Hugh Hefner has been dead since 2017. I should know. I wrote his obituary in this paper. I referred to him in that story as “influential and controversial, admired and vilified” and that was certainly true.
Few Chicagoans had as complex and colorful a life as did Hefner and it is captured with intelligence and thoughtfulness in “The Making of Playboy,” premiering Oct. 18 and kicking off the second half of the surprisingly substantial current season of WTTW-Ch. 11’s “Chicago Stories.”
It is difficult in these relatively freewheeling times to realize or appreciate what a transformational guy Hefner and his Playboy magazine were. He was a struggling advertising copywriter when he came up with the idea for a lifestyle magazine for men, one embellished by photos of women in various stages of undress.
The first 1953 issue sold 50,000-some copies and as circulation grew to a stunning 7 million it helped fuel the creation of a network of Playboy clubs and casinos, a noted jazz festival and all manner of ventures. You’ll see clips from the old TV show Hefner hosted, “Playboy’s Penthouse” and “Playboy After Dark.” You’ll go inside the party-palace mansions he owned in Chicago and Los Angeles; see him as a lightning rod for feminist rage, and watch him deal with the tragic death of Bobbie Arnstein, a trusted aide and friend, who was entrapped in a drug deal, subsequently sentenced to 15 years in prison and died by suicide.
Much more too, all produced and written by Peter Marks, who has chosen the documentary’s interview subjects wisely. You’ll hear from such former magazine staffers as Laurence Gonzales and Barbara Nellis; Gloria Johnson, the first Black Playboy Bunny; and local columnist Candace Jordan, who has nothing but good memories of her time as a Playmate. Christie Hefner is the only one of Hefner’s four children interviewed. The eldest, she was chairman and CEO of the company from 1988 to 2009 and her commentary is smart, sensitive and enlightening.
Next up, in chilling historical contrast, is “When the West Side Burned” (on Oct. 25). If the many ways that Hefner was fighting for racial justice are to be admired, and they are, keep in mind that this was a city of terrible racial inequities and dangerous tensions.
The “burning” came in the wake of the April 4, 1968, assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., shot dead in Memphis, with the news of the tragedy causing explosions in cities across the country. The fuse was lit long before, as people became increasingly frustrated and angry, trying unsuccessfully through legitimate ways to have their grievances heard.
The old video and photos are vivid visits to the chaos and desperation and we hear from people who were there. Over two days, Chicagoans on the city’s West Side endured arson, looting, violence and widespread blackouts. Mayor Richard J. Daley’s words echo, that infamous order to “shoot to kill” arsonists and “shoot to maim” looters as the city deployed 2,500 police officers and 2,000 firefighters at the height of the mayhem. And then came the National Guard and federal troops.
In the end, more than 200 buildings had to be demolished, hundreds of thousands of people eventually displaced, and the city altered for keeps.
Produced by Daniel Andries and co-written by John Owens, the program reminds us of King’s tortured relationship with Chicago, his having moved here in 1966 to protest housing segregation in the city. Marching through Marquette Park, he was greeted by such an angry mob (one of whom threw a rock that hit him in the head) that he would say, “I have never seen — even in Mississippi and Alabama — mobs as hostile and as hate-filled as I’ve seen here in Chicago.”
Residents of the West Side knew that and to hear from them now — including longtime U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, then a school teacher — is to understand why the West Side burned but more depressingly, why it has failed all these decades later to revive, why what was once so vibrant is now a “wasteland of vacant lots.”
The next program, “Al Capone’s Bloody Business” (on Nov. 1), begs the question “Haven’t we learned all there is to know about this joker?”
The answer, of course, is that old mobsters never die. They won’t even fade away. They show up in movies and in books, tucked firmly in our consciousness. This is especially, perhaps even uniquely, true of Chicago, a hotbed of gangsters, where many people today could tell you more about Capone than they could about the candidates running for president.
Produced and written by Heidi Zersen, the show is packed with information, told in compelling fashion and wisely giving us historians John Binder and Paul Durica and the very knowledgeable author Jonathan Eig, whose 2011 book “Get Capone: The Secret Plot That Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster” should be on your bookshelf, along with some of his others, especially 2017’s “Ali: A Life” and his “King: A Life,” winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2024.
The final offering of this “Chicago Stories” season is “House Music: A Cultural Revolution” (on Nov. 8), a video celebration of sorts and a fascinating and uplifting hour.
Claire Greenway/Getty Images
DJ Frankie Knuckles plays at the Def Mix 20th Anniversary Weekender at Turnmills nightclub on May 6, 2007, in London, England. (Claire Greenway/Getty Images)
Don’t be shy. If, like me, you were never a disco fan and have only a modest understanding of the meaning of “house music,” this show will illuminate and entertain.
Produced and co-edited by Barbara Allen and written by Gail Baker, it features the voices of many, especially the late DJ Frankie Knuckles, the creator of the genre who came here from New York City and held forth at the revered Warehouse at 206 S. Jefferson, and Joe Shanahan, the owner of Metro, Smartbar and GMan Tavern, polished DJ and open-minded musical man.
They articulate “house” and along with impassioned others give you a sense of the raucous history of the musical form but also of its profound importance and inclusive spirit.
I could have lived without another visit, quick as it is, to “Disco Demolition,” but this is otherwise a fitting and worthy end to this “Chicago Stories” season.
rkogan@chicagotribune.com
