Like Mick Jagger, who has just become Sir Michael, Hugh Hefner is a famous bad boy who has gradually evolved into one of the great and good. The 77-year-old, who launched Playboy magazine 50 years ago this month, has a road named after him in his hometown of Chicago, features in advertisements for such mainstream fare as burgers, gin and casual clothes (and we don't mean silk pyjamas and velvet smoking jackets). And, it is said, nowadays members of the public often greet him in the street with a "You're the Man!" Is there a greater compliment? Maybe. This week, he received the ultimate establishment imprimatur: Christie's, the venerable auction house, sold off a half-century's worth of contents from Hef's attic. These included nude pictures of the most beautiful women in the world, including Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, various supermodels and, of course, Playboy's first centrefold, Marilyn Monroe. Also on sale: his little black address books, with phone numbers both for the famous, such as singer Nat "King" Cole, and for the likes of Lynn, known only by a brief note ("haven't met, friend of Joyce's, big T")-and his old Mercedes, which comes with two invitations to the New Year's Eve party at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.
展开▼
