Who owns penthouse magazine series#
Who owns penthouse magazine tv#

That his version of this liberation was mostly defined by men, highly objectifying, and fundamentally skewed in its power dynamics - the very epitome of the male gaze - well, Hef basically shrugged those thoughts off, saying that women should just step up and go toe-to-toe with men.

Who owns penthouse magazine series#

Of course, that was not its reason for being, and itРІР‚в„ўs hard to concoct a truly feminist case for Playboy.РІР‚СљThe Playboy Philosophy,РІР‚Сњ a series of published musings by Hefner that broadly expressed his worldview, argued that the shaking-off of Puritan and Victorian prudishness was good for women, good for the world, and all-around great for our mental health.

Its lifestyle coverage, all that cocktails-and-great-stereo-equipment stuff, could be delicious as well. At that part of the craft of magazine-making, Playboy was often great. Le Guin, Joyce Carol Oates, and James Baldwin. ( The Simpsons once showed a parody of the magazine, called РІР‚СљPlaydude,РІР‚Сњ bearing the cover line UPDIKE ON THE MARTINI.) But thatРІР‚в„ўs also a little unfair: Playboy published good work by Ursula K. The articles were, indeed, pretty good, even if Playboy tended to pay extremely well for the second-tier writing of first-tier talents. Men (and some women) joked that they bought the magazine for the articles, even though the centerfold and its associated pictorials were, of course, the main draw.

The magazineРІР‚в„ўs licensing operation since then has put the signature rabbit logo on cocktail glasses, clothes, car accessories, and far more. The magazine peaked in the early 1970s at a circulation, breathtaking to see now, of 5.6 million copies a month.

Who owns penthouse magazine tv#

It also moved into TV with PlayboyРІР‚в„ўs Penthouse (later Playboy After Dark), a late-night talk show of sorts starring Hefner and an array of celebrity guests. By the early 1960s, it was a huge success, soon expanding to open its namesake clubs all over the world. Founded in 1953, it was a significant force in the loosening of anti-obscenity laws regarding the press. Hard to imagine it now, but Playboy once felt forward-thinking and modern. Hugh Marston Hefner, its founder/editor/latter-day reality-show star/loungewear enthusiast, died in 2017, as his faded empire contracted around him, and one got the sense that the magazine was kept going partly because nobody wanted Hef to outlive it. ItРІР‚в„ўs not a surprise, exactly - its circulation and advertising drooped long ago, accelerating as the nudie pictures for which it was celebrated became available everywhere for free. It seems unlikely, given the wording of the announcement and the state of print magazine-making, that it will ever return. Playboy has announced that itРІР‚в„ўs closing down its flagship magazine for the rest of 2020.