The ten-part docuseries “Secrets and techniques of Playboy” guarantees to “discover the hidden truths behind the fable and philosophy of the Playboy empire by means of a modern-day lens.” A&E’s collection, which premiered final week, partially delivers on that promise, although it holds again at important junctures and spends far an excessive amount of run time debunking a model picture that’s been lifeless for many years.
Precisely nobody might be stunned to find that the late Hugh Hefner used and traded younger ladies like commodities and that his mythology of Playboy as a progressive outgrowth of the sexual revolution and a daring expression of feminism was largely a charade. The ladies lured in by the joy of Playboy journal, which arrived in 1953, could have been shocked by the sleazy actuality of the enterprise on the peak of its energy within the ’60s and ’70s, however who at the moment nonetheless buys the gross sales pitch that Playboy and Hef, who died in 2017, had been all about celebrating the lady subsequent door?
Rampant drug use, the alleged predations of older males (together with Invoice Cosby, Peter Nygard and different luminaries), the travails of gullible younger ladies and Playboy’s damaged guarantees to guard their pursuits and our bodies are recounted through unique interviews with insiders, lots of whom share their tales for the primary time. Coupled with hours of archival footage from contained in the “cult-like” environs of the mansion and the golf equipment, the docuseries skillfully depicts America’s fluctuating ethical requirements from period to period, and Playboy’s response to these shifts.
“Secrets and techniques of Playboy” may have lived as much as its title as an eye-opening exposé of beforehand uncharted terrain if it didn’t save its most damning revelations concerning the controlling, sadistic, power-hungry Hefner for the final episode. Outstanding docuseries utilizing later or further episodes to grapple with the fallout from new developments is now customary follow (See: “Surviving R. Kelly: The Reckoning,”“I’ll Be Gone within the Darkish”), however burying the lead as “Secrets and techniques of Playboy” does is a disservice to those that got here ahead to declare that they had been trafficked by the “evil” empire and raped by the “creep” in cost.
Puppet grasp Hefner stays the pipe-smoking cad we already know for a lot of the collection, the place his urge for food for intercourse with everybody and every thing seems to be his biggest indiscretion. Throughout a phase concerning the wild orgies on the mansion, an ex-girlfriend says Hefner persistently loved the corporate of one reluctant male lover — a possible bombshell that’s by no means explored. Hefner allegedly hosted events known as “Pig Nights,” the place Sundown Strip intercourse employees had been shuttled to the mansion to “entertain” his male friends. In one other occasion, Hefner ex-Sondra Theodore remembers with horror strolling in on Hefner having intercourse together with her canine. She says she by no means left the 2 alone in a room collectively once more.
The tales of former Playmate and director of promotions Miki Garcia and previous girlfriends of Hefner’s, together with Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Theodore, paint the image of a harmful enterprise that recruited recent younger ladies and broke them. Hefner’s private valet Stefan Tetenbaum, Bunny Mom PJ Masten and Playboy Mansion West resident Jennifer Saginor (the physician’s daughter) describe an setting through which ladies who wished to turn out to be Playmates of the Month or 12 months needed to have intercourse with Hefner after which had been handed round to his buddies like human social gathering favors. In the event that they deviated from the method, there have been violent penalties (a narrative about Dorothy Stratten, the 1980 Playmate who was later killed by her husband, is especially heartbreaking). In the event that they refused Hefner’s advances, they had been allegedly raped.
It’s horrible stuff, however the materials that charts new terrain in our understanding of Hefner and his empire is all too simply misplaced amid the collection’ unfocused construction. Certainly, it’s “Soul Prepare” creator and host Don Cornelius, former Playboy execs and Hefner’s internal circle of lecherous buddies who overshadow the Playboy chief’s personal actions for a lot of the collection. In Episode 3, which runs Monday, Masten alleges that Cornelius, a Playboy membership VIP, invited two bunnies from the Los Angeles location to a celebration at his dwelling, the place they disappeared for days. Once they resurfaced, in line with the docuseries, they stated they’d been held captive and raped repeatedly by Cornelius. “Secrets and techniques of Playboy” claims that Cornelius — who died in 2012 — was again within the membership the next week.
Within the second half of the collection, a number of claims are made that the late Valerie Cragin, head of Playboy promotions, helped visitors Playmates across the nation beneath the guise of “promotional” occasions and that the mansion was the hub for a constellation of intercourse dens in Los Angeles run by Hef’s internal circle. These “shadow mansions” housed the ladies who didn’t make the Playboy minimize. They had been promised modeling contracts by the boys who owned the properties, however had been primarily used as intercourse employees for Hollywood’s wealthy and highly effective.
The issue is that by mixing collectively allegations giant and small, horrifying and easily unusual, public and beforehand unknown, “Secrets and techniques of Playboy” reveals lower than the sum of its components. It could be value viewing as a time capsule of a tarnished model, the depravity of the porn enterprise and the evolution of the tradition. However it’s a far cry from a devastating — or zeitgeist-shaking — case in opposition to Playboy’s suave figurehead. The true story of Hugh Hefner continues to be to be informed.
‘Secrets and techniques of Playboy’
The place: A&E
When: 9 p.m. Monday
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