Godfather of American Hedonism Exposed as Gay-rights Pioneer

But much as he revels in his status as the godfather of American hedonism, he's concerned he'll be remembered in the wrong light. “One of the things I find really curious is when people say I've lived an amoral life,” says the man who's stood at the center of a thousand Playboy Bunny photo ops. “From my perspective, it's quite the contrary. I feel I've lived a very moral life. I've been on the side of angels from the beginning.”

In 1955, American publisher Hugh Hefner addressed homosexuality head-on in his relatively new magazine, Playboy, by publishing a short science-fiction tale by Charles Beaumont entitled "The Crooked Man," set in a world where gay was the norm and straights were a persecuted minority. Already rejected by Esquire, the story elicited angry letters, which prompted Hefner to run the following retort (republished in The Daily Beast):

"[I]f it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society, then the reverse was wrong too."

The challenge of transforming such a large public persona is evident in the film's subtitle, which can't help but prioritize Hefner's sex-icon bona fides (a Playboy first, Activist second.) Filmmaker Brigitte Berman, who won an Oscar for her 1985 documentary Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got, focuses on the publisher's battles over censorship, segregation, abortion, and contraception. She says she was inspired to make the film after attending Hefner's 80th birthday party at the Playboy Mansion. “I got to know Hef because of his love for jazz,” she says. “When people think of him, they think of the babes, the boobs, the blondes. There's another side to him, one I think is too often overlooked.”