Born in 1926 in Chicago, Illinois, Hugh Marston Hefner is the founder and chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises. Hefner was a writer for a military newspaper for the US Army from 1944 until 1946, and then graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with a BA in psychology and a double minor in art and creative writing. He earned his degrees in only two and a half years, and finished in 1949.
While working as a copywriter for Esquire in 1952 he had a dispute over a $5 raise and quit. He then sold all his furniture, borrowed $600 from a bank, and raised an additional $8,000 from 45 investors, including $1,000 from his mother, and founded Playboy. The first issue came out in December, 1953 and included a picture of Marilyn Monroe from her 1949 nude calendar shoot. It sold 50,000 copies.
In 1985, at the age of 59 Hefner had a mild stroke and decided to tone down his lifestyle, reducing the number of all-night parties, and relinquishing control of Playboy Enterprises to the control of his daughter Christine in 1988.
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