Tony Palmer's: The World of Hugh Hefner

This 1973 documentary by the award-winning director Tony Palmer shone a light on the multi-millionaire Hugh Hefner and his Playboy empire. It gave Hefner the opportunity to tell his story and, of course, it offended the usual suspects - Mary Whitehouse, the Daily Express and many more. The film charts Hefner's rise from a small-time publisher to Playboy becoming one of the world's best known brands. As Hefner says: ""We had no money at all, and I mean literally no money. I doubt that any major magazine in our time has ever been started with as little initial investment. My own investment in Playboy was $600, all of it borrowed. The entire enterprise is now valued, in 1973, at something around $200 million."" ""A brilliant, thoroughly good humoured and subtle dissection of an extraordinary man by a master film maker."" - The Times

Directed by: Tony Palmer

Documentary