American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story

Hugh Hefner creates the Playboy Interview, giving a platform to cultural leaders to discuss pressing social issues, and publishes a controversial interview with Malcolm X.

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a bribe of $100,000.

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A cue around the block.

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Playboy was on top of the world.

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It's important.

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Hefner had apparently given a bribe

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against these two guys who were convicted.

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the magazine was doing important work.

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they all wanted to be part of this cultural revolutionary

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I thought it would be great to give them a platform

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Miles Davis was this very important guy.

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I mean, especially now, when every celebrity

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you'll see that they are like a classical symphony.

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I've gotta get this done by tonight.

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Discussions go back and forth and we try to work things out,

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Throughout all the years with Playboy,

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she'll let you go back to the dressing room and take five.

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In early 1963, a new leader in the Civil Rights Movement

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In that season of fear and polarization

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Because we don't like what he's saying?

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So the fact that you would have Hugh Hefner

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letters poured in from all over the country,

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Prosecutors claimed that those pictures

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There aren't a whole lot of things in our society,

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So, if you were to try to publish a national magazine,

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How many people are willing to risk criminal prosecution?

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And I don't take on cases I don't believe in.

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I look forward to seeing you at the arraignment.

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Police yesterday carted

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Mm-hmm.

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He is Hugh Hefner, publisher of Playboy magazine.

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it was clear we were fighting an uphill battle.

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And when he was attacked on that basis,

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