have
so embodied the zeitgeist of its times like Hugh Hefner and Playboy magazine. To be sure, Playboy didn’t invent pornography. In
fact, during its reign as the leading publication of nude female photography,
it was generally regarded as the tamest of such magazines. Instead, Playboy’s influence is rather as a men’s
lifestyle magazine. Building upon the traditional American rugged
individualist, Playboy
promoted a literate, worldly man, informed on contemporary art, fashion, film, literature, music, politics, sports, and, of course, sex. The old joke about Playboy, “I only read it for the
articles,” has a grain of truth in that the articles actually were worth
reading. As a young teen, I found myself unaccountably
detracted by the articles, interviews, and jokes — honestly!
As noted in the expansive retro entertainment website TV Party, the set for Playboy After Dark was constructed at a cost of $35,000 (approximately,
$244,278 in 2019) and Hefner had no problem attracting top stars and models to
populate his parties. While the exposure succeeded in showing Hefner had more
to him than just a purveyor of pornography, the show was still a difficult
sell in the more conservative Midwest and Deep South where the Playboy name made widespread national syndication of the series somewhat challenging. In fact, it was so problematic that at least in one city, Charlotte, NC, the show was
listed under the title “Hugh Hefner.”
At its height, the Playboy Empire included not just the
magazine, but also books, merchandise, and a nationwide chain of high-end clubs. The clubs went out of business in 1991, but the brand was resurrected in 2006 and a handful still exists. In 1986, I almost made my way into the Buffalo club on a double date, ironically at the
insistence of the girls we were with. While I was wearing a tie, the other guy wasn’t, so we didn’t get past the lobby. Yes, they had a dress code.
In a way, the magazines, the clubs, and
the shows promoted a common male culture one step forward of the two-fisted
drinkers of their father’s generation. The ideal “Playboy” man would be able to
converse informatively at parties on a wide range of topics, tell jokes, and mix the latest drinks. Still though, with a few exceptions for the exceptionally talented female celebrity, women were typically treated as little more than accessories rather than as equal participants in the sexual revolution. This is on display in the very first scene of the video above, where models Barbi Benton and Claudia Jennings (1970 Playmate of the Year) are given orders to cook eggs for guests. It betrays an inherently chauvinist attitude towards women not far removed from the previous generation.
I am disinclined to attribute the
entirety of responsibility for the sexual revolution of the 1960s solely to Playboy; however, the magazine rode the forefront of the social movement
and was influential in spreading the idea that sex and the female body was not
a dirty secret to be hidden, but rather celebrated. While Playboy was a relatively more modest publication than its
competitors, the magazine could still push the limits of what was
acceptable in terms of female nudity until hardcore pornography became more widely distributed. I am reminded of a scene in Billy Hayes’s autobiography Midnight Express where after escaping
a Turkish prison in 1975, following five years behind bars, he picks up a copy of Playboy and is immediately shocked
at how much more nudity was displayed compared to 1970.
That Playboy’s Penthouse and Playboy
After Dark both lasted just two seasons each is not really indicative of a failure.
The point of both programs was to raise the profile of the publication, and to
that end, it succeeded. Additionally, both programs capture a moment in time and
Hefner had an instinct for knowing when the moment had passed, and, like every
good host, he knew when the party was over.
The musical guests performing in
the video compilation above include (click
on the links for each individual performance):
● Buddy Rich & Hal Frasier, “A Lot of Livin’ to Do.”
● Marvin Gaye, “All by Myself.”
● Roger McGuinn & The Byrds, “You Ain’t Going Nowhere”
and “This Wheel's on Fire.”
● Marvin Gaye, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.”
● James Brown, “Georgia.”
● Leslie Gore, “Hello Young Lovers” and “This Time.”
● Fleetwood Mac, “Rattlesnake Shake.”
● Grateful Dead, “Mountains of the Moon” and “Saint Stephen.”
● Noel Harrison, “The Great Electric Experiment Is Over”
and
● Steppenwolf, “Born to be Wild” and “Chicken Wolf.”
● Cher, “For Once in My Life.”
● Sonny & Cher, “Too Good to be True.”
● Canned Heat, “Future Blues.”
● Cher, “Take Me for a Little While.”
● Linda Ronstadt, “Walkin’ Down the Line” and “Living Like a Fool.”
● Joe Cocker, “Hitchcock Railway.”
● Deep Purple, “And the Address” (instrumental) and “Hush.”
● Brenton Wood, “It’s Just a Game, Love” and
● Grand Funk Railroad, “Mr. Limousine Driver.”
● Ike & Tina Turner, “Take You Higher.”
● The Cowsills, “Where is Love?” (from Oliver) and “II X II.”
● Jackie DeShannon, “I Got My Reason,” and “Hollywood.”
● The Grass Roots, “Walkin Through the Country” and
● Sir Douglas Quintet, “Mendocino.”
Also Appearing:
● Arte Johnson
● Barbi Benton
● Jackie DeShannon
● Marty Engels
● Byron Gilliam
● Lindsay Wagner
● Barry White
● ● ●
Great article! What a music list!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteHey just wondering in the openiing for PLAYBOY AFTER DARK the building that lights up where is that located at in LA? Does it still do that or has it been remodeled? Thanks for the info :) :)
ReplyDeleteIt is located at 8560 Sunset Boulevard. It was heavily renovated in 2001 and with other nearby development, it would likely be hard to recognize from the opening sequence. Judging from the renovations, it doesn't appear likely to still be able to light up as it does in the opening sequence.
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