Happy Birthday, Hef

By Marcus Gilmer in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 9, 2009 4:40PM

Love him or loathe him, there's no denying he's one of the most well known media moguls in the world. And he's a local kid! Today, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner turns a young 83. Born in Chicago on April 9, 1926, Heff attended Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School and, after a stint in the U.S. Army, took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago and attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he graduated in less than three years. He also took some graduate courses at Northwestern where he met his first wife. Playboy's first issue saw the light of the world in 1953, produced locally and - according to legend - in Hef's kitchen; it featured Marilyn Monroe. He put on the first Playboy Jazz Festival at the Chicago Stadium and opened the first Playboy Club here. In 1975, after four years of a second residence in California, Hef officially relocated to Los Angeles, but Playboy Enterprises has maintained its headquarters here in Chicago. Happy 83rd, Hef! [Playboy Enterprises - the page is SFW, but the URL probably isn't]