Speaking to the LA Times, Hefner once said, “I’m a believer in things symbolic. Spending eternity next to Marilyn is too sweet to pass up.”
Adding bits to controversy, even after his death, Playboy emperor Hugh Hefner, who died aged 91 on Wednesday, will buried next to iconic Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe. Not to forget, the legendary actress’ nude images grabbed eyeballs in 1953 when Monroe featured in the cover of the first edition of the Playboy magazine, founded by Hefner. Reportedly, Hefner, who haven’t met Monroe personally, booked the burial plot next to her for $75,000 in 1992.
Earlier, speaking to the LA Times, Hefner once said, “I’m a believer in things symbolic. Spending eternity next to Marilyn is too sweet to pass up.” In another interview with CBS Los Angeles in 2012, he said, “I feel a double connection to her, because she was the launching key to the beginning of Playboy. We were born the same year.”
And while some feels Hefner’s burial next to his first cover girl as “the most badass thing” or “the right thing to do”, many took to twitter to criticize the burial terming it creepy and exploitative. Over a post in Twitter, English journalist and romance novelist, Jojo Moyes, wrote, “In a lifetime of creepy things, Hugh Hefner buying the plot next to Marilyn Monroe to lurk beside her for all eternity is the creepiest.”
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According to author Sady Doyle, Marilyn Monroe was embarrassed to see her images in the cover of the Playboy magazine, since the photos were published without her consent. Reportedly, Monroe even feared for her career when Hefner paid $500 for two pictures four years, to a Chicago calendar, to own the actress’ images, which she posed for, receiving $50 per year, before hitting the big screen.
The late actress, in George Barris’ “Marilyn—Her Life in Her Own Words”, mentioned, “I never even received a thank-you from all those who made millions off a nude Marilyn photograph. I even had to buy a copy of the magazine to see myself in it.”
Hugh Hefner, who founded the Playboy magazine and established it as a major media and entertainment industry, died, 91, on September 27 at his home, the Playboy Mansion new Beverly Hills in California. Having founded the Playboy magazine in 1953, Hefner came to prominence because of his flamboyant lifestyle. In a post on Twitter, Playboy paid tribute to its founder by sharing Hefner’s picture with one of his quotes, saying, “Life is too short to be living somebody else’s dream.”
Featuring the naked images of yester-year’s Hollywood heart-throb Marilyn Monroe, Hefner published the first edition of the Playboy magazine in 1953. Though being an easy target to controversies, Hefner’s magazine played a major role in breaking notions on sex and nudity. Even the logo of the magazine, depicting a bunny face with a bow tie, was widely criticized by feminists who claimed it reduced women to mere sex objects. However, Hefner continued his fight against censorship and speaking of what he was proudest of, in an interview with The New York Times in 1992, Hefner said, “That I changed attitudes toward sex. That nice people can live together now. That I decontaminated the notion of premarital sex. That gives me great satisfaction.”
