BILL FARLEY: PLAYBOY VP of MARKETING: PLAYBOY JAZZ FESTIVAL and PRESIDENT of PLAYBOY MODELING AGENCY

Bill Farley would wear many hats during his extensive career in the world of Media / PR & Communications.  Farley began his career as a newspaper reporter, a radio newsman and a DJ.  In the late 70's  Farley found his home with "ABC the NETWORK. "
Upon departing ABC's Prime Time Television Operations in Los Angeles in 1981, Farley was brought in as a consultant with Playboy to help launch Playboys first venture into the new world of Cable Television. Farley would oversee the creation & implementation of the wildly successful “Playboy Cable Television Network.”

For 3 years Farley oversaw the development of Playboy TV and its home videos concept with the inception and explosion of VHS Tapes.  

In 1985 Farley stepped into the role of Communications Manager for PLAYBOY ENTERTAINMENT. It was at this time - Farley would begin working closely with HEF and the PB Mansion Staff. 

Farley was not only responsible for developing the Communications Department he would also be designated as PB “National Director & VP of Marketing” as well as “President of Playboy Models/Playmate Promotions.”

Over the course of his Playboy career, Bill Farley served as a spokesman for HEF and Playboy Entertainment as a whole. Farley would be designated as “VP of the famed Playboy Jazz Festivals” as well as managing director of the newly created “Playboy Playmate Promotions department.” The department served as an agency within the corporate offices for PLAYMATES to be hired for appearances, modeling contracts & a multitude of key PRESS Events.
Over the span of his 25 Years at PB, Farley would be responsible for coordinating multiple profound milestones in HEFS personal and professional life. The wedding of HEF to Kimberly Conrad. “The Comedy Central Roast” in honor of HEFNER. Coordinating PB’S 50th anniversary celebration, the Pre-Game Super Bowl Parties & Events, and HEFS very successful series of national commercials for Carl's Jr. in the early 2000’s. 
In 2005 Farley retired from Playboy and returned to his roots as a print journalist in South Carolina.

Transcript

Hi, Corinna. Hi, Echo. Your bunny is so damn big and it has a red eye, that's what you get for being Playmate of the Year. Look how small mine is.  Oh, gosh.  Oh, my goodness. It doesn't. Today we have a special, special guest. Introduce. This is Bill Farley. Mm hmm. And, oh, my gosh, I have so many memories. Of Bill. I don't know if you even remember me, Bill. 

Of course he does, silly.  I know. So, so Bill, so Bill was definitely one of the very, very, very long term, um, employees with, um, with Playboy and, and really worked a lot with Huff. Tell us how many years exactly you were there?  It depends on how you calculate it, because I started off as a consultant. Okay.

And, uh, probably 25 years old, so  a long time. Yeah. Wow. So you came in in the 80s or the 70s? Actually in 1981. Okay.  Kind of a curious tale how it happened. Let's hear it. That's what we want to hear, Bill. I want to know exactly how you ended up in the Playboy family.  Let me, let me back up a little. I'll tell you a couple of quick stories.

First of all,  I'm about seven or eight years old. I'm going for a bike ride with my buddies  and we have a peanut butter and jelly sandwiches our mother made us and a couple of dimes to get  time.  And the gas station guy is working on a car and we go into their office and we get our coats  on the wall over his workbench.

It's this picture  of a naked lady, a naked one, a  naked lady. And we're looking at it and looking at it. And finally he says, you kids get out of here. That's not for you. It's been all summer thinking about that, but you keep that in mind. Because you'll hear about it later.  Let me go a few years forward.

And my parents got a new television set,  which is not that big a deal. It was a big deal. It was a big deal then. Yeah. Because they had the TV sets that were like furniture. They were so big.  They gave me, as the oldest son,  their old television set, which had a screen about the size of an  iTablet these days. 

And it was really a piece of junk, but I had it in my room and of all things, it had what we used to call rabbit ears on the top. Oh yeah, the antennas. Just to get a better picture. Right. I was looking for professional wrestling. I like wrestling. Right.  And I got a little bit past where the wrestling was. 

I saw this party going on.  There's this very slick guy. Like,  James Bond. That hasn't really happened  yet, but um,  there was this guy in his tuxedo, and he said, uh, you have to come to my party. Oh, the Playboy After Dark. Wow. Oh, it was before that. It was called Playboy's Penthouse. Yes.  Oh, wow.  And I'm watching this.

They're having cocktails and they're smoking cigarettes. And there's all these great artists, Sammy Davis, Jr.  and Buddy Hackett,  all kinds of people. And these beautiful girls in this. The sidekick, Barbie Benton, who is really something special,  and he's having all these people over to his house, so to speak, for a party.

And I went, this has got to be the coolest thing I've ever seen, this guy is fantastic.  But then I, life moved on, the show went off the air because it was syndicated and, you know, it didn't clear any of the stations in the South.  Oh, that's right. The big controversy of the South. White people on the same show.

It wasn't clear. It wasn't clear.  So I kind of forgot about it.  And I went to college and I got out of college, looked for a career. I started off as a newspaper reporter,  then I became a radio news director, and I became a radio DJ.  And then I moved into news, television news. I worked for the, what's now called World News Tonight at ABC.

It was, it's called the Evening News at the time.  I was working there, very happy. All of a sudden I moved over to ABC sports, which is the big deal at ABC.  Uh, that's where all the money was. And that's where all the stars were.  And suddenly I'm working with the Muhammad Ali and people. That's cool.  And Howard Cosell and I had a falling out and I was told by Rune Harland, who was the president of ABC,  New York, isn't big enough for you and Howard, and he's not leaving.

What would you like to do?  You offered me a job in Los Angeles.  And I took it and I worked in primetime entertainment for several years with a number of shows. Then I decided to go out on my own with a partner and, and produce television shows. And we had done a couple of pilots that hadn't really gone too well. 

And we were looking for some other opportunities and the phone rings. And it's a fellow that used to work for Dick Clark, Dick Clark's walk in the evening,  Dick Clark had a big production company. This fellow would work with us frequently. Because ABC had Dick Clark shows. Right. This fella said, I'm now working at Playboy  and I work for Hugh Hefner. 

He said, Hef has got a wonderful idea. He said, Hef  has decided  he is going to have  first And only magazine sponsored  cable television,  and it wants to get it on the air quick before somebody else thinks of the idea. Sure.  And the fella that calls it,  uh, I know a little bit about television as you know, but nobody else here does.

We need some people to come in and launch this baby and get it off the ground. Can you guys come in as consultants?  That sounded like a pretty good idea. Bearing in mind though,  I had never subscribed to Playboy and I had never set foot in the Playboy club. Probably the only American male that never did.

No real reason for that. It just happened that way and suddenly I'm going to Playboy every day  and seeing the mansion and meeting with you, Hefner, and we're designing this, this cable television network. Wow. Awesome. And it was, it was, it was a tough go to get started on that  because for one thing,  a lot of cables, television stations wouldn't carry something that was sexy. 

That was just too much for them. Let me, let me ask you a question. So when you're talking about starting that cable network, is that what like we all did for our like videos when we each were centerfold each month, we would come on and like host? Oh, so that's was the start of that. Wow.  Playboy television.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.  One step ahead as usual.  Behind the original Playboy channel.  Yeah. To replicate  Playboy magazine in a video format. Right, right, okay. Seriously. Right, right, right. Long form interviews with important people in the world. It  would have  stupid jokes page,  and it would have cartoons, and of course it would have beautiful girls. 

And we launched it, and  the only time we could get, because a lot of cable television stations didn't have  the, uh, bandwidth to take it as a stand alone,  we came on it in the evening,  and daytime was sold to somebody else.  Somebody else they sold it to was a religious channel.  How funny.  Jimmy Swagger, we just had him.

Jimmy Swagger during the day and we got Playboy after dark at the evening. Then they all worked at 6 o'clock. They'd be saying, I made a good lord blessing, keep you all until the next time we meet.  And here's my cleavage. And that's hysterical.  Playboy. And the girls are dancing around. Well, that, that format didn't last very long.

That's funny. It just didn't work on television. Right. That's when we started doing a lot of playmate videos. Ah, okay. Videos made up a large percentage of what was on the, on the channel because that's Yeah. What men wanted to see and men Right. All with Trichilis Productions, correct? That's true. Or were they the first?

Michael Trichilis was an excellent producer and did a lot of work as you know. Yes. I feel like he did everything. Yes, I feel like he did everything but when you first started there must have been other production companies and then he was one that stuck.  Well, there are, there are quite, there are quite a few people that tried their hand at it.

Uh, it's another curious coincidence. Michael Trichilis learned the business from a guy named Andy Sedaris. Andy Sedaris produced all those B movies that a lot of the girls were in.  It was all, it was six explosions. And the girls solved the crime and everybody was happy. Right. Take their clothes off. So, like, Trakellis got the context of what Hef wanted for the Playboy.

In fact,  Michael's the one that started working for Hef. Right. Andy went out on his own and made his own movies. Right, right. I had known Andy from ABC because Andy was in charge of all of college football.  A, B, C, all the crisscrossing, always professional football. Mm-Hmm. . So there was a sort of rivalry there, and now Michael and I were working together.

That's so cool. That's fascinating. I didn't know any of that history. Thank you for sharing that. Yes. Wow. So that was your, that was your lead in to really working Playboy. Yes. But I wanna ask you how,  what  story, the what story?  The bicycle story? No. Oh yeah. The centerfold when you saw the centerfold and the man said, that's not for you kids.

You were, I don't learn as much about playboys. I can't as fast as I can. I had access to go up to the mansion and around  the library. I see all the bound volumes. That was my favorite room and those books.  It's his favorite room too. That's where he did every interview.  Oh, that's right. On that blue couch library.

Yeah, that's right.  I'm, I'm poking around in there and I pull out this one,  one of the early volumes and I flip open the  first playboy ever  to Maryland. Yeah.  Yeah. I open it. And there's the picture that was hanging in.  Oh my gosh, of course, even more. Yes.  We all talk about that bill. All of us have a story similar how we came to playboy, even Lacey.

She was, You know, telling driving down sunset and saw the big white with your centerfold, you know, it's yeah, everybody has. It's like it was timing. It was meant to be each person. It was like meant to be that that was supposed to remember what you felt like or or just what that experience was when you first met half.

I ask everyone this because it fascinates me to hear what it was like. Was it one of those things for you where I'm  You already knew, okay, I'm going in to meet the boss, El Jefe. Yes, El Jefe. I love that. I love that, too. Or, um, or, or was it, oh, here he is. What, what was that? Were you terrified or excited? Ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha.  Are you asking each other or are you asking me? We're asking you. We're asking you because we're goodness. Yeah. I was trying to be very professional because I was coming in as a consultant and I'm gonna tell people how to do things. True  . I sucked it up. And, uh, off we went and  went up to Mary O'Connor's little office and she said, uh, he's in with Dick.

You can go in now. I didn't know who Dick was. I had soon learned who Dick was  and.  I walk into the office and there's  Drew Hefner,  the guy that invited me to his party back in the 50s  when he was on television. That's so cool. Now he hasn't got a tuxedo on. He's wearing a pair of black pajamas and a rumpelstiltskin. 

He seems like a pretty ordinary guy, but he was clearly in charge, and there's no question about that. Sure. Sure. That's cool to meet him up in Mary O'Connor's office too, and his element at home working. Always up there. As you probably know, he was a very orderly, very organized guy. Oh yeah. Everything went according to a schedule. 

You didn't deviate from that. Yeah. It's like if you had five minutes with him, you bet damn sure that you took full advantage of those five minutes and got everything across that you needed to do. And he was so meticulous. Mm-Hmm. and expected everything. Mm-Hmm. . He knew ex. Yeah.  He, um, you know what I, I actually watching again on the, um, the documentary on Prime, um, that, um, when, uh, Hef was a kid and um, he was tested 'cause he was a genius and his IQ was once.

56 or 165 is one or the other.  So he was a genius. I mean from the get go He was that's what they said that he was an absolute genius Photographic photographic memory  no doubt about that. The man was  Brilliant at what he did and the magazine was his child abs. It was his love. Everything else Playboy did was Yeah, like something, uh, extra.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Magazine,  his love affair lived, lived and died with him. Absolutely. Absolutely. And he loved his playmates. Yes. And took, and you could see the pride.  Echo got emotional this morning. We were just talking about But when we were doing our makeup, can you tell we got our makeup done by Playboy artist? 

It looks fabulous.  But something came up. Go ahead. Oh, I just started thinking about my Playmate of the Year party and how thoughtful he was with  just detail and remembering family members or whatever.  You're remembering every single playmate's name is what always blew my mind.  It was, I mean, back to production.

I'm telling you, I was telling you about the film. I had produced a movie and he, he said, no, Corinna, you don't want playboy. You don't want playboy attached to this. She can have done. Playboy as the character did, which was brilliant because,  you know, he understood marketing the right way. Yes. And, and, and turned me on to someone at Hallmark to say, because it was a heartwarming film, which, yeah, and but He was a heartwarming person, and we were talking about how everybody that's been a part of the Playboy family are beautiful, wonderful, loyal, family oriented.

It's not what people would ever think. It's not the debauchery. There, a magazine couldn't exist like that if there wasn't responsible, incredible,  Talented brilliant human beings to make that living breathing brand and that came up because we had the two makeup artists there Both that had worked with Playboy Sarah Cranham specifically She was an understudy of Alexis Vogel who was you know, the creme de la creme and Michelle Michelle was a Yeah.

Alexis. Yes. And then Michelle Vanderhul and we were just looking around and we were all laughing and enjoying ourselves and we all just realized. Michelle started crying. That if, you know, like because of Hef, we are all here and like what a beautiful moment in time that we all got to be a part of. And I started crying and Sarah's like, don't start crying.

I just did your makeup. It's amazing how one man can have a vision and so many have been blessed by it with careers. To just have the impact he has on other people. Every single person that's been fortunate enough to have a moment in time with Playboy. Yes. To be affiliated with it and to be affiliated with Huff, it's like pinch yourself.

But I, I get back to memories and with Bill Farley, I always remember Bill with this, another one of those Cheerful. Yeah. Always a smile on your face. Always is a pleasure. Just made you happy to see him. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. But also like I wanted everything to go right for you too, Bill. Like I was like, of course, you know, so intimidated and, you know, want to, you know,  You're such a sweet little piece of pie. 

It's quite, it's quite a treat to be, uh, working with all these gorgeous young women all the time. What does your wife think of that? Because you've been married. How long have you been married, Bill?  Oh, we've been married about, uh, 25 years now, I guess. Wow. But one of the good things is that, uh, Judy was very helpful to me in a lot of respects and she would come to events and she's actually a little more outgoing than I am.

And she would be talking to  some small celebrity, whatever.  And she dragged me over and say, have you met Joe Blow yet? Oh, that's wonderful to have that. Yeah. Your, your partner. So wait, speaking about events, I have a question. Why did your wife call you Joe Blow? Just kidding, 

Corinna. Oh my God. So, uh, speaking of,  Oh, we got stories just like the icing on the cake. Uh, actually Bill and I were having a funny banter going back and forth via email and I had said something and then you were like, Oh, there could be something to that. And I was like, you got this. That ride sizing on the cake.

It was just a little funny banter, but let me, um, speaking of events and being at the mansion and whatnot, um, there's a story about you and half and half was speaking and you went out to have a cigarette and what happened?  Oh my goodness. There were, there were three playmates, including the playmate of the year living in the same apartment.

And it was just a little  kind of a quip or something. Right. I'd mentioned it to him and he, he could have got up and he.  Apparently he made a pretty big deal out of it and thought it was going to be hilarious. He told the story and  nobody left.  And I was out having a cigarette. I wasn't paying attention.

I  could tell by his tempo when he was going to finish. Right. So as soon as he started to wind down, I come around and go back up on the platform. So  he started to wind down and he went down to his seat and I took over the lectern.  And I told the same story, but I told it with a little zip to it. I got a hilarious response.

Oh no! Oh yeah. Oh wow.  And I looked down and he's right in the front row. He's got his arms crossed. He's staring at me. Yup. Oops.  He said, you pull it like this. You see my finger?  I said, okay.  I said, what is it? He said, it's a tongue.  Don't ever talk anymore. 

He's like, how dare you show me up  silence. 

That's so great.  He's a guy that  is brilliant. And  he knows a lot about the world, always did,  but he had some real blind spots.  If we have a moment, I'd like to tell you a story. Maybe you were involved. I don't think you were involved in this with the, uh, Carl's junior advertising campaign. Oh yeah. When they're the girls biting that burger on the car. 

Well, they used to do a lot of crazy ads, sexy ads, and I was in touch with the advertising agency  for them.  It said, what do you think?  And we get Hef to do an ad for us.  He said, boy, that sounds pretty good, uh, let me talk to him about it. And  I talked to him, he says, I don't want, I don't, I don't think,  it's not for me. 

Not for me. Let me, let me rethink it.  So I rethought it and I went back to him and said, what's the deal here? They  said, well, if you won't go to us, we'll come to him. We don't usually do it, we will shoot at the mansion.  If he wants some girls to be in it,  they can be in it.  And I said, well, if he does agree, he'll only give you a couple hours, so we'll make it work. 

I said, by the way,  what is the compensation for this?  They said, let's get back to you. They called back next day and they said,  we'll give him 250, 000  the day of the shoot  and 250,  000 additional for the first commercial once. So it's half a million.  Sounds pretty attractive.  Or I was back to him and said,  there's a half a million.

For you and your girls can be a commercial. Plus you're reaching a huge audience,  young guys,  go to Carl's junior and love the ads and buy the hamburgers,  you're putting yourself in position, a big brand name in a different sector.  So you got my attention. Let's do it. The day comes  and he's upstairs getting himself ready.

And the advertising executive.  With great ceremony, he presents me with an envelope. This is from Mr. Heffner. Well, thank you so much. I'll take it up to him. So I took him up. He was in Dick's office.  And I said, uh,  here's your check.  So I'll  very much.  I started to leave and I heard this. I said, what,  what's wrong. 

She said, well, this is only half the amount we agreed upon.  I said, well, no, it's get half now.  The other half from the first commercial runs in a few weeks.  She said, no, no, you idiot. This is only half of the half. He said,  let me take a look at that.  They cut him a check. I looked at it,  turned it over  on the back.

Get out.  federal tax, state tax, you know, Medicare, so forth, all deducted.  And I said, well, this is how are they come?  What's all this money being taken away for?  That's what happens to all of us every two weeks when we get a paycheck. He had no idea. No idea.  How cute. Every two weeks. This is a real world half.

Wow. That's interesting. Yeah, the federal government. We said, well, how can they do this to you? How can they do this to me?  It worked out pretty well. The commercials ran in the neighborhood. I remember those. So he ended up doing it? Yes. Yes. I remember those Hugh Hefner, Carl's Jr. commercials? It was kind of an ordeal for him because, uh, you know how he eats, he only eats certain things.

Yes. Very particular. His entire life. He actually had a truck  that was the  dressing truck, for lack of a better term, for the hamburgers.  Because every time he picked up a hamburger, he took a bite. It was a guy sitting on the floor next to him with a bucket to spit it out. Right. It out in the bucket. Right. 

On anything less than a perfect hamburger. Right. They brought in like 600 hamburgers. Wow. They were constantly feeding him hamburgers. Wow. That's wild. He was getting more queasy as time went on. Did he like them though? He was getting more queasy by the moment, I bet. Like bleh. That's great. How wild. Every now and again there were these strange little moments that would happen. 

Human also. Yeah. I mean that, that's the best part. To have these like memories of one-on-ones with Huff or you know, things that had happened and it's so special. So your, your title was, uh, president or vice President of Communications?  Well, it's, it varied over the years to kept grabbing other jobs. Right.

When I set up, I was, uh, vice President of marketing events. Okay.  Largely pertain to the mansion. Right. I was vice president of Playboy Jazz Festivals. Okay. I was president of the model agency. So I had a pretty, pretty full, uh,  full boat. Yeah, you did. Oh, that's right. Your office was right there by Playmate Promotions.

I remember that. I would, uh, is that right? As a matter of fact, that reminded me of something that I thought I'd mention to you. Yeah.  Um, my office. Originally was on Sunset Boulevard. Yeah, I remember that building. That's where I shot my centerfold. Playmate Promotions was right across the hall. A lot of the girls came to get assignments and this and that.

Sure. And I would be sitting at my desk with a client of some sort of media person or somebody from an ad agency, whatever, having a meeting and they'd be facing me and I'd be facing toward the door.  There were a couple of playmates that had a habit  It appeared in the doorway. They, the guy couldn't see them, but I could.

But you could. Hold the shoulder, make a whoop and flash. Oh, I love it. That is awesome. And you have to keep a straight face while talking to the client.  That's funny. That's awesome. That's not a bad day's work. He's like, anyway, yes, yes, yes. That's classic. It brings to mind another, I won't name this person,  you probably know her, sure you know her, but we had a girl that came, uh, came through one time, would really live with a  couple of hippie parents.

They kind of lived off the grid. How we ever found her, I don't know,  but she was there for a shoot.  And they were shooting on the roof. 

She had been up on the roof  and she wanted to go down to change her clothes and probably go home. Right.  I didn't know all this. I'm just in my office.  Suddenly I hear this voice going, help, help,  pathetically.  And I pull my head out  and I see this girl in a bathrobe standing in the elevator going, help. 

And I walked out and said, what seems to be the problem? She says, I'm stuck in the elevator.  Does it mean you're not stuck in the elevator?  The elevator door is open. You can't be stuck. She's been, I can't call anywhere.  She never, she had never been an elevator. Whoa, wow. That's a scary. button here and it will take you down where you want to go.

Wow. That's wild.  Yeah. Yeah. Where did she come off the grid? And I became a plebeian. The hills of West Virginia.  Those Appalachians. Those are my folks.  Wow. Somewhere between, uh,  Between Los Angeles and the East Coast. Like hippie, hippie compound. Like a real hippie compound.  Nothing wrong with that. What year was that? 

I don't want to tell you. Oh, come on. You can't tell us who it was. You're awesome. That's amazing. It was in the early 90s. Early 90s.  I think I know who it is.  It was me. It was Echo. It was Echo Johnson. It wasn't me.  She still, she still doesn't know how to use the elevator. I was a hippie, but I did know how to use the stuck on the elevator earlier.

And I'm like, Echo, stop. Step off of it. The door's open.  It was a very strange moment. I imagine. Oh, that's hysterical. Actually, it wasn't. It had to be in the late 80s because that's when we were in Sunset.  Actually, it wasn't in the mid 90s? No, it was like 92 or, or no, it was 93 or 94 that you moved because I shot my centerfold there and then all of a sudden you guys were in Beverly Hills office, which was so nice.

I loved that office. Yeah, I, I was there at, when it was on site. Right, right. Exactly. And then when it moved, too. Right. You remember that, uh, the statue that was in the, uh, the lobby of the Beverly Hills? Mm hmm.  It was pretty ugly. Mm hmm. Huh. And  we had the big hurricane in 90, I mean the, uh, earthquake in 94.

Uh huh. And I lived not far away. I was like 10 minutes away. I lived in the old Biparamount Pictures.  So I hop in my car and race over to the building. Of course the elevator is not working so I run up  ten floors to get where I'm going  and I ran across the head of security  and  I  It says  the statue  got knocked over by the earthquake. 

And you said thank God?  Yeah. But it didn't break. Aw. Aw, bummer. Did they keep it, did they keep it sideways on the ground? They made another art, uh, art to play out of it. Back up. It was one of Christie's. Oh, so I, so I actually have to share a story. Um, oh wait, no, uh, Michael Lee shared that story. I was thinking it was Steven Randall cause unfortunately Steven Randall's not going to be able to come on the show with us, but it was a, it was the story.

Remember that Michael Lee told us about, um, Chrissy had come in and they had to, they were starting to do like the VHS tapes and dah, dah, dah, it was that time. And Chrissy wanted to do a completely different look. Then what playboy was and so they were having a meeting up at the mansion and um,  Michael Lee's sitting outside and John Luther comes walking up and he's like half wants to see you right now He's like, okay, so he goes inside and half is pissed.

He's like, what the hell is this? Christian given the order. Yeah And then, and then Mike, Michael goes, um, and he goes, I'm waiting for names. And Michael's like, it was your daughter, Christy. And then he started chuckling and he goes, no, she doesn't know anything about art. You leave that to me.  It was such a great story.

It was so funny. It's right there. One back reporter from the New York times. As a matter of fact, he was doing an interview  and it was a female reporter. And she, uh, she asked him, said, I understand that your, your daughter, Christy is the. You're the chair and CEO of the company,  and  you're the  founder of it. 

What happens if you and Christy disagree? Well, we agree on  most things.  And a couple of minutes later, she rephrased  the question and said, tell me what happens when you and Christy disagree?  And he says, I told you, we agree on most things. We  work things out.  And move on. A couple more questions. And then she came back.

She wouldn't let this go.  I have to ask, there  must be something that happens. Something. And you and Christy strongly disagree. Mm hmm.  You said, well,  I just remind her who owns the company. I knew that was coming. I knew that was coming. Of course. Of course. If I, I'm, can I ask him the question I ask everyone?

Of course. Go ahead. If, if you could. Relay to Hef as if you were at his memorial service or just in memoriam. 

I think it would be a simple thank you. Oh, I love that. Just thank you. He didn't know who I was when I first came into the company and I left the company after our consulting was over. That was the end of the contract.  Like I had made quite a few friends within the company, the executives and so forth.

And I had offered my services if they needed some extra help.  So they kept feeding me projects to work on, even though I wasn't working for Playboy anymore. In fact, in 1984,  um, I still continued to do projects for Playboy, mostly writing projects.  I had gone over back to ABC again and was working as the manager of international press for the Olympics. 

So that whole year was chewed up by the Olympics. I still found time to keep in touch with my old friends at Playboy.  And then when the New York city club was going to be open,  fellow that  then was kind of half fixer and a PR guy  had to spend two months in New York city  to start that club.  And that meant no one was covering his job, but he knew me pretty well.

So he hired me to come back in and fill in for him.  Well, he was in New York,  so I did that. So then I was, I was dealing with that began on a one to one basis because a lot of it was media.  And then this fellow decided to  go into a different line of work and he left  and I'm already sitting in the office.

So they said, well, just stay there. We'll hire you. Perfect. Just stay. The next five to 2005.  And I was very grateful for that job because here I am working with one of the most iconic people of 20th century.  And  I can  argue with him. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And he listens. We don't agree. You may want to get his way, but you will hear your argument out.

Exactly.  Um, he was not big on praise, as you know,  but, uh,  in fact, Judy was there cause she's the one that really was  caught it and was more stunned by it.  We were doing  the, uh, the rehearsal for Halloween, you know, Halloween became the big thing. Oh my God, the coolest parties ever. Halloween. I never went to one.

I got to go to one and then my stupid friend got too drunk and we had to leave. I was so pissed. Oh my God. Oh, that's a shoot. I know. It was awesome. I missed out on so much. That cost about a half a million. Oh, yeah. Wow. He, he gave,  oh, he gave the very best parties.  But the Halloween, you would have loved it.

There was literally, there was coffins and people jumping out of them and this scary house. I mean, it was over the top. It was unbelievable. Wow. I hated Halloween.  Until? But it also was a good media opportunity.  Right? You know, you couldn't let any, any press come to his parties.  Which was beautiful. That's why all of the celebrities were so comfortable there.

That privacy factor, he respected. We could do a certain amount by cutting some video that Barney Fox had shot and can even put it together a list of celebrities and sending it out, which we did. We sent out maybe 20 videos.  and press releases after every party. So that's why. Oh, that's, I was always wondered like how the celebrities were up there.

If it was like they had a relationship with half or what? I didn't want to go to the party. I just didn't want to get stuck with it. Right.  But I, they were having little rehearsal in the afternoon  for the big night, the next night.  And it occurred to me,  if I could just get half to move it a little later, it's the evening. 

I could invite some media to come over the dress rehearsal.  They could shoot all the attractions and the fun without the celebrities and go behind the scenes. And  I had worked that and I wouldn't have to go to the party.  And one, one, one year  F was out in front front yard and they were shooting some stuff with him in the graveyard and so forth. 

And he walked back into the house.  And as you walk back into the house, as he passed me  out of the corner of his mouth, he said, Oh, thanks a lot.  You sound just like him when he says he has his mannerisms, like even the way he talks. Yeah. He sounds just like him. Thanks a lot, Bill. That's awesome.  How funny. 

Wow. You guys know the story of the first issue. Yeah, I do. Well, yeah, I think Corinna does as well. Yeah, we know it well that, um, that he went and, uh, purchased the picture of Marilyn and that also that he tagged Art Paul to come on board immediately and, and design. What maybe he didn't say to you is that, uh, in his own mind, he  was only doing this for his close friends.

Well, he, yeah, he thought one issue and that was going to be it. Well, I don't know this. Explain it to me.  He got some, uh, Uh, fiction that was, uh,  out of the copyright. So it was free.  And I think he did a couple of articles himself and the pictures. And he did the drawings, the animation in the first issue, the first couple of issues.

He was a cartoonist, so he was able to design a lot. Right.  He figured this will be a lot of fun and maybe a couple people will buy it.  Sold out immediately. Yeah. You know what, he said to himself,  now I got to make a second one. I'm on to something here. At the kitchen table. I'm on to something. And then it became a Yeah, with, with Vic and, and Art Paul.

Fun, creative. That's wild. Yeah, didn't, didn't he, didn't he like print 75, 000 and 50 some were sold off the newsstands for the first issue? I think it was something. The first one. Yeah. Something around there. The first one was 50 and it sold out. Yeah.  Wow. Yeah. By, uh. In 1860 it was selling over a million.

Yeah, exactly. It was huge for a magazine.  That's funny. You mentioned Vic.  Do you know about the falling out with Vic? No, I don't. And I did talk to Marilyn Cole briefly, and we're going to get on the phone again and talk. And she had some really good suggestions for me as well, in terms of bunnies from the London clubs and New York clubs, but I didn't get to go into detail about Vic.

So tell us tell she's a jam. She's amazing. I'm I was so thank you for referring me to her.  He was the first British playmate of the year.  I knew her, but I didn't know her really well until the 50th anniversary,  when she came out, as many of the older playmates did. And we had the big events and so forth. 

And I had mentioned to Marilyn that we had planned to  visit England.  In a few months, and she said, you must come visit us when you come to England.  Well, that's nice to say, but so what? She's not going to come through on it. Well, sure enough, we got to England. I had let her know we're coming in  and she said, you must come to the house. 

And, uh, I actually had another couple with us too. It was people. They didn't even know  Ireland invited us over. We picked up some flowers. Turns out her husband, Vic loves flowers.  Ian Hefford had a big falling out over the casinos.  That's yeah, that's right. He, he, he ran all the casinos, right. Or was in charge of that.

F was told by somebody.  Victor was skimming from the casinos.  Everybody in the business skims from casinos. That's, that's what happens.  Instead of confronting Vic and saying, look, you know, Vic, don't do this or give me a cut.  He sent some flunky over to fire him.  Vic said, gee, that's a shame.  I guess I'll take this other set of books.

I have two sets of books. And handed over Scotland yard. Oh, wow. Wow. That was the end of the license for the casinos.  Wow. That's wow. For about 20 years.  Meanwhile,  fabulous  place in London and Victor had also set up a,  um, he was a backer of a play and he had us go to the  play  lunch. And so we had a great time.

And Vic turned out to be, Vic was the playboy that F really wanted. Yeah, yeah, that's right. He taught. Yes, he kind of, yes. Because, because. Yeah. He really was a playboy and Hef was not, Hef was the guy that wanted to be in it, it was cool and  it was a great, great little visit. You know what was interesting, um, was finding out again from watching the documentary or no, actually, no, it was actually from talk, it was either you or Marilyn, but Vic died literally four months before Hef.

Wow. Yeah. But what were you going to say, Bill, about your visit? Well, I went back to my job, of course, but I'm finishing the vacation  and I'm, I'm thinking, how am I going to deal with this?  So I went up and I'm in with Dick and, uh, and half of them talking about business. And Dick says, how was your,  um, how was your vacation in England?

I  was, it was really quite good. 

By the way, I had lunch with Vic. He sends his regards. Oh, Hef said, yeah, how was your vacation? Yeah. Wow. And that's how he looked. He was like, Did you know at the time about all of those? Of course they had all in the past. I know, but Bill may have not had lunch with Vic. Oh,  I think that, I think that opens mine a little bit because about, to let bygones be bygones.

It started coming back to some of the parties. Oh good. I love that they mended their relationship. That's fun that you built, you know, made that you, you were the bridge. Conduit for, for an old rekindled friendship. That's so, that makes me happy to know that.  That worked out pretty well. And so, and so Vic was, and Marilyn were married until he died.

They were married forever, huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. She'll be a fun one. It came to the 50th anniversary. Party in New York,  which is, which is a pretty big deal. So, yeah, that, no, that was the, was that the, I keep thinking that was the one with the jet bunnies, but that wasn't the 50th anniversary.

That was in Las Vegas with the Jet No, in New York at the hotel. And we had the,  was that the 50th? So that was the 50th anniversary,  huh? Do you guys remember the, uh, the Comedy Central Roast?  No, I haven't watched that. You told me to pull that up. Um, who, who roasted him? I have it in here somewhere.  Uh, it was kind of, kind of the B team, but we are some pretty good, Jimmy Kimmel was the emcee.

Okay. Yeah. We'll have to pull that up and watch. What year was that?  Uh, it was, uh, 2001.  Oh, wow. Yeah. It was, it took about a year to Dick Gregory. You said something about Dick Greg, or maybe Steven Randall told me that, that Dick Gregory did a funny roast. Dick Gregory was one of the biggest F fans around.

Okay.  This particular one. This roast took about a year to set up because the Friars Club had to be involved, Comedy Central had to be involved, and of course we had to be involved in all kinds of  machinations, been back and forth on various monies and this. And it was all set,  and then 9 11 happened.  We were scheduled a week later to tape the show. 

So of course there's phone calls are flying all over the country. What the hell are we going to do? This is a disaster in New York City. We're supposed to be taping a funny show. We couldn't. One thing we had going for us. Because it wasn't going to air until November,  even though it was being done in September. 

So we  dutifully all got on planes and there was nobody on the plane.  I can imagine. I can imagine. We went to New York  and we shot the, shot the piece.  And what we did is we made a deal between the Friars Club and Comedy Central and Playboy  and put together a million bucks.  To donate to the firemen good  I love that.

See and those are the things that  Hugh Hefner did That you know, he was such a philanthropist and like you said bill. He did not want the credit for anything He would never say look what i'm doing. I'm giving i'm Yeah, he just it was from his he knew what was right. Thank you for sharing that. That's what was right After 9 11, that's amazing.

I love that well You My Playmate of the Year party was during a historical, I mean, it wasn't 9 11, but it was horrible. The Rodney King riots,  and instead of he, and it was beautiful what he said, and there was no media because planes were grounded. The National Guard was coming in. He said, no, today in a time of chaos, we're going to have, we're going to celebrate a thing of beauty.

And it was. His choice to go through with it. He didn't allow things to deter him, but he wasn't less compassionate over it. Of course not. He just was a thinker. Like I said, right brain, left brain. It was, he was a thinker and not an emoter. You know, he, that, which is what made him great and be able to execute through and even all the way through history, the things that he went through that were  pretty catastrophic that might knock someone else,  um, without the character, without the fortitude would have knocked them out of business.

And he always just restructured, he thought through and he knew who to assign to what, I mean, look. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it speaks for itself, everybody we're interviewing has been there anywhere from 20 to Pat Lacey being the longest, 54 years, you know? Every single one of the people that we're speaking to are an example of, of Hef knowing what he needed.

Yeah, exactly. And keeping those people in their role. And he was just as grateful to everybody. Because it comf it was, it's more comforting and he understood them going on Comedy Central. He's not going to mess everything up. You it's not about him. He brought levity to the situation. Okay, let's go ahead and do this and then donate because he's a total philanthropist.

I love that. Yeah, understands the importance of what comedy is, what entertainment is and what it does for people. A real landmark because it was the first time I've ever been able to put on a tuxedo, have a good meal. And watch people make fun of my boss.  Oh, I bet that was, I bet that was outrageous, especially his, the way he was.

I mean, I think of even the butlers, no fraternizing with the guests. Oh my gosh, that was such a great show. You know, he was all business. So for you guys, that must have been a lot of fun. Yes, it was. Oh. So we, we have a couple more minutes, Bill, but, um, we, I want to end with one question and then you can ask some other.

Um,  With, you know, with, with Playboy coming to an end and, and with Hef passing, um, how did you feel about, um, no Hefner name being attached to the company when Cooper also just left?  I mean, it just was over, right? It just was what it was. Let's be honest. Uh, I saw the end coming. Yeah. Pretty long before it did because  Numbers were going down,  society changed a lot, the internet was a killer.

The internet was a killer because Instagram, Instagram models, everybody's in it. Well no, not even that, it was like, and when the dot com, I mean, I, Playboy was completely unaware of it and I had conversations with Cindy Ratkowitz, with Christy Heffner, with a bunch of people, you better start a department because this is coming fast and furious.

So they were definitely behind on that. And also with the climate now, I would love to. to hear Hef's thoughts on so many things, just because he had such a brilliant mind and was able to,  you know, kind of assess what's going on in history in a very fascinating way that was never biased. It was very objective.

And I miss objective journalism, instead of, and he was a thinker. And he would investigate, okay, what is this organization, yes, and, and made an influence and a difference and kept people responsible. Even with the interviews, he,  I mean, yeah, there'll never be a magazine. It just is. Like it. No. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I miss you.

We love you. I had to copy it, but nobody ever got the moment. No, no, it'll never happen again. Look, it was a moment in time and just how, how gracious he was to include all of us to be a part of it. And for that, we are eternally grateful and, and blessed. And that's why we're here right now doing this. So, so we're going to put the celebration of life party together.

We're going to throw a huge event for Hef. In his honor, the way he would have had it. Exactly. Since nothing was done for all of us. To be able to go and, and share and just reunite with each other. You know,  I think that would be a really hot ticket. I can't wait to give you a big hug. I know a big snuggle.

Oh, three words that describe Hugh Hefner to you, to you. 

Brilliant  stubborn.  Surprisingly, uh, loving.  Wow. I really feel that he had a special relationship with women. He did. He was so, he was feel that he's a womanizer. No, no. He's,  he loved his women. Empower. He was a protector. Empower. And he was empowered. Empowered, yeah. He was empowered, empowering, and he protected us.

He was a mentor. He was also our teacher. I mean, just, I never felt safer than when I worked. Never. I know. For Playboy. Yep. It was, and I was, you know, I was very, very young. And I think a lot of girls feel this way and have been through the same thing where you're treated so well. Yeah. Then you go out, it's almost like you go out into the world with, and you're like, What's wrong with you people?

And you're thinking, wow, that there's not integrity. There's not in a business or a corporation or whoever you're working for. Or there's, there's, uh, Vulgarity, even I've been through that where I'm going to do a photo shoot. Well, how about last night, uh, Corinna and I come home to our hotel and sit in the lobby and have a drink and there's a man in there and, um, he gets stood up by his whore.

He says, and I said, I said, you got stood up by what? And he goes, My whore. And I said, you mean a call girl? And he goes, yes, a whore. So he thought we were the call girls and trying to get our makeup on from today. And we were like, no, we're not the call girls. We're playmates.  So funny. It was so random. He was an older gentleman.

And anyway, it was interesting. Oh, and then check this out. We're walking out the hotel yesterday. Me and Corinna. Standing on the sidewalk, Mark Saganor.  What?! There was Mark. Haven't seen him in Forever! And he was always with Hef when I saw him. Mark Saganor? Yes! He was standing outside our hotel yesterday.

Isn't that And we all ran into And I'm like, I need your number! I've been trying to get a hold of you. Lacey was there. So excited. So now he'll be coming on. We'll have Mark It was funny. I thought he was in jail, Softface. Was he? For what? Oh, I want to hear this! Oh God! Why would he be in jail? Okay, well, it's funny.

It's time to go.  Lacey's falling out of her chair. Lacey's like falling out of her chair over there. Oh my gosh. I love it. One quick little, one little thing that might uh, tie into what you're saying.  I asked them one time, I said, you know, um,  what if you weren't able to publish the magazine with playmates in it, what would you do? 

They thought about it and they said,  publish a literary magazine.  And as you walked away, he said,  nobody will read it. That's adorable. What a moment. The catalyst, the engine that made the magazine work was the Playmates. But it was a men's lifestyle magazine. That's what it was created for. And like he said, well, of course, I'm going to have women in there because what's the number one thing on a man's brain, sex, sex, sex.

So he nailed it. Well, my God, what a pleasure, honey, to see you and to talk to you. Thank you so much. Thanks.  Thank you. My pleasure. It's been an honor. In case you don't remember the beard, this was my COVID beard. I think you look very handsome. I like it a lot. I like it. In six weeks, it'll be all gone.

We'll just stay home. We'll have you back on and we'll call you something else. We'll come over.  Well, a beard till it's over. I love it. I think you can rock it. Yeah. I think it's good. Good job. I love it. Well, we love you. And we're grateful.  Thank you so much. Thank you so much for this opportunity. You got it.

It's great to see my old friends again. You got it. We'll be in touch. Make it not so long for the next time. True story. We're going to do that party. So that'll be fun. Yeah. Yeah. We're definitely gonna. Yeah. We'll all be together with that big celebration of life. So, and, and again, you just been have been a wealth of, uh, information and getting me in contact with a lot of people.

So thank you very much, Bill. I couldn't do this without you truly.  Well, in terms of the future for this podcast,  let's just use the futures. Right.  Okay. Yes, sir. We will. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Thank you so much, honey. We'll talk soon.