"Playboy could not have happened anywhere else but Chicago," Hefner says. more ›

(Legendary Chicago-based photographer Art Shay has taken photos of kings, queens, celebrities and the common man in a 60-year career. In this week's look at his archives, Art is in a romantic mood for Valentine's Day.) more ›

Time Out Chicago reports that Playboy Magazine is officially moving its headquarters from Chicago to Los Angeles in April 2012. more ›

A 1992 issue of Playboy Magazine printed in Braille has been scanned and uploaded to the internet. No, there aren't any pictures to feel. more ›

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner might be pining for simpler times today. If that's the case, we might suggest he flip through this Playboy Bunny Manual from 1968, posted to ExPlayboyBunnies.com. more ›

Today Art looks back at Chicago's cultural heavyweights, from Ray Kroc and Henry Crown to Roger Ebert and Oprah Winfrey. more ›

51 years ago, on a typically cold Febuary day in Chicago, a line of eager patrons waited outside on the sidewalk for a new club to open up at 116 E. Walton St. $50 got them a lifetime membership to Hugh Hefner's first Playboy Club entitling them to a key with the bunny logo stamped into it, $1.50 meals, drinks, and a formidable variety of entertainment at the members-only establishment. And of course, there were the he soon-to-be famous bunny-attired cocktail waitresses. The formula worked, with nearly 17,000 visitors in the first month and over 100,000 in its first year. The club became a phenomenon and, along with the magazine and Hefner himself, a touchstone. more ›

Today, Art looks back at those who mentored him and those he's mentored over his life. more ›

Playboy Enterprises Inc. announced this morning that It's going along with a plan by founder Hugh Hefner to be taken private. Hefner has been working for months to put together a team of investors to take the company private, feeling that the company is undervalued at a time when its brand visibility is higher than ever. more ›

While promoting the Friday opening of Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel at the Siskel Film Center, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner told Metromix's Matt Pais that it's likely Playboy enterprises will consolidate all of its operations to the West Coast. more ›

If you've ever dreamed of living like Hugh Hefner, your dream can now be (kinda) fulfilled - a condominium is for sale in the original Playboy mansion. Living the glamourous live vicariously through the pages of the magazine not enough for you? Hundreds of late-night hours playing Playboy: The Mansion on your Playstation 2 just not fulfilling anymore? Well, if you have a spare $3,000,000, you can live in Hef's old haunt. more ›

• Chauvet Stiggers was charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault with a firearm and aggravated criminal sexual assault committed with a threat to life in connection to last week's Southwest Side rapes.
• As many as 50 people have been sickened this week by a Shigella outbreak traced back to a Subway in Lombard.
• Cook County Sheriffs have busted up another prostitution ring resulting in 14 arrests.

Chicago-based Playboy Enterprises has ended negotiations with Iconix Brand Management, owner of London Fog, Starter and Joe Boxer. The deal, estimated to be worth about $300 million, stalled over the role founder Hugh Hefner would play. Hef, who owns 70 percent of the company's stock, is the magazine's editor-in-chief and chief creative officer of the company, but he is no longer involved in day-to-day operations. The LA Times reports: more ›

Yesterday we wished a happy birthday (and many happy returns of the day) to the Godfather of Modern Sexuality himself, Mr. Hugh Hefner. Today we take a look back to the heady days of the Chicago Playboy Empire, when Hef was but a wee 37 years old. more ›

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] more ›

Christie Hefner, Chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises and daughter of founder Hugh Hefner, announced today that she'll be stepping down from her posts effective January 31, 2009. 56-year-old Christie assumed leadership of the company in 1988 and bolstered the slumping image the brand had endured in the 1980s. Despite success over the last two decades, revenue from Playboy's magazine circulation and television programming are lagging. Still, Christie insists no one encouraged her to resign. She intends to pursue public service and non-profit work once her tenure has ended. Her proud papa had this to say:

"I asked Christie to step up as president when the company faced serious financial difficulties more than two decades ago. She has worked tirelessly to expand the company's franchise, and, as a result of her efforts, the company today has more consumers and fans than at any time in our history. Of course, as her father, my first priority is Christie's happiness. While I will miss her leadership here, I believe that she will go on to achieve even greater personal success."

Billy and I don't want to leave Chicago, so this is going to be home. Whatever I do is going to be done from here. I think it's going to be a mix. I think I'm going to find ways to give back both in the nonprofit side and public service. But I also have enjoyed the board work, the TV commentary and the speaking that I've done. I really don't plan to look for a CEO job. Been there, done that.

G-Rod is calling lawmakers back to Springfield to work on that pesky, still unsigned state budget. [Trib, S-T] more ›

]) more ›

A request for a street named in honor of Chicago author Saul Bellow was denied due to controversial remarks and writing by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Bellow's University of Chicago colleague and friend, Richard Stern, made the request to Ald. Toni Preckwinkle. Stern told the Chicago Tribune that Preckwinkle sent him a letter saying she had heard Bellow made racist comments and so would not endorse a memorial to him. Raised in Humboldt Park from... more ›

After months of speculation that the Cubs might be put up for sale as part of a restructuring or sale of Tribune Co., almost immediately after the board's approval of Chicago billionaire Sam Zell's offer, news came that the team would in fact be sold. Now the handicapping can begin on who the new owner will be. There has certainly been no shortage of potential bidders mentioned. Of course, that was before the Cubs went... more ›

Let's take a look back at a week that raised this Zen koan: if Kevin Federline got into a wrestling ring with a wrestler, who would you root for? more ›

Hugh Hefner was educated at Steinmetz High School, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Northwestern University. He is credited with ushering in the sexual revolution throughout the country with the release of Playboy Magazine in 1953. more ›

In a world where everything can be sold and named for a price, the next thing Chicago is auctioning off is the Chicago Skyway. In the next couple weeks, the bidding will begin to rename the toll bridge to Indiana. The winner pays $3 million a year and gets to have their name plastered all over the place for at least 5 years. And the city better be successful in finding someone who wants to pay up, because they're already counting on the money for this year. more ›

Delivering more evidence that porn is more addictive than crack, Playboy Enterprises Inc. announced today that in partnership with Dwango Wireless they will soon begin offering adult-oriented content via wireless phones throughout the U.S. According to the Playboy press release: more ›